Enough budging on the budget?
I applaud the governor for living within our means while increasing funding for schools and withdrawing his January proposal to defer $860 million of Proposition 98 to the FY 2018-19 budget. The May revision is on the right track by increasing the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), continuing with increases for early childhood education programs and increasing one-time discretionary dollars by $750 million. However, the Legislature should establish priorities for the discretionary dollars, such as incentives to address the teacher shortage.
As a father of two school-age children, a teacher and chair of the Assembly Education Committee, I have strong concerns with the governor’s proposal to suspend Proposition 98 in FY 2016-17 and in future years. Even with the increase to LCFF, California’s funding for K-12 schools will still be in the lower echelon in comparison with other states.
I am also strongly disappointed that the governor did not withdraw his proposal to eliminate Middle Class Scholarships. Our economy depends on the success of hard-working families.
Patrick O’Donnell
Assemblymember
70th District
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There will always be budget challenges, but we cannot let it stop us from improving the lives of ordinary Californians.
Unfortunately, this proposal fails to move California in the right direction. Voters recently approved taxes specifically to fund increased access to health and dental care and to support our schools. But this budget pulls a bait and switch, sending that money to the General Fund while ignoring our health and dental care needs and eliminating programs like career technical education in our schools.
Assembly Republicans have a plan to open a pathway to the middle class for everyone. I look forward to working with my colleagues to craft a budget that works for all Californians.
Chad Mayes
Assembly Republican Leader
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Noble action or just a distraction?
With today’s announcement [of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity], we are seeing the Trump administration’s continued fixation with unproven “massive voter fraud” and their concerted campaign of voter suppression.
In the months since President Trump first made his unsubstantiated and debunked claims of massive voter fraud, he has failed to provide one shred of evidence. In the process, however, he has impugned the integrity of voters, our nation’s elections officials and our democratic process.
Further, it’s extremely difficult to see how Trump’s proposed commission can be objective and impartial given Secretary [Kris] Kobach’s leadership role. Kobach’s involvement with the administration has been troubling from the start, considering his long history of voter-suppression efforts. He is exactly the wrong person to be involved in any commission on voter fraud.
The commission’s mandate is deeply flawed and its motives suspect. The only purpose this commission serves is to distract from critical investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And I fear that it will serve as pretext for the administration’s efforts to roll back the voting rights so many fought so hard to obtain.
Alex Padilla
Secretary of State
California
