Assemblymember John Laird on the Budget: “The Voters of California Have Been Taken Hostage but We Can’t Get a Ransom Note”

“The Democrats have put forth a responsible budget. We will vote on that budget very soon—but I must say, members, that yesterday a constitutional amendment was put across the desk that call for a hard spending cap. That constitutional amendment frankly I think we need to consider, whether we have informational hearings, we need to vet, we need to debate that proposal.

“We would very much like to see the Republicans put up a budget, an alternative budget. I don’t know if that alternative budget would be balanced by cuts alone, when clearly we have heard throughout California that we cannot balance the budget in that manner. We have put forward our proposal. We will be happy to vote for our proposal. We want time to vet and examine the constitutional amendment.”

The next speaker was Assembly Republican Villines, who said he had introduced the constitutional amendment, and told the members as to why he feels it is needed.

But it was up to John Laid, who has chaired the Budget Committee of the Assembly for many years, to put Republicans in their place. You could tell when Laird rose to speak with a wry smile on his face, that this was going to be good:

“One of the great joys in serving in this body is when some of my colleagues take firm stands on both sides of an issue.

“We stood here on this floor just a couple of months ago and we wanted to take just an itty-bitty portion of windfall profits from the oil companies—where last week they reported $11 billion in profits—and use it to keep from laying off teachers. And speaker after speaker on this floor said, “Don’t waste our time with a drill. We’re against drills. Debates with foregone conclusions are of no value.” Now from the same quarter it’s “We demand a drill.”

“If I had gone 7 months into the budget process and not made a public proposal, not shared what my point of view for balancing the budget was with the people of California, I might want to change the subject as well.

“We have a situation where the voters of California have been taken hostage but we can’t get a ransom note.

“Because it’s been said on this floor today, people are having a tough time with gas prices. Well, if you are going to take their public transit away, they have to know. People have to have the courage to tell them.

“People are struggling with education. Well, if we’re going to take their retraining away at a time of economic downturn, we should tell them.

“People are having trouble making ends meet. Well, if their health care is going out the door, shouldn’t we tell them?

“Because the governor—it’s interesting people were making comments against the sale tax on the floor. Well, that is not in the conference report. That is the Governor’s proposal. And the reason the Governor has make the proposal is he originally said you can’t just do cuts. He says you have to have revenue. He had $7 billion of revenues in his proposed budget, and with $7 billion of revenue he still wanted to close 48 parks. He still wanted to cut health care by 10%. He still wanted to take the overwhelming majority [sic] from transit. He wanted to cut schools by $79 per student in California and what’s been demanded on the floor is that we have cuts that are higher than that because we won’t have revenue.

“Because if that’s the case, of course, there wouldn’t be a public budget. You have to level with the public. It’s time to have a budget in public. You can’t compromise with nothing.

“And we want to drive this down the middle. We want to get it done. We want the people to know what the issues are.”

I guess it’s not just in the Bible that the last will be first and the first will be last. What exactly do the Republicans propose in their budget? It’s time to know.