Additional Key Points

Some Key Points:

These cuts are not one year, temporary cuts. Their impact will haunt California for a generation.

School children do not get to retake the third grade even if their classroom was too crowded and unruly for them to learn.
Families who file for bankruptcy because they can’t afford their child’s medical bills do not get their life savings back.
The pain of seeing a disabled loved one forced into a state institution never goes away.

Contrary to claims by the governor, California does not have a spending problem; rather, it has a revenue problem.
California has the third fewest state employees in the nation in proportion to its population. It actually ranks near the bottom in education and social spending per capita.
The cuts being enacted across the state don’t remove waste or inefficiency. They cut into basic core services we all depend on, rich and poor alike. In Sacramento, the municipal fire department is mothballing fire trucks. The governor is considering releasing 20,000 convicted felons into our communities.
We depend on government to keep us safe. We should close tax loopholes for the wealthy, not fire stations.
This fiscal crisis is the direct result of political decisions made in Sacramento the past 15 years. We could solve this crisis by simply repealing tax breaks for the wealthiest and tax loopholes written for special interests and large corporations.

Just last year, the legislature passed more than $2 billion in corporate giveaways in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.
Returning the very top tax brackets to 1992 levels for those making more than $250,000 and $500,000 a year could raise $4-6 billion alone.
Re-assessing the values of non-residential real estate would raise $3 billion. The inequalities of the current tax system allows Disneyland to pay a nickel per square foot in property tax while the typical family is paying $2 a square foot for their home. We should end this inequity.
California is the only oil producing state that does not have a severance tax for oil drilled in the state. We could raise $1.5 billion by ending this giveaway to Big Oil. Claims that it will stifle production are ludicrous. Alaska has the highest oil severance tax in the nation and is the top oil producing state in the country.

Despite the common myth that California is anti-business, it still attracts more venture capital than any state. California is a leader in technology, fashion, entertainment and agriculture. We have the eighth largest economy in the world. The American Dream was practically invented in California. We accomplished that by building a world class education system. But that system has fallen into disrepair, and the budget cuts the governor is pushing will only make it worse.
Given that California is the richest state in the richest country in the world, it is unconscionable to auction off our children’s future so we can maintain tax breaks for millionaires and large corporations. We should not balance the budget on the backs of our school children, the poor, elderly, disabled and working families while not asking for an ounce of sacrifice from those who can most afford it.
Many media outlets repeat the claim that soaks the rich. This has no truth in reality. In fact, studies have shown that California actually has a regressive set of tax codes that overall taxes the poor at much higher rates. The typical taxpayer making less than $22,000 a year pays about 10.2 percent in combined state and local taxes; the wealthiest 1 percent, who make more than $400,000 a year, typically only pay 7.4 percent, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The fiscal crisis in Sacramento is the result of a dysfunctional system that allows a mere one-third of legislators to block budgets with overwhelming solid majority support. In a true democracy, the idea that gets the most votes wins. Californians overwhelmingly elect progressives but in Sacramento we suffer from a tyranny of the minority. The current system is a subversion of democracy and the will of the people.