Arnold was never the same after his 2005 ballot measures tanked
“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got it right” is not something you hear much these days. The governor’s poll numbers (like the legislature’s) are dismal, reflecting his inability to deal with the state’s budget crisis. People forget that Governor Schwarzenegger got it right in 2005, when he tried to pass a series of reforms that may have prevented or lessened our budget mess. But, the state worker unions waged an expensive campaign to defeat those reforms. Now, the governor and voters have the chance to get it right again by passing needed reforms in November 2010.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got it right in 2005 (his forgotten “Year of Reform”) when he tried to pass a series of reforms in order to bring sanity to state finances. The Year of Reform is mostly forgotten (even by the governor, it seems) because voters rejected his reforms. Governor Schwarzenegger’s reforms included spending limits, a rainy day fund, and “paycheck protection” (requiring unions to get the consent of their members before spending their union dues on politics). His proposed spending limits might have prevented or lessened the state’s fiscal crisis, and the rainy day fund would have softened the blow. Yet, voters were persuaded to reject these reforms by an expensive advertising campaign waged by California’s state worker unions.
The state worker unions spent $148.5 million to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s reforms. Perversely, their political expenditures came right out of the pockets of taxpayers. These unions are able to skim taxpayer money right off the top of state workers’ paychecks. In the past 3 years, the California Teachers Association has drained nearly $1 billion in union dues out of California classrooms. And 30 percent of that was for special interest politics – your taxpayer dollars at work. The state worker unions are the only California special interest group with the power to confiscate taxpayer dollars for political purposes – the reason they defeated the governor’s 2005 “paycheck protection” reform.
The unfair imbalance of power between California taxpayers and the state worker unions helps explain why no meaningful reform is coming out of Sacramento. It also explains why California taxpayers are paying more and more, but getting less and less. On paper, California state and local workers are the best paid in the country. However, this includes the union dues that state worker unions are skimming off the top of state worker paychecks. State worker union dues necessarily reduce state services (education, healthcare, highways) dollar for dollar (whether for political purposes or otherwise). And allowing state worker unions to use union dues for political purposes gives them outsized political power that drives runaway spending.
So, Governor Schwarzenegger got it right when he fought for his “Year of Reform” in 2005. And, the Governor has the chance to get it right today. There is no quick fix for California state government. To fix our state government, we must start at the beginning by clearing the obstacles to reform. The biggest obstacle to reform is the state worker unions who use taxpayer dollars to block reform.
The state worker unions and their Sacramento establishment allies are fighting to reform California by eliminating Proposition 13’s limits on taxation. The problem with this idea is that plugging the state’s budget holes with higher taxes will slow economic recovery and do nothing to fix the real problem – runaway spending. And the biggest driver of runaway spending is the state worker unions.
California taxpayer groups are putting a reform initiative on the November 2010 ballot to fix this problem. The Citizen Power Campaign is proposing to help fix state government by preventing taxpayer dollars from being used for political purposes by the state worker unions. The Citizen Power Initiative fixes a political game that is rigged against California taxpayers. It levels the playing field by giving taxpayers and state worker unions equal treatment.
Governor Schwarzenegger has a chance to get it right, again. Voters have the chance to get it right, this time, too. It remains to be seen whether history will repeat itself. It is a tragedy that the state worker unions used taxpayer money to defeat reform before. It will be farce if they succeed in defeating reform, again.
Arnold is a girlie man – no sack.
Unions have become nothing more than the mobsters of the past… People need to vote no on everything unions want a yes on.. unless your a union employee – but remember even though that extra dollar in your pocket may feel good, the fact that you sold you soul to the devil is going to come back and bit you on your tail!
Just say no to union’s like they were a drug!
MQ – you “da man.”
“In the past 3 years, the California Teachers Association has drained nearly $1 billion in union dues out of California classrooms.”
Can you tell me, since these dues are paid by teachers, and not by students, how do they drain money from classrooms? Unless, of course, you mean the money that teachers spend from their own pockets, since California teachers are so “overpaid.” And of course this is reducible to the unions – not, say to other factors such as prisons, Prop 13, and the oh-so many other ways in which funds have been directed away from education.
Even Willie Brown, longtime Democrat speaker of the Assembly, has admitted that the public employee unions have become overpowerful and are bankrupting state and local governments with bloated pensions and salaries on par w/ the private sector.
How does prop 13 drain money from classrooms? Do you mean letting people keep their oww money drains money from classrooms?
California teachers (and California state and local workers) are the highest paid in the nation, and much of the compensation that (we) the taxpayers pay them goes directly to to the unions for politics (and the teachers aren’t taxed on that income). What are we getting for our money? Corruption and insolvency.
Prop 13 capped property tax levels for current owners.
A lot of schools relied on property taxes for thier main source of money.
Since that funding no longer exists or has been greatly limited, the local districts have been forced to rely more and more on state money. Resulting in more state control of schools and giving the state teachers union more power.
The proposition that requires a super majority to raise taxes for the schools has also reduced local control and increase the relaince on the state for funding.
The requirement that schools receive nearly half of all State revenues means that when the revenues drop the schools all over that state take in on the chin and have no way to increase there income.
A proposition to require all previous propositions to be revoted on every 10-15 years or sunsetted in the same time period might be a solution to this problem.
Rewriting the state constitution and startin over with any of these requirements might work also.
Either of these will get rid of propostions that somebody likes but it would work to begin to solve the problems.
post 5 you are correct on this one . the teachers want to get rid of prop 13 so they can make more $$ they scream more no lay offs well join the rest of us . state workers , city workers , have furlongs and other things . the rest of the normal people have lay offs . if arnolds ideas came up to vote today they would pass . but we are all so brainwashed and the unions teachers , and so on , only think for themselves not the rest of calif . well wee have no money . yet your pals like buzz cut bass wants more tax money , fees , andd the the other spin they claim it to be .
A lot of schools relied on property taxes for thier main source of money.
No Mr. Benson alot of the districts rely on title 1 and title 3 funds from the Government.. I have been looking in to Orange Unified school districts finances and have come up with some interesting fact…
Fact: Orange unified school district is closing or have closed down two schools: Silverado and Riverdale.. why?? because they are a net lose to the district.. who makes the district money title 1 and title 3 schools ( which they are now in program improvement)
Fact: thousands of hispanic kids get to early advanced level in English language CELT test, but only a few hundard seam to make it to advanged… why? 2oo5 state audit report stated that districts were not reclassifing students from ESL classes to a regular curriculum because they would lose their federal/state funding..
Orange Unified hired state level testing score from 330 to 336 in the Star/ CST… why if the kids past the scoring tests they would be no longer have federal dollars…
Hispanic in orange unified are not failing, its the district that fail the kids… Orange Unified teachers/admins are one of the higest paid…
By the way: Orange Unified tried to tell me that the reason hispanic kids fail is because they are transient and come in and out of their schools.. A Ms Ochoa from they Orange Unified school district stated to me that they had a way to track the transient students called the LARS program.. when i ask for the data a fews weeks later – that she said she would get me – i was told the data did not exist…
Your schools are run by unions and union workers all making money off the failure of your kids…
By the way Mr. B.. its not money the schools need, its educators not business men/women!
A lot of schools relied on property taxes for thier main source of money.
No Mr. Benson alot of the districts rely on title 1 and title 3 funds from the Government.. I have been looking in to Orange Unified school districts finances and have come up with some interesting fact…
I agree that is true now, look up where the money came from before prop 13 and see how much more local control there was.
Yes a child has to stay in a school to be successful, that is why in the past I agrued against restrictions on how long a family could occupy a hotel room.
Yes a child has to stay in a school to be successful, that is why in the past I agrued against restrictions on how long a family could occupy a hotel room.
Ms Ochoa stated that the kids are tranient because they are migrants… It all just bull.. Their ESL program uses Avenues Books which has books that go in to high school… they are suppose to be out of ESL classes within two years… the scumbags are keeping the kids in these ESL classes for years… When i went to Fairhaven in Orange to see a title one school.. the first thing i noticed was that all the kids spoke English ( and very well, may i add) i asked the principle, “where are all the non-english speakers”?. He stated to me, “they speak English, but the don’t read or write it”!
The reason they only speak the lanugage is because these EDUCATORS (not) are keeping them in a ESL hold…
The teachers also every 16 weeks get to go into different level classe rooms. because they get TIRED of teaching lower level English learners.. So that means the kids are being swapped around!! Its disgraceful… Fairhaven also gets thousands more in QEIA funds… the school is a dump!! They money is going to admins and teachers big salaries..
Also they are suppose to shelter kids who have a poor grasp of the English lanugage (prop 227) they do not.. they stick the kids in together 1-5 level (one being poor grasp – 5 advanced.. When i was at the school they had 1-3 in a class room.. Anyone see anything wrong with that picture??
If anyone is interested in seeing what i am seeing go look up CELT califoria- look under Orange unified and have a look at how many early advanced kids to advanced – year to year…
BY the way.. Ms Ochoa (ESL supposed specialist.. Stated to me on the phone, “why did i care”… The question is, “why does she not”?
Americans need to start questioning the whole system here in the US in regards to, supposed PUBLIC service… What i see is supposed Public servants, screwing over the public for a big fat check!
Sorry I mean ELS..