Editor: In response to Jerry Brown’s open letter in the Sun, I would like to welcome the Governor back and wish him all the success in the world because he is certainly going to need it. Unlike those who wished President Barrack Obama to fail, which is an absurd and irresponsible thing to say, Governor Brown is going to need all the support he can get. The Governor has a lot going for him, he is for example a very experienced politician who knows the system very well unlike his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger who, by the way, deserves an Oscar for his greatest role ever, acting as Governor of California, because that’s all it was, an act.
For the new Governor to be successful he will need to use all the tools at his disposal. He proposed a $12.5 billion dollar budget cut and a special election to address taxes. I suggest he go beyond that and meet with each union official, Senate leader and anyone else associated with budget matters and negotiate how and where they can cut back. The Teachers Union is a great place to start. California’s allocates half its budget on education but most of that money goes to a bloated bureaucracy and not to teachers. All educational funding goes through this bureaucracy and what little is left trickles down to schools and educators.
The template on how to do this is in the business and corporate world. Our economy is still in a hard recession yet big businesses are now posting healthy profits and the Dow Jones is hovering around 12,000. The reason why is simple: businesses downsized a few years ago. They reduced their work force, became more efficient with less people and are still able to produce their products and or services with much lower overhead costs. There is no reason why government bureaucracies couldn’t do the same.
Suggestions on what not to do? Don’t raise taxes or accept bailout money. Those just address the symptom and not the cause of why the state is in this financial mess, and how we got there in the first place. The focus should be on getting spending under control. Lastly, none of this will work if businesses continue to leave the state. Other states are making very attractive offers to businesses such as tax breaks and reduced restrictions across the board. These incentives are wooing businesses into their camp and taking the jobs along with them. Make California more business friendly.
Do I believe that Governor Jerry Brown has what it takes to turn this state around? No. But I do believe he can help and given how bad things are the smart thing is to encourage Gov. Brown on his latest attempt at running our state and wish him all the best. After all California is our home and Gov. Brown is correct when he points out that this will only work if we work together.
Dan de la Torre
Sonoma
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