The prospect of a balanced state budget offers all Californians the hope that further cuts to health, education, housing, infrastructure and other critical services may come to an end.
As a state, we can stop borrowing from the future and preserve current educational, health and economic development programs to stem our declines in school performance, employment and health outcomes. This is especially important for Californians whose incomes place them in the bottom 20%.
I caution us all to not presume that a balanced budget has solved the state’s retreat from improving the well being of low income Californians. Rather, the state will need to grow revenues just to prevent current educational, health and affordable housing outcomes from declining.
We got part of the way there by balancing the budget, now the heavy lifting needs to occur.
We have many reasons to be hopeful. The balanced budget is a direct consequence of Prop 30 that passed in the November elections. Californians came together and agreed to pay more sales tax and state income tax to end the State government’s financial hemorrhaging.
On top of the passage of Prop 30 to balance the budget, a poll released in December by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that Californians are optimistic about their future. Particularly, younger Californians, see a brighter future for the Golden State.
The poll also demonstrated support for spending reforms and lowering the vote thresholds necessary to pass state and local tax increases. Californians support simple majorities (as contrasted with 2/3 majority) to raise additional revenue. That having been said, the majority of Californians are not supportive of raising the sales or vehicle tax. A slight majority expressed that California will become a better place to live in the future.
That is where the disconnect occurs. California will become a better place to live and filled with opportunities only if we do better on educating our children, increasing job training, building affordable housing and updating crumbling infrastructure. And that is only a start.
The optimism expressed in the poll, as seen in the optimism about the economy combined with the ability to generate more revenue, is only manifest if we invest in our public goods. The right ingredients are there, we just need to remind our fellow Californians that our shared problems are solvable if we create the means to solve them.
Say what you may about increased taxes, but strengthening government and increasing taxes are the primary vehicles to build this future. The private sector can play a leading role providing job opportunities and increasing the wealth of Californians but it is not able to provide the public goods that lead to more opportunities for all Californians to co-create a better future for our State.
Our shared future is a filled with potential. Let’s make sure we capture that opportunity!