Online Budget Town Hall with 12th District Assemblywoman
Fiona Ma

Thursday,July 9 @ 2:30 pm

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Write Letters
to the Editor

Budget facts and stylistic help to get started

Organize a Rally

All the basics you need to hold a successful event.

Postcards
to Sacramento from California

Lawmakers need your revenue ideas Now!

Sample letter to the Governor

Sample Letter to
Democratic Legislators

Sample Letter to
Republican Legislators

California Tax Reform
 Association

Your one-stop shop for Recommendations on Revenues for the 2010-11 and 2012-13 Budgets

NEW! California Democratic Party's citizen action page to tell lawmakers that we must Protect All Californians, Stop the Severe Cuts and Support a Balanced Solution
The CDP has posted an online toolset for citizen action. More to come, stay tuned!

AFSCME's California State Budget Alternatives and Long Term Fiscal Solutions
Includes separate lists of proposed revenues that can be passed by a majority vote and those requiring 2/3 approval of the legislature.

A great progressive open news organization for California politics - timely news and analysis.

Assembly Budget Chair Noreen Evans' Budget Blog
Assemblywoman Evans is posting daily news from the legislature.

VIDEO:

Budget Committee Chair Exposes Myths
(Sacramento) – California State Assembly Budget Committee Chair Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) knows, in today’s politically charged atmosphere, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the state budget.

We are the Majority
and we can save California

Californians deserve real solutions to the budget deficit. Responding to our economic crisis with deep cuts will only make the state's problems worse. They would undermine our economic recovery and President Obama's investment in economic stimulus, disproportionately harm the most vulnerable Californians, and go against our core values.

Is $24 billion in cuts what California residents really want? Two recent polls (Binder, www.docstoc.com/docs/6220193/Reasons-Prop-1A-Failed-memo, and Field Poll, www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2306.pdf) reveal that Californians in fact support some revenue increases and do not favor drastic cuts to education and other essential services. These polls counter the interpretation that the failure of the special election measures represents voter rejection of any and all new revenues.

• 74% of California voters support increasing taxes on tobacco.

• 73% of California voters support an oil extraction tax like those in every other oil producing state has.

• 63% of California voters support closing the tax loophole that allows corporations to avoid reassessment of newly purchased property.

• 63% of California voters support raising the state income tax for top earners (ten percent for individuals earning more than $272,000 a year & eleven percent for individuals earning more than $544,000 a year).

• 59% of California voters support making big businesses pay their fair share by ending costly corporate tax breaks

Our legislators should fight for increased revenues from those who can afford to pay. Progressive tax increases need to be on the table.

Yet we understand that the broken budget system has allowed a political minority to block almost all new revenue and hold the state hostage.

Therefore we also believe that reasonable and fair fees that can be passed by legislative majorities should be submitted to the Governor to sign into law. The Democrats found $18 billion that could be raised in this manner last December. Those proposals should be brought back to the table. As Senate Pro tem Steinberg said at the time:

"... but there is an even greater responsibility than practicing bipartisanship and that is to govern. And that is what we intend to do here today."