The Daily Armegeddon Report: California

NEW POLL SHOWS CALIFORNIANS WANT REAL BUDGET REFORM

Post-election analysis reveals that voters want resolution of the budget that doesn’t involve slash and burn cuts to vital state agencies & services

With the remnants of Tuesday’s failed propositions still smoldering in the minds of the lawmakers and the public, CFA and its allies in the effort to defeat Prop 1A released new polling data about how voters want to address the state budget deficit.

The poll found that voters defeated Prop1A because they are tired of gimmicks and political bungling, not because they want a full-scale butchering of state services through a “cuts only” budget.

“Voters have made it abundantly clear that the politics as usual in Sacramento must change,” said CFA President Lillian Taiz.

Taiz continued, “The assumption from some lawmakers and members of the media that this election is a mandate on a ‘cuts only’ budget is simply false. This polling data affirms that the public wants a combination of specific cuts to streamline state government as well as a major restructuring of how revenue is collected and from whom it is collected.”

The survey of 1,000 California voters, conducted May 16 to May 20, reveals that voters deeply distrust California’s elected leaders, with 74% of voters believing the special election is another example of the Governor and Legislature’s failure to do the job they were elected to do.

Voters said very clearly that elected officials need to stop going to the voters with political gimmicks and temporary fixes and instead make the hard decisions to really to fix the budget.

The vast majority of voters surveyed said the state should balance both spending cuts and tax increases to address the state budget shortfall. However, with the economy in shambles and increasing numbers of middle class families under extreme economic pressure, those polled favored very specific means of revenue enhancement that does not burden already struggling middle and working-class Californians.

Revenue options supported by a strong majority of voters include:

-Increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages (75% support)

-Increasing taxes on tobacco (74% support)

- Imposing an oil extraction tax on oil companies just like every other oil-producing state (73% support)

- Closing the loophole that allows corporations to avoid reassessment of the value of new property they purchase (63% support)

- Prohibiting corporations from using tax credits to offset more than fifty percent of the taxes they owe (59% support)

While voters strongly support these options to increase the state’s revenue, voters adamantly opposed some of the specific spending cuts proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger:

- 76% oppose cutting public school spending by $5.3 billion

- 73% oppose cutting funding for state colleges and universities by $1.2 billion

- 68% oppose cutting the state's funding for health care services by $1.1 billion

The support for higher education comes of particular interest, because it runs contrary to claims in the past from some quarters that higher education just doesn't poll well.

To view a summary of the survey’s findings, go to: http://www.calfac.org/allpdf/Prop1A/ReasonsProp1AFailed_slides.pdf

To view the survey data, go to: http://calfac.org/allpdf/Prop1A/SurveyReasonsProp1AFailed.pdf

The budget and “good ideas” for higher education

The voters agreed Tuesday that Prop 1A was a bad idea. On Thursday faculty leaders set forth their good idea to address public higher education funding in California.

Today’s poll showed that 73% of Californians favor a fee on oil and natural gas extraction in California, just as is done in every other oil-producing state.

To that end, CFA has sponsored AB 656 in the state legislature to create a dedicated funding source for public higher education in the state.

Authored by Assemblymember Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, the bill would create a stable funding source for all three segments of public higher education in California by enacting a new tax at the wellhead on oil and natural gas “severed” from California land or water.

“It is time for every stakeholder in public higher education to come together to make a plan that will move us beyond this crisis,” said John Travis, Chair of CFA’s Committee on Political Action and Legislation.

“With state support clearly on the decline, we have proposed legislation to fund higher education in California in a manner that has worked successfully in Texas for many years. This tax would be structured to come out of oil company profits and would not take funding away from any other public need. It would also preclude the oil company from passing the fee onto consumers.

Travis continued, “Today, we call on elected leaders, education leaders, and all Californians who understand the critical role of public higher education, to embrace AB 656 on behalf of the state’s universities and colleges. And we encourage our leadership to seek other sensible answers to funding health care and other public goods and service.”