**FR EXCLUSIVE**
This just in from Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…
Right on cue, our Hollywood Governor is trotting out the firefighters and threatening Californians with burning homes unless he gets his way. Voters can absolutely be assured that, next week, he and the California Teachers Association will be threatening public education and school closures.
But these threats – reflecting little more than simple extortion – should not be taken seriously. First, the Governor’s own Director of Finance recently testified that the passage of Proposition 1A, the lynch pin of the so-called “reform” package would have absolutely no impact on either the current fiscal year or fiscal year 2009-10. Second, the California Legislature has had numerous opportunities to achieve cost savings in other programs which would allow vital public safety to be protected. But our political leadership last week couldn’t even bring itself to eliminate the Integrated Waste Management Board last week to save millions of dollars. Voters should not tolerate having public safety being held hostage until the Governor and Legislature start acting to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. Third, the whole ploy looks like a desperation ploy.
May 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
This is a typical leftist tactic. They threaten to cut something the most people actually care about to fool them into thinking that things are being cut down to the bone — and ignore the fact that they are not threatening to cut things people wouldn’t mind seeing eliminated
May 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am
The governor’s threat doesn’t apply to Prop. 1A. His proposed cuts would only go into effect if the voters vote down Props. 1C, 1D and 1E.