Dan Walters: California cities feel clobbered by Capitol
Published: Monday, Jul. 11, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3A
The state budget is a zero-sum game, especially when adding revenue is not an option, as happened this year.
Ultimately, therefore, budget politics dictate that there will be winners, at least relatively, and losers. And details of the just- enacted 2011-12 budget make this year's winners and losers starkly evident.
The winners are the K-12 education establishment, especially the powerful California Teachers Association; the prisons, especially the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association; and county governments, which will receive about $5 billion extra to pay for Gov. Jerry Brown's pet "realignment" program.
The losers are colleges and universities, which now must raise student fees to make up for sharp cuts in state support; health and welfare services for the aged, poor and disabled; and city governments.
The cities were clobbered by a decree that they must shut down their redevelopment agencies or give $1.7 billion to schools, thereby easing the state's education obligation, and by an almost gratuitous raid on some cities' vehicle license fee revenue, which is being shifted to help pay for realignment.
But budget hits on cities are only part of the story unfolding in the Capitol this year. They must also contend with a slew of bills, mostly sponsored by unions representing city employees, that, if passed and signed by Brown, would interfere with how they manage municipal affairs.
The most obvious is this year's version of legislation that would make it more difficult for all local governments – but particularly cities – to file for bankruptcy, sparked by the 2008 bankruptcy filing by Vallejo.
Union-sponsored Assembly Bill 506 passed the Assembly but is stalled in the Senate while private negotiations continue over its provisions.
Another measure raising city officials' hackles, Senate Bill 931, would prohibit local governments from hiring labor relations consultants. Still another now on Brown's desk, Assembly Bill 455, would compel them to give union representatives half the seats on local civil service commissions.
Assembly Bill 438 would make it difficult for cities to contract with private companies for library services, while Assembly Bill 710 would place restrictions on local auto parking to promote transit use. Several bills, reacting to the scandal in Bell, would impose new accounting and audit standards on cities.
The bill that really makes city officials worried, however, is Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's measure – Assembly Bill 46 – to abolish Vernon, California's smallest city, alleging that it is hopelessly corrupt.
While no one defends Vernon's sorry record, city officials worry that if the bill becomes law, it would create an implicit threat to wipe out any city finding itself in political disfavor.
Disincorporation is the ultimate hammer.
The winners are the K-12 education establishment, especially the powerful California Teachers Association; the prisons, especially the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association; and county governments, which will receive about $5 billion extra to pay for Gov. Jerry Brown's pet "realignment" program.
The losers are colleges and universities, which now must raise student fees to make up for sharp cuts in state support; health and welfare services for the aged, poor and disabled; and city governments.
The cities were clobbered by a decree that they must shut down their redevelopment agencies or give $1.7 billion to schools, thereby easing the state's education obligation, and by an almost gratuitous raid on some cities' vehicle license fee revenue, which is being shifted to help pay for realignment.
But budget hits on cities are only part of the story unfolding in the Capitol this year. They must also contend with a slew of bills, mostly sponsored by unions representing city employees, that, if passed and signed by Brown, would interfere with how they manage municipal affairs.
The most obvious is this year's version of legislation that would make it more difficult for all local governments – but particularly cities – to file for bankruptcy, sparked by the 2008 bankruptcy filing by Vallejo.
Union-sponsored Assembly Bill 506 passed the Assembly but is stalled in the Senate while private negotiations continue over its provisions.
Another measure raising city officials' hackles, Senate Bill 931, would prohibit local governments from hiring labor relations consultants. Still another now on Brown's desk, Assembly Bill 455, would compel them to give union representatives half the seats on local civil service commissions.
Assembly Bill 438 would make it difficult for cities to contract with private companies for library services, while Assembly Bill 710 would place restrictions on local auto parking to promote transit use. Several bills, reacting to the scandal in Bell, would impose new accounting and audit standards on cities.
The bill that really makes city officials worried, however, is Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's measure – Assembly Bill 46 – to abolish Vernon, California's smallest city, alleging that it is hopelessly corrupt.
While no one defends Vernon's sorry record, city officials worry that if the bill becomes law, it would create an implicit threat to wipe out any city finding itself in political disfavor.
Disincorporation is the ultimate hammer.
No comments:
Post a Comment