| September 15, 2008 | Final Debate on the State Budget |
| | Mr. President: According to the State Controller’s reports, last year, our tax structure produced $96 billion in actual revenues – a record year. We budgeted $103 billion and spent $107 billion. In short, our spending exceeded our revenue by $11 billion and exceeded our adopted budget by $4 billion. This year, if the economy gets no worse, we can expect to produce $97 billion in tax revenues. Claims that the revenues will be higher are based on accounting gimmicks that mask the numbers but do not change the underlying reality. This budget authorizes $104 billion and if last year was any indication, we can expect to spend at least $108 billion. So the next budget will see us $11 billion further behind than we are right now. |
| August 29, 2008 | Debate on the State Budget |
| | Last year, when some in this chamber assured us that the budget was not only balanced, but included the biggest budget reserve in the state's history, others of us issued an urgent warning that the budget was dangerously unbalanced and that we were fast running out of the time needed to implement reforms. The State Controller reports that during last year we received $96 billion in revenues – a new record -- but spent $107 billion. And now we're running out of money. |
| January 14, 2008 | Playing Cuttlefish with the Budget |
| | Abraham Lincoln finally had enough of Stephen Douglas' obfuscations when they met to debate in Charleston, Illinois. He said, "Judge Douglas is playing cuttlefish – a small species of fish that has no mode of defending himself when pursued except by throwing out a black fluid which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it escapes." Lincoln's cuttlefish story came to mind during the governor's State of the State message when he blamed the state's massive budget deficit on formulae that lock in spending. |
| August 21, 2007 | Senator McClintock's Speech Opposing the 2007-08 Budget, Senate Chambers |
| | The budget package that comes before us today is at least slightly improved over what was put before the Senate the night it walked off the job and went on summer holiday on August 1st. At least an effort has been made to balance the budget on paper. And that's something, since we just closed the last budget year with what appears to be the biggest budget deficit in California's history, a deficit that has reduced the $10 1/2 billion budget reserve that we began the last year with to around $4 billion. |
| August 21, 2007 | Speech by Senator McClintock Opposing SB 86 on Property Seizures, Senate Chambers |
| | This bill is opposable on many grounds, but I want to focus on the provisions related to the state's practice of looting safe deposit boxes and retirement and college funds under the pretense that they are abandoned solely because their owners have set them aside for three years. The federal district court has issued an injunction ordering the state Controller to cease this practice. |
| August 16, 2007 | What's It All About |
| | This is not the first time the California Legislature has reached an impasse in its budget negotiations. In past years the state has gone until early September without a budget agreement. But whenever the budget has snagged in the past, legislators kept working to resolve it. This is the first time in California's history that they simply walked off the job. |
| August 1, 2007 | Speech by Senator McClintock on the Budget Act, Senate Chambers |
| | Mr. President:
I'd like to begin with a brief review of the numbers in this budget and the very real risk it runs. Let's begin with the $3.5 billion reserve. This is actually what is left out of the $10.5 billion reserve that we began the last fiscal year with. That should be a warning right there: we started with $10.5 billion in the bank at the beginning of last year. We're now down to $3.5 billion. Still, you'd think that's more than enough to cover the $700 million deficit in the budget now before us. |
| July 24, 2007 | Budget Letter |
| | You have asked under what circumstances I could support SB 77, the budget act for FY 2007-08. In my judgment, the largest general fund budget the state can safely sustain under current conditions is slightly over $100 billion, or $8.3 billion more than was spent just two years ago and $21.7 billion more than was spent at the outset of this administration. Here are my thoughts on the scope of the problem and on what immediate steps can be taken to address it. |
| June 10, 2007 | May Day |
| | "The May Revision continues the Governor's commitment to restraining the growth in spending, pre-paying debt, eliminating the net operating deficit, not raising taxes and maintaining an adequate reserve." Or so says the introductory paragraph of the Governor's updated budget plan. Just for fun, let's run that through the old fact-checker... |
| May 31, 2007 | Speech in Opposition to SB 900 (Corbett) Restricting Mobile Home Park Conversions |
| | In the early 1980's, this legislature determined that almost all of the problems arising from mobile home parks was caused by conflicting property rights: One person's home sits on another person’s land. It became crystal clear that the solution to this conflict is for the homeowner to purchase the land. For this purpose, the legislature granted home owners the right of first refusal, access to various loan guarantees and a number of other measures to promote the ability of homeowners to purchase their own land. The measure before us today is a gigantic step backwards. |
| May 31, 2007 | Beware of Goldman Sachs Bearing Gifts |
| | The old admonition, "When something seems too good to be true, it probably is," virtually screams from accounts of Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal to "privatize" the California Lottery.
|
| May 31, 2007 | Speech in Opposition to SB 920 (Oropeza) Using Tax Records to Seize Property |
| | The abuse of the state's power of escheat – the seizing of property after just three years of inactivity – is finally beginning to get the attention it deserves. |
| May 29, 2007 | SB 861 (Wiggins) North Coast Rail Authority |
| | Let's be clear about what we're doing. You've heard of the bridge to nowhere. This is the Railroad-In-Name-Only. The North Coast Railroad Authority was created in 1989 to service the north coast along an abandoned Southern Pacific Route, and was transferred to the state dole in 1992. Since 1992, the Railroad has not run a single train. Not one. And yet, it has consumed and continues to consume, transportation resources intended for actual rail service, while every year promising that "someday" they’ll actually run a train. |
| May 29, 2007 | SB 77 (Ducheny) Budget Spot Bill |
| | It is important to note what is going on here and what is supposed to be going on. There is a world of difference. This is supposed to be the Senate budget bill. And that’s the way it was until about 15 years ago. Each of the budget sub-committees by this time had gone over every line item in the budget. And when they voted – it meant something. They were actually acting on the budget. The full budget committee had then met and put finishing touches on that plan. And when they voted – it meant something. |
| April 26, 2007 | Senate Debate - AB 900 (Prison Bonds) |
| | I would like to begin with some stubborn facts. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, for fiscal year 06-07, it will cost California taxpayers $42,000 per year for each inmate in the California Department of Corrections. And yet, the U.S. Department of Justice reports it only costs them $25,000 per inmate and Illinois Department of Corrections reports its costs at $23,000 per inmate. Florida reports an average of just $18,000 per inmate – less than half of the $42,000 we now pay in this state. These are not subtle differences. |
| April 9, 2007 | Tax Increases "Off the Table" |
| | We have a simple budget announcement to make this morning: TAX INCREASES ARE OFF THE TABLE: 15 Senators and 31 Assembly members have now signed written contracts with their constituents NOT TO RAISE TAXES – more than enough to stop any 2/3 tax measure. And the Senators and Assembly Members with us today are here to demonstrate their commitment to maintain that pledge throughout the upcoming budget deliberations. |
| March 9, 2007 | Ask Us First |
| | (WARNING: This column contains disturbing material and may not be suitable for all audiences. It concerns the state's finances.)
Three years after Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected on the promise to "cut up the credit cards," California's debt burden has more than doubled.
|
| March 6, 2007 | The Miracles of Post-Partisanship |
| | Governor Schwarzenegger – "The People's Governor" as his official press release proclaims – spoke recently to the National Press Club and graciously offered our nation's leaders some lessons from his successful "post-partisan" leadership in California. |
| January 19, 2007 | A "Fantastic" Budget |
| | According to Gov. Schwarzenegger, California's financial condition is "fantastic." Spending has been brought under control, the budget has been balanced and our debt is being paid down. But as Churchill once said, "It is not possible to state the opposite of the truth with greater precision." |
| June 27, 2006 | Budget Speech |
| | Here is the great paradox of the budget before us: despite a 23 percent increase in revenues in the last three years, we’re running the biggest deficit in California’s history. Let's review the numbers.
Income: $94.4 billion
Spending: $101.3 billion
Deficit: $6.9 billion
|
| April 11, 2006 | Minimum Wage |
| | The most important thing for any poor person trying to improve his or her condition is, of course, a job. It is the entry-level job that accords impoverished workers – even those with no skills, no references and no employment record -- the invaluable opportunity to succeed and to prosper. It is literally the first rung up the ladder of success. |
| March 11, 2006 | Assembly Bill 134 - Bond Package - Senate Floor Debate |
| | Mr. President: Let me begin by placing these bonds in perspective, and since Pat Brown's administration is being looked back upon with nostalgia by politicians in both parties, let's compare his program to the one now before us. |
| January 10, 2006 | Senator Tom McClintock today issued the following statement concerning the Governor's budget proposal for 2006-2007 |
| | Today the Governor released his budget proposal for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. It projects general fund spending of $97.9 billion with income of $91.5 billion, for a general fund operating deficit of $6.4 billion. This brings the accumulated three year operating deficit to $9.8 billion. |
| December 19, 2005 | Bond Bombshell |
| | As governor from 1959 to 1967, Pat Brown presided over the most breathtaking period of public works construction in California’s history. During those years, California built the finest highway system in the world, one of the largest water projects in history, and the foremost university system in the country. At a time when the population grew twice as fast as today, the state kept pace with the demand for schools, ports, prisons, libraries, parks and power plants. |
| July 7, 2005 | SB 77 Final Budget Vote |
| | I am sorry to interrupt the chorus of self-congratulations, but I feel compelled to state an obvious fact - that this budget is $6 billion out of balance; that the state's chronic deficit spending is getting worse, not better; and that the growth of general fund spending is growing and not shrinking. |
