Today Governor Schwarzenegger announced his proposed budget, which proposes billions of dollars in cuts to healthcare and programs for the poor in California.
In his typical demagogue fashion, Board of Supervisor’s Chairman John Moorlach blamed public employess for the shortfall. Specifically, the told the Orange County Register’s Total Buzz reporter Peggy Lowe that the Governor had failed to pan ahead and rein in the $ billions in unfunded liabilities created by public workers’ pensions.
Moorlach is dead wrong and he knows it. The cause of the state budget crisis is a reduction in anticipated revenues due to a slowed economy. The “unfunded pension liabilities” he cites do not even have an impact on the state budget. They are costs projected on paper and have absolutely zero impact on state budget expenditures.
Moorlach should look at his own budget busting ways and those of his collegues rather than attack public employees. Consider $2 million in unbudgeted remodeling expenses; more than $500,000 in legal expenses demanded by the Lincoln Club to challenge negotiated retroactive pension benefits for sheriff deputies based upon flawed legal reasoning of his Chief of Staff; the establishment of a redundant Performance Audit department at a cost of at least $500,000; the establishment of a field office for Supervisor Janet Nguyen for more than $100,000; or the expenditure of $110,000 to review the risky investments of our Treasurer/Tax Collector Chriss Street who Moorlach selected to be his replacement.
I’m not sure how much more budget wisdom from Supervisor Moorlach we can afford. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. But for the record…
Moorlach, you’re an idiot!
It must be pretty awful to work for an employer whose management thinks its employees are greedy, lazy, and stupid. Why do OC voters consistently elect conservative idiots to their Board? We so often hear that those we elect do not mirror the electorate, but I’m afraid in this case it is the opposite.
I neglected to mention the mitigating factor here, which is that no one with half a brain reads the OC Register anyway; and those half-brains who do have already made up their mind about public employees.