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MOVE YOUR FEET AND CALL SENATOR LOU CORREA – LET HIM KNOW THAT RAISING REVENUES TO MEET AN EXTRAORDINARY CRISIS IS KEEPING HIS WORD AND ONE THAT WE SUPPORT

SACRAMENTO [Updated 02/14/09   09:45 AM]  -  This Saturday morning and this afternoon (February 14), please call State Senator Lou Correa’s office.  Both the state Senate and Assembly are planning to vote on a budget agreement later this afternoon – probably just after 5 PM today, that includes raising new revenues and also includes major new cuts.

I do not support  more cuts in the proposed budget agreement that impact people with disabilities, mental health needs, seniors, low income families, community organizations, and workers who provide supports and services and who have been the target of cuts and reductions every year since late 2001.  It is not as if we have not been cut before – we have, every year.  We are saying no more.

But that isn’t the message for Senator Correa, who is a good and decent man, that I am suggesting we tell him this morning.

While I find the cuts in the agreement terrible – I also recognize – as many others do – that any budget solution now, given the crisis we face – needs to include new revenues and raising some taxes.  But there are those who believe – and many for good intentions – that a pledge against doing just that, is one that cannot be broken or changed.

So this commentary and action alert is about the issue of revenues – and the need also to raise it.  More importantly, it is really about fairness.

The state budget over the years has never been truly balanced – a position that many Republicans and Democrats have taken, though they often are referring narrowly to the State general fund dollars and what comes in and what goes out.  But balance also means priorities, values and fairness.  And the budgets in the past several years have not been balanced at all when one takes that into account.

Cuts have happened since late 2001 to a wide range of health and human services and again are proposed for 2009-2010

But revenues, including raising taxes, as bad that might be, has never been part of any budget that has been enacted in all those same years.  In fact, some taxes and fees – most notably the vehicle license fee – were actually rolled back and reduced.

In all those years – when cuts happened, and when even some revenues were reduced or roll backed, California has had some good economic years, and some bad.  So cuts have happened no matter what.  New revenues however – in raising taxes when needed – have not.  Somehow, no matter what party affiliation, that cannot be fair or right.  It is simply taking a position no matter what crisis or reality demands that it be changed.

That position and approach is not a balanced budget – it is a skewed budget that recognizes only one promise, only one priority, while forgetting all the others.  It is not fair, no matter what one’s position on taxes may be or party affiliation.  It is simply wrong.

Fairness is about how one acts or not acts in a time of crisis.  It is not about a campaign pledge or party affiliation or a promise that is above all others.  It is how one responds when a response to a crisis is needed.   And California has many promises it needs to keep – not just one.

This is not a “bleeding heart” liberal position or a “tax and spend” platform.  It is – and always was – about fairness.  If any heart should bleed – whether a conservative, moderate, liberal or progressive, it is that California somehow forgets that fairness isn’t about a position on taxes or not – it is how one responds in a time of crisis.

Senator Correa ran for the State Senate in part, on a position that included no tax increases.  I understand completely the importance of that position and understand his reluctance to move from it.

Senator Correa has been very supportive on a wide range of issues critical to children and adults with disabilities, with mental health needs, and seniors – including children and adults and their families, with autism spectrum disorders.  He is a good and decent man.

But the extraordinary crisis that our nation and state is facing – a crisis that will continue over the next several years – means that our Legislature and other state leaders – including Senator Correa – can move from that position regarding taxes and revenues to one that meets a growing crisis that was not there last year.  It is here now.

This is a terrible time for California and for our nation.  It is particularly hard and difficult for our communities that desperately need the health and human services that are also a priority.

Moving to a position of new revenues and of increasing taxes is keeping one’s promise and pledge to California and to the people one represents.

That is not going back on one’s word.  It is responding to an extraordinary crisis.