Governor is still in character!

The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that Governor Schwarzenegger believed the people were standing behind him while he worked to destroy California; and he would continue to dismantle schools and social programs.  It looks as though his days as a steroid-popper have created some deeply delusional side effects.

The Governor claims now that “fixing” California is why he was elected.  He conveniently forgets that most of California’s debt comes from his revoking of the vehicle license fee, the debt from his bond measures, and California’s ever-increasing prison costs due to mandatory sentencing.  He’s also forgotten that the only real reason that he was elected is because he is a rich movie star.  We didn’t know that “Terminator” would be more than science fiction. 

Unfortunately, the Governor has stayed in character far too long.   He can’t discern fact from fiction.  The November elections saw gains for democrats in both houses of the state legislature.  Sixty percent of the legislative districts in California voted against Republicans because the “let’s burn down the state so our rich friends don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes” message wasn’t working for them.

And he’s listening to the wrong people.  The anti-taxers always complain that the tax rates are too high, but they fail to mention that the loopholes for California’s biggest corporations are even bigger.  More than 40 California corporations with income of more than a billion dollars pay less than $1,000 in taxes each year.  That’s less than you and I pay.

His aides talk about “the nuclear option” of suspending Proposition 98’s minimum guarantee of subsistence education.  Those 9,000 teachers who showed up at the Governor’s San Diego office last week weren’t there to express their support.  CTA’s raucus action in defense of Prop. 98 voiced the outrage felt by millions of Californians who are at risk of losing schools, community centers, libraries, senior care and community health centers.

The real legal roadblocks to a functional state government are Prop. 13 and the two-thirds budget approval mandates etched into the state’s constitution. The majority of Californians don’t want to see their communities dismantled.  Can we please, for once, try to fix the real problem.