SACRAMENTO – In this Democratic weekly address, Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) calls on the governor to sign off on responsible budget measures that solve the budget deficit and put an end to California’s issuance of expensive IOU’s.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8o8IgVbCw[/youtube]
Transcript:
Hello, this is Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans with another important budget update.
With the governor’s refusal to sign off on three billion dollars in necessary cuts last week, California has been forced to issue expensive IOU’s.
And now, with banks beginning to refuse those IOU’s, the governor is conditioning any budget progress on the acceptance of last minute policy proposals like the ones voters rejected in 2005.
An analysis by the Assembly Budget Committee shows virtually none of the governor’s so-called reform proposals he dumped into the process at the last minute have anything to do with our current cash crisis and budget deficit.
That’s why we’re calling on the governor to follow his own advice and focus on resolving the budget problem.Â
With more than a dozen last minute proposals thrown on the table by the governor, we have to take a careful look at what works and what doesn’t.
The governor’s procurement proposal, for example, would institutionalize the Oracle computer scandal from 2001 by allowing the same company to both write the rules for state contracts and then receive those contracts.
The governor’s proposal to throw entire families off CalWORKs assistance has been widely criticized as the exact opposite of what should be done as vulnerable families struggle more than ever in a period of record unemployment.
Just this week Los Angeles County reported CalWORKs families have seen a 30 percent increase in homelessness.
The fact is, we’ve already voted for deep spending cuts that will balance the budget deficit and we have important reform legislation already moving through the process – including bills to prevent fraud in the valuable IHSS program that helps keep frail elderly and disabled Californians in their own homes and out of expensive institutions.
Now it’s time for the governor to put California before his political scorecard and do his part to close the budget gap. We can start working on vigorous reforms just as soon as we revise the budget and stop issuing IOUs.
This has been Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans.
Thank you for listening.