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Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
In a telephone press conference this morning with various mayors from across the state, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fervently said that he and other cities "will not accept a flawed budget." It's been a consistent theme since Tuesday, the morning after a state budget solution was agreed upon by state leaders. The full legislature is expected to vote on the proposal as early as tonight.
"Some may believe the spin," Villaraigosa warned, citing how the budget solution is balanced on the backs of local governments and the education system. Mayor Bob Foster of Long Beach noted that 22% of the proposal relies on local government money.
Back in April, local governments sued the state and won over the state trying to take redevelopment money to fill holes in the general budget, said Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose. According to him, the state's constitution specifically says redevelopment money can only be used for redevelopment purposes. If the money is taken away from agencies, bonds will not be paid and cities will once again take the state to court. Both will end up costing the tax payers.
Other Mayors involved in Villaraigosa coalition include Ashley Swearengin of Fresno, Kevin Johnson of Sacramento and Miguel Pulido of Santa Ana.
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He's a busy guy. Running in and out of a Metro Board meeting and doing these calls. We're still here, debating Ansaldo Breda.
Huh.
Too bad on so many other issues, he was the "Antonio who cried wolf".
George Skelton's column on Tuesday mentioned Schwarzenegger's role in this whole budget deficit.
Skelton gave some interesting figures. Remember the vehicle tax increase that propelled Arnie to office via the recall of Gray Davis? Well it seems that this increase was not really an increase. It would have restored the vehicle fee to it's historic level of 2% of the vehicle's value. It would also have raised $6.2 billion a year in extra funds into the general fund. If you do the math that's way more than the $26 billion that Arnie is squaking about. The deficit would not only have been covered but we would right now have about an $11 billion surplus. Of course Arnie would have been left with a "read my lips" moment of having gone back on a campaign promise.
So we can safely lay this entire budget mess as Arnie's hubris and political cowardice. He'd rather watch the state of California sink into an unmanageable budget quagmire than to be saddled with a broken campaign promise.
Huh.
And here I thought it was to protect him and his rich pals from surrendering their bushie era "permanent tax cuts". ; ]