CALIFORNIA MUSINGS . PART II.

California Budget,  a Back History of Chaos.

There are a lot of things to cover .  As a amateur writer I can't really keep up with Mr. ***Trump's antics.  There is the good and the "bad" I want to write about him . (1)>>First of all as a Californian , I eagerly anticipate Gov. Jerry Brown's budget . As a public school employee I have always been perplexed how our state seems over the last decades worth of budgets always is at the edge of being bankrupt . Gone are the days of Gov . Edmund J Brown , long gone are the days Ronald Reagan , the prosperous California . Way back during the 1990s through the 2000s , the state of California NEVER had a budget that was on time .  It would take the state legislature "months" to settle in a battle between the hardliner Republicans , the spend and tax Democrats . Always the main dish on the table was Education . How much money you put in . Of course the years since the 1990s , the passing of Prop 98 , various other pro- education measures there is NEVER ENOUGH MONEY for SCHOOLS ! . I roll my eyes back looking how much the state spends , we're  still come out 50th in spending for schools nation wide  . How many "governors" we had  that seem to be pro -education . I  have to skip on to  (2)>>Gov. Pete Wilson , a crusty Republican who first cut out out a billion dollars out of the budget causing waves of layoffs . It took three years to recover from that .  (3)>>Next we had Gray Davis who promised a state "surplus" of 20 billion , but he was wrong instead we ended up with 20 billion in deficit , it paved the way for Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to win the vote after a costly recall of Davis . With strongman Arnold at the helm, his term was a total nightmare on the state . Its so similar what Washington D.C. is going through with Mr. Trump . (4)>>Gov. Schwarzenegger bullied his way demanding cuts to the budget . Yes,  he wanted to stop the insane spending problems that California has , but he went after the wrong people , it was the people on the bottom he wanted to cut . He made enemies of all the state Unions calling them special interests , the Democrats he'd called "girl-- y men" . Arnold wanted to cut the Education budget first , but how he cut it was pretty strange . While school districts were suffering from their own self induced budget mishaps , they were cutting before Arnold waved his ax out fear of being bankrupt . Yes, they laid off teachers , janitors , bus drivers , etc. Now things are a but peculiar here , just before gov. Davis was kicked out of office he signed into law a Bill (5)>>Called SB 1419 which prevented school districts from contracting out jobs done by its Classified Staff . The Bill was intended originally to prevent schools from outsourcing transportation . Well , oh hell broke out over it , for the next six years Gov. Arnold held the state budget hostage over the repeal of this bill . Democrats stood their ground and fought Arnold tooth and nail. Meanwhile state wide local school districts & school boards  started to like Gov. Arnold's attempt at repealing the bill . They somehow they { school boards - Superintendents}  became pro- republican and anti- Union. (5.1)>>The people under tow , the school employees were marginalized as part of the "greedy Unions" that swallowed up school budgets . School business managers statewide played dirty by not restoring any positions that were cut or reduced so they can wait for Gov. Arnold's repealing . Gov. Schwarzenegger for the two terms he was elected pretty much was a failure . He put many school districts under the gun to follow his scripted stanch written by  Ca Republicans  Issa and Pete Wilson who wanted to gut state spending levels . And part of the problem was the education spending part which occupies the entire state budget . SO ,   With the entrance of Gov. Jerry Brown ,

"Balanced budgets  have been
quickly followed by huge
deficits " Only in California .LOL !

appears poised to exit office next year with a top political priority in hand: free from the massive budget deficits that had weighed on his predecessors.  (6)>>Gov. Brown raised taxes in an unpopular move with out the vote of the people , the Gas Tax. Brown is also banking on the profits of legal Marijuana sales , that in "hopes" that AG Jeff Sessions wont arrest the Governor for pot . Either way , (6.2)>>the Marijuana  legalization is on thin ice . Brown expects the revenue from sales incorporated into his budget for K-12 funding , other "projects" like the 90 billion  dollar bullet train  .   Brown took office in 2011 with a $27 billion deficit and drastically slashed spending. In 2012 by slashing 20  out  slashing nearly $20 billion , he staked his governorship on a tax increase that voters approved that year and reauthorized in 2016. His spending plan for 2018 calls for $131.7 billion of general fund spending. Including special funds and bonds, which are pools of restricted money that can only be used for specific projects, total proposed spending next fiscal year is $190.3 billion.  The governor, however, warned again that California is overdue for a recession that could pummel the state budget that relies heavily on taxing the income and investment gains of wealthy taxpayers. "We've got ongoing pressures from Washington, and the economic recovery is not going to last forever," Brown said, stressing that he doesn't think further increases in spending will be possible. The Democratic governor staked out a conservative opening position in January, projecting a $1.6 billion deficit that the Legislature's budget experts said was excessively cautious. The projected deficit in his new plan is $400 million, due mostly to improved capital gains revenue.  With all the ensuing panic , (7)>>Public  Schools received 3 billion dollars more , The additional $3 billion for the funding formula in 2018-19 will consume most of the projected budget increase of $4 billion for K-12 schools. Brown’s funding law shifted authority over spending decisions from  (7.1)>>Sacramento to school districts, and funneled substantial money to districts to support high-needs students: English learners and low-income, foster and homeless students. The governor on Wednesday also proposed for the first time to base community college funding on the same concept.At his press conference to discuss the budget, Brown made a strong defense of the formula and the principle of local control. Asked why he should pour more money into education when test scores are persistently low, Brown said, “This is not going to be solved in Sacramento. Kids learn at home and in the classroom. People who really want to help in a school that is not performing, should go to the principal and find out what they need.”

Who Comes after Jerry Brown ?

Travis Allen .

We are nearing the Post Brown era . Question who takes the helm? While it possible that a sudden

Gavin Newsom .

change in the states political matrix could happen we have to caution if any Republican would become Governor. I believe that former Gov. Schwarzenegger may have  cooked the goose on having any Republican in office in California . ALONG with the damage being done by President Donald Trump We have the Democrats , Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Each has formidable strengths and significant challenges. All three stand a very good chance of succeeding Brown as governor. The Republicans do have serious contenders to the throne .  (8)>>One is Travis Allen who has been most vocal against gov. Brown's 12 cent gas tax hike. Allen looks like the strongest among the Republicans . The News Poll conducted by Survey USA gives us an early snapshot of the frontrunners for the open Governor's seat. The results show a three-person race so far to win the top two spots in the Primary and move on to the November General Election. Remember, the candidates finishing first and second in the Primary - regardless of political party - square off in November. Lieutenant Governor and  former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a nearly two-to-one lead over his closest competitor, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Both are Democrats. Coming in third in the poll is Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican from Huntington Beach. Democratic State Treasurer John Chiang is fourth and Republican businessman John Cox is fifth.  California’s political culture seems no less dysfunctional. The state’s most urgent problem is its lumbering wreck of an economy. Not surprisingly, given California’s size, more people have lost jobs and more homes have been foreclosed on and more big banks have failed here in the last  FEW years than in any other state in the country. At the end of the day, can a political party that is now down to an all-time low of only 25.9 percent of California registered voters even get a Republican candidate into the gubernatorial runoff in 2018? Likelihood of that is kitschy at most right now .

***ADD NOTE :
Trump's antics,  there is the good and the "bad" I want to write about him . I  am going to write about his  "Sh**t hole" remake in a few days . Right now I think the remarks are lacking professionalism , the critics are at large . Giving the media ammo to roast Trump . In the mean time stay tuned .

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>First of all as a Californian , I eagerly anticipate Gov. Jerry Brown's budget .  This is really a short Bio on what I experienced as it related to the California Budget as it related to Public Schools over the decades . Honestly writing about our states spending is difficult . Education is part of the backbone of the entire state budget . Its the fist that is always cut , its been that way since the 1990s .  There are a lot of good people in Public Education who devote their lives  like Principals ,  teachers ,  Music instruction , many work as Bus drivers , Custodians , Gardeners , Maintenance , Food Service . Its always sad that so many lives can be ruined by overspending by State Governments . (2)>>Gov. Pete Wilson. Was a miser , he called himself a "education Governor" , also during a state budget impasse  he ran for President { yes , I repeat RAN FOR PRESIDENT !!!, left the state of California going on a campaign  trail  }  of the United States while billions of dollars were banked on building more  prisons rather than building schools .    (3)>>Next we had Gray Davis. He was California's scapegoat Governor . During the Clinton era , Davis may have bolstered the fact that the state had a surplus of  $20 billion dollars . It looked rather rosy , but the state hit a snag . In  Reality the state was mounting a huge deficit that drained the surplus Davis had created for a rainy day . NEXT came  What became known as the  California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001, was a situation in which the United States state of California had a shortage of electricity supply caused by market manipulations, illegal shutdowns of pipelines by the Texas energy consortium Enron, and capped retail electricity prices. The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis' standing. I remember watching the news and all of a sudden the power would go off . Mind you we never got any rebates from our utility company apologizing . On a federal level, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, for which Enron had lobbied, opened electrical transmission grids to competition, unbundling generation and transmission of electricity.On the state level, part of California's deregulation process, which was promoted as a means of increasing competition, was also influenced by lobbying from Enron, and began in 1996 when California became the first state to deregulate its electricity market.Perhaps the heaviest point of controversy is the question of blame for the California electricity crisis. Former Governor Gray Davis's critics often charge that he did not respond properly to the crisis, while his defenders attribute the crisis to the power trading fraud and corporate accounting scandals and say that Davis did all he could considering the fact that the federal government, not states, regulate interstate power commerce.In a speech at UCLA on August 19, 2003, Davis apologized for being slow to act during the energy crisis, but then forcefully attacked the Houston-based energy suppliers: "I inherited the energy deregulation scheme which put us all at the mercy of the big energy producers. We got no help from the Federal government. In fact, when I was fighting Enron and the other energy companies, these same companies were sitting down with Vice President Cheney to draft a national energy strategy."  (4)>>Gov. Schwarzenegger bullied his way demanding cuts to the budget . I Liked Arnold Schwarzenegger , just loved his movies : Total Recall , Conan the Barbarian , Commando, The Terminator , Yes Twins and Kindergarten Cop   . Schwarzenegger desire to run for Governor is a mystery , its really as mysterious as  having Donald Trump as President . AS Governor . Arnold was a "Benedict" , he betrayed his voters , while running for Governor he urged his voters to "join him" , he was going to bring changes  "blow up boxes" in Sacramento . Arnold also molded the California Republicans as the "party of NO".Its really sad . That Arnold could have turned everything around , but he chose to go after the base that elected him in the recall , namely Unionized Labor .(5)>>Called SB 1419. Gray Davis signed this Senate Bill into law just before he left Sacramento , a last ditched effort . Who ever drafted the law cleverly wove that school districts could contract out services otherwise done by unionized workforce as long as the district demonstrated the need in a tight budget year. Well it was bad news in 2003 -2006 , a bad law that it did not protect union workers , but Gov. Arnold tried to get the law gutted . It was a reign of terror how much fear the state government exerted on people , at the same time confusing them to vote for more propositions to raise taxes . Likewise Gov. Arnold laid down his Gov. Pete Wilson inspired agenda , he blew " I will work to repeal prescriptive state laws and rescind the burdensome state regulations that serve special interests and waste education dollars on non-instructional uses. SB 1419 demonstrates what's wrong with the top-heavy approach to education under Gray Davis, and I will call for its repeal. Passed in 2002, the bill restricts the ability of school and community college districts to contract out for non-educational services like transportation, maintenance, and landscaping.I will work to give principals authority for hiring qualified staff, managing their school's money, choosing instructional strategies and materials that work, and setting class schedules ". (6)>>Gov. Brown raised taxes in an unpopular move with out the vote of the people ,  As it stands, California legislators need a 2/3rds supermajority vote in order to impose higher taxes on their residents. Given the results of last year’s elections, however, Democrats in the state have surpassed that supermajority threshold and can now raise taxes on their own, without any Republican votes. The vote on Gov. Brown’s gas tax hike will be the first test on how easily California Democrats will leverage their supermajority status to raise taxes on a party line vote. California residents already contend with the nation’s sixth highest average state and local tax burden. On top of that, your constituents have been hit with more than 20 federal tax increases over the last eight years. The last thing individuals, families, and employers across California need is to have lawmakers in Sacramento pile on with further tax hikes at the state level, especially considering they live in what is already one of the most heavily-taxed jurisdictions in the world. (6.2)>>the Marijuana  legalization is on thin ice . With supply and demand , the state is likely to run out of Marijuana like Nevada . Taxing it as Gov. Brown envisions would generate "billions" of dollars . That I would call a false assumption on the state . A Lot of people don't smoke , or consume it . So you have to consider the whole population of Californians of 39.25 million , which only statistics shows at 14.9 % . Thats not enough to generate any money , just like the Lottery money  . Besides a new   bureaucracy,   Earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed spending more than $50 million to establish programs to collect taxes and issue licenses while hiring dozens of workers to regulate the industry, a figure some say is too low. His office stresses that one regulatory framework is needed, not separate ones for recreational and medical cannabis, even though there are laws for each that could duplicate costs and confuse businesses.One of the new law's requirements calls for the state to develop a computerized system to track cannabis, sometimes called "seed-to-sale" monitoring. It's envisioned that scanners will be used to keep tabs on pot as it moves from the leafy raw product to street-level sales. (5.1)>>The people under tow , the school employees were marginalized as part of the "greedy Unions".  Not just school employees , Teachers , support staff , but Nurses who worked at Hospitals were attacked by Gov. Schwarzenegger as the "enemy" and the "cause" of the state fiscal problems . I remember that in 2003 while I had my hours and wages cut , my health benefit costs went up out of pocket . I was close to the point of dropping my employer health benefits , since I was no longer considered "full time" . I did just that .  I dropped my health insurance . My take home pay for the years 2003 to 2005 was below as a salary about 1800 $ . Now that was in 2005 , imagine right now you cant survive on a salary like that in California . NO one at the management levels took any cuts , they went to work with their 200,000 and above salary .  The people on the bottom, the sacrificial  lambs to the budget error. IT made me wonder if the budget crisis was a hoax all a long ?  (7)>>Public  Schools received 3 billion dollars more .  If we take Gov. Brown's word for a grain of salt. California has a projected $6.1 billion budget surplus and $131.7 billion to spend in 2018-19, Gov. Jerry Brown revealed Wednesday. The annual January budget proposal was his 16th since he was first elected governor in 1974.To the relief of fiscal conservatives and the dismay of those hoping to see more spending on child care, public universities and other programs, the governor made dire predictions of the next recession and proposed stockpiling the vast majority of the extra cash — $5.8 billion of it — to make the next downturn less painful.  This  Thursday Gov Brown  dialed back his proposed cuts for schools and child care, citing an improved fiscal outlook since January that could cover $1.5 billion more in general fund spending. Most of that money would go to K-12 education. He's also rolling back a plan to cut a half-billion dollars for child care for low-income families. If there was no 1 billion to cover K-12 schools .  I am certain that Gov. Brown's  intention was to reduce funding down to 2007 levels , but that information is based no evidence that in the future that any funding could be less . At this point,  it all depends who who Governor , how good the  Local School Business office is as far as monies.  (7.1)>>Sacramento to school districts, and funneled substantial money to districts .  2017-2018 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). eliminated scores of programs that targeted dollars to specific students for specific needs.  Instead, districts where students come from low-income families, those with English learners, and those with foster children get a substantial funding boost.  Districts with concentrations of these students got additional funds.The financing law is only one part of a very complex system built around a new, tough, system of state standards.  More than 15 interlocking reforms wheel around the state's standards, including curriculum, accountability, assessments, teacher preparation and recruitment, English learners, and special education. (8)>>One is Travis Allen .  Don't underestimate Allen he has serious potential to win , his power base is the anti-tax movement that is already boiling .  Since Allen’s statements goes the furthest in claiming the Gas  tax increase builds no new lanes and won’t ease traffic. He is also against Sanctuary cities . Allen added, “Sanctuary state policies, by their very nature, are contrary to being a nation of laws. As a nation of laws, we cannot pick and choose which ones we’ll obey. In principle, SB 54 is no different than Southern segregationist declarations of “massive resistance” to federal court orders to integrate public facilities.” In February, Allen introduced Assembly Bill 1252 (AB 1252), which sought to defund sanctuary cities from receiving state funds. However, Democrats blocked the bill.

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