The Party for Socialism and Liberation reports the following:

An October 2009 UC Berkley study examined data from the California Office of the State Controller on the cost of California’s imposed furloughs. In February 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger required state workers to take two unpaid days of leave a month. He later increased the furlough to three days a month.

Data shows that 2009-2010 furlough days will cost California $503 million. A worker’s salary reduction from the furlough days is more than seven weeks of pay per year. California state workers will lose $1.63 billion in pay. In exchange, the furloughs will save the State’s general fund only 12 cents for every dollar cut in wages.

Salary cuts will reduce worker spending by an estimated $1.24 billion over the year. As a result, Sacramento County alone may shed 4,100 jobs.

In 2009, nearly every state has drastically cut services and laid off workers. These cuts force working people to bear the burden of an economic crisis caused by Wall Street and the banks.

From the World Socialist Web Site:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving the state until June 15 to balance its budget. The treasury of the “Golden State” is facing a massive and ongoing shortfall, and the government is responding to the crisis with a massive attack on education, health care, and whatever remains of the state’s social safety net.

Despite three years of intense budget cuts, the 2010 budget projection includes a deficit of $26.8 billion. This is up from a budget gap of $14.8 billion in 2009.

If California is unable to balance its budget before the middle of the month, Schwarzenegger warned that the state would be unable to secure the necessary short term bridge loans required to pay its bills.

The message from the banks and hedge funds is that there will be no loans until the Governor and the Democratic Party-controlled legislature, come up with an austerity budget, based on gutting state welfare programs, health insurance for the poor, programs for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, parks and education.

Read more…

Lies… Lies… LIES!
Bob Maschi

Check out this story…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090523/ap_on_re_us/us_california_day_of_reckoning

It’s about the recent defeat of the Democrats’ and Schwarzenegger’s ballot initiatives that were aimed at screwing over working and poor people at the same time that the Obama government is giving trillions to the rich and their corporations. Peace and Freedom Party opposed these measures, as did many others including Republicans and Libertarians and even some Democrats.

But to read the article, one would assume that only the right-wing was against these. Here’s some article quotes (and brief rebuttals):

“’The voters are getting what they asked for, but I’m not sure at the end of the day they’re going to like what they asked for,’ said Jim Earp, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents the hard-hit construction industry.”

I’m so thankful for this analysis by a lobbyist for the construction industry who surely must understand what we typical Californians want.

“This week, voters said they no longer want the Legislature to balance budgets with higher taxes…”

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. We voted against taxing us poor people anymore because the greedy bastards who run this country busted the economy and took all our money away. WE can’t afford any more taxes. But THEY can!

“A separate commission is expected to release a proposal to rework the state’s tax structure, which is vulnerable to booms and busts in California’s economy because it relies heavily on high-income earners.”

Need I say ‘bullshit’ yet again? California’s economy, the economy of the other 49 states and the federal government do not rely too much on high-income earners. They rely too little!

Okay, so let’s look beyond their bullshit and even beyond my potty talk. I have proof that Californians WANT to tax the rich – but they aren’t being given that choice. In 2004, California voters APPROVED Proposition 63, known as the Mental Health Services Act. This act required people who made over $1 million to pay additional taxes. Yes! Just a few years ago Californians approved taxing the wealthy and a few days ago they chose to protect that decision (by defeating Proposition 1E).

Why isn’t anyone outside of our party saying we should tax the rich when, clearly, a majority of Californians would support that solution?