FLASHREPORT

GOVERNOR CONNECTS THE DOTS BETWEEN JOBS AND THE BUDGET

Ron Nehring, Chairman, California Republican Party

In his final push toward an improved fiscal legacy, Governor Schwarzenegger has boldly drawn the connection between creating a job-friendly state and solving California’s long-term financial crisis in his 2010-2011 budget proposal.

The Governor and Republicans understand that the quickest and most efficient way to close the estimated $20 billion shortfall is to eliminate the job-killing policies that have plagued our state, while at the same time reforming the bloated pension system and redefining the relationship between Washington and Sacramento.

The Governor’s budget plan is a positive step forward that all Republicans can embrace.

We got a glimpse of his approach during the Governor’s State of the State speech on Wednesday where he defined three top priorities - jobs, pension reform and fair federal returns for California tax dollars.  Focusing on reform in these areas will not only provide the necessary economic boost needed to address the state’s budget crisis, but long-suffering Californians across the board will see their lives improved as a result.

We applaud his vision and encourage his efforts.

The Governor and Republicans in the legislature need all the help they can get.  The state’s unemployment rate is at a near-record 12.3%, plus another 7% who have been reduced to taking part-time jobs or have simply given up on finding work.  The jobs promised by President Obama and Congressional Democrats have not come to fruition.  Instead, California has lost 552,000 jobs since the Democrats passed Obama’s stimulus plan last year.

The big government approach favored by Democrats has simply not produced the promised results.  Republicans have a better way.

The Governor’s budget proposal features a package is aimed at creating new jobs, helping preserve current jobs, and establishing new job-training programs unemployed Californians need to get their careers back on track.

The plan also factors in the need to reform California’s state pension system, a sensible solution that Republican state legislators have long championed.  State pension costs have risen 2,000% in the last decade while revenue has increased only 24% thanks to extremely liberal retirement packages approved by extremely liberal politicians who were pushed by public employee unions like the SEIU.  When even Willie Brown, a guest of the Governor at his address Wednesday, says that state pensions are “out of control,” you know there’s a problem.

The third proposal in the Governor’s new budget addresses the federal mandates that have turned California into a donor state receiving only 78 cents for every tax dollar sent to Washington.  Spending requirements, restrictions on program reductions, federal courts delaying past budget solutions, unfair Medi-Cal repayments, and the costs for millions of undocumented immigrants have put Californians in the unfair position of subsidizing higher federal tax return rates to other states.

Governor Schwarzenegger said Wednesday “we can no longer ignore what is owed to us,” and his budget proposal anticipates increased revenues from Washington.  Ironically, standing in the way of this new relationship are liberal politicians from California like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer who have openly condemned the Governor’s reform plans.

California doesn’t need any more taxes and regulations – we have plenty of those already.  We need bold but necessary measures to close a monumental state budget gap and those measures require a commitment to reforms that promote economic growth and job creation that the Governor and Republicans in the legislature have today again articulated.  Hopefully the Democrats are listening and are willing to put partisanship and stale ideas aside for the benefit of all Californians.