Thread: CALIFORNIA (D): "LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS, MEANS NOTHING

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT: "LIVING WITHIN OUR MEAN, MEANS NOTHING


Democrat Budget Conference Committee Hack Noreen Evans is trying to raise your taxes again!

She says “living within our means, means nothing!â€

Growing crisis and growing a pair

As California faces a $24 billion deficit and teeters on the edge of insolvency, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg are exchanging gag gifts full of budget symbolism.

Last week, after Schwarzenegger called the Senate budget plans "hallucinatory," Steinberg sent the guv a basket of garden-variety mushrooms and a note about the fungus' magical effects. Schwarzenegger returned the favor, giving Steinberg a metal sculpture of bull testicles with a note suggesting the Sacto Dem would have to grow a pair to make tough budget decisions, according to sources. There are conflicting reports on the size of the gift. Comparisons range from football (AP) to melon (LA Times). What kind of melon, the Times did not specify, but it's safe to say the sculpture was large enough.



Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said,

"We've got more important things on our plate right now than to waste any more time on such trivial matters."

Indeed, the Legislature needs to focus on more pressing issues such as the font size on health workers' name tags (bill courtesy of Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward) and pomegranate juice.


How pure is pomegranate juice? Lawmakers want to know.

While the guv contemplates leaving a whoopie cushion on Ma's seat, some lawmakers are attempting to ease the state's financial pain. Sen. Patricia Wiggins, the Santa Rosa Dem of YouTube fame, said she would reduce her pay by 5 percent. She will also give up her state-financed car, which costs the state $4,200 per year, her state-issued gasoline credit card, and reduce her per diem pay by 20 percent. The announcement comes days after Steinberg called on colleagues to voluntarily cut their pay. Senators Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro; Carol Liu, D-La Canada-Flintridge; and Palm Desert Republican John Benoit also vowed to take pay cuts. Other senators have already taken pay cuts or have turned down raises.

Santa Rosa Dem. Noreen Evans believes the anger over salaries is misdirected. She told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:


"It's legislator bashing. Certainly we're a good whipping boy, but it's a distraction from the real work at hand."

So, what exactly are the expenses of our whipping boys? The Chronicle's Matier & Ross examined the Legislature's operating budget for 2007-2008. Here's what they found:

-- 40 senators and staff: $107 million.
-- 80 Assembly members and staff: $145 million.
-- Average lawmakers' salaries: $116,208 a year.
-- Perks for lawmakers: car allowance, free gas and living stipend for non-Sacramento residents. (Read the story )

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said pay cuts may not make a huge difference, but they send an important message to the fine people of California:


"The savings will be modest at best, but there is power in the symbol. Voters are hurting right now. They're angry and confused. For them to see legislators impacted by the crisis will provide some benefit."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sca ... y_id=42022

Governor’s Policies Threat Termination of California

By Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa),
Chair of the Budget Conference Committee
(Originally posted on Evans’ budget blog at http://californiabudget.blogspot.com/

Changing the subject never makes the real problem go away. Unfortunately for California, the governor has reduced our fiscal crisis to a theater of the absurd. If the governor doesn’t change course, it’s the people who will lose.

At any moment, I am convinced that the voice of Rod Serling will announce that the State of California is caught “in the Twilight Zone.â€

Calif. looks to immigrant inmates to save costs


By DON THOMPSON – 7 hours ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With California slipping into a financial sinkhole, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to save more than $180 million by cutting short the sentences of thousands of immigrants in the state's prisons and turning them over to federal authorities for deportation.

The idea faces certain hurdles — for one thing, commuting some sentences will require court approval — and immigration authorities warn that a mass release of inmates from California and other states could swamp the federal system, which is already at capacity.

But Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said: "Every dollar not spent to house an undocumented immigrant inmate is a dollar that can be spent on health care services and education and other important programs to Californians. These inmates are the federal government's responsibility and California taxpayers shouldn't be paying the bill."

In recent years, other states have struck agreements with federal authorities to deport some inmates before their sentences were up, but those releases were done on a much smaller scale than what California is proposing.

The state's plan would involve as many as 19,000 inmates. Those among them who committed sex offenses or violent crimes would not be eligible for early release, Page said Friday.

Nearly 65,000 immigrants — most of them in the U.S. illegally — are serving time in the U.S. for state crimes.

Once immigrants have done their time in state prison, the federal government takes custody of most of them and begins deportation proceedings against them, either because they are illegal immigrants or because they committed crimes while in the U.S. legally.

The government reimburses states for some of the expenses involved in imprisoning immigrants, but states say the money is not nearly enough to cover their costs.

Schwarzenegger is proposing to commute the sentences of thousands of immigrants and transfer them to federal custody over the next 12 months to help close a state budget gap projected at more than $24 billion.

The savings would be a pittance for California — just $182 million if all 19,000 inmates now being held for immigration authorities were released — but Schwarzenegger is looking to save every dime he can. He already has proposed eliminating health care for poor children.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the 33,000 federal detention cells across the country already are full, and immigration judges could be overloaded if the number of deportation cases balloons.

California Corrections spokesman Seth Unger said that to avoid overwhelming the federal system, the state would keep its inmates behind bars until their deportation hearings were over and their appeals exhausted. In that way, they could be deported almost immediately after being turned over to federal authorities.

Since more than 70 percent of California's immigrant inmates are from Mexico, deporting them would typically involve putting them on a bus.

Officials in other states, including Oregon and Washington, are considering similar moves.

"The fiscal realities that Florida and California and other states are facing will probably put great pressure on trying to reduce the prison population," said Michael Ramage, general counsel for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "Why should the state be saddled with the expense of having to provide a place for these people to be incarcerated while they wait to be deported?"

Most of these released inmates are unlikely to serve additional time once they are home. That is one reason governors of some states are not about to follow Schwarzenegger's example.

"That's just not happening here in Texas," said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Officials with the Mexican consulate in Sacramento expressed concern that thousands of ex-convicts could be deported to Mexico.

"In the event that this happens, we will make sure that it takes place in an orderly and safe manner, and that the rights of all deportees, regardless of their migratory status, are observed and respected unconditionally," Consul General Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez said.

Schwarzenegger can single-handedly commute the sentences of 3,200 of them who were convicted of nonviolent, non-sexual offenses. Releasing more serious and repeat offenders early requires approval from the state Supreme Court.

For weeks, the Schwarzenegger administration left open the possibility that violent and sex offenders could be released too. But on Friday, in response to inquiries from The Associated Press, Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman said the governor has ruled that out.

Schwarzenegger's proposal was prompted in part by President Barack Obama's May budget proposal to end the $400 million program that pays states and counties for holding illegal immigrants behind bars — a program that California officials say reimburses only about 12 percent of the state's costs.

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said the Obama administration wants to divert the money to border security and immigration enforcement.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... QD98TT3MG0

December 5, 2004



Cost of illegal immigration in California estimated at nearly $9 billion

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer |

Sunday, December 5, 2004 9:22 PM PST

California's nearly 3 million illegal immigrants cost taxpayers nearly $9 billion each year, according to a new report released last week by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes stricter immigration policies.

Educating the children of illegal immigrants is the largest cost, estimated at $7.7 billion each year, according to the report. Medical care for illegal immigrants and incarceration of those who have committed crimes are the next two largest expenses measured in the study, the author said.

Pro-immigrant groups and Latino researchers dispute the federation's findings, calling them biased and incomplete.

Jack Martin, who wrote the report, said Thursday that the $9 billion figure does not include other expenses that are difficult to measure, such as special English instruction, school lunch programs, and welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal immigrant workers.

"It's a bottom of the range number," Martin said.

The federation is one of the nation's leading lobbying groups aimed at curbing immigration into the country.

Authors of the report say it culls information from the U.S. Census and other studies addressing the cost of illegal immigration into the country to draw its conclusions.

Gerardo Gonzalez, director of Cal State San Marcos' National Latino Research Center, which compiles data on Latinos, criticized the report. He said it does not measure some of the contributions that immigrants make to the state's economy.

"Beyond taxes, these workers' production and spending contribute to California's economy, especially the agricultural sector," Gonzalez said.

Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are the backbone of the state's nearly $28 billion-a-year agricultural industry, Gonzalez and other researchers say.

More than two-thirds of the estimated 340,000 agriculture workers in California are noncitizens, most of whom are believed to be illegal immigrants, according to a 1998 study on farmworkers prepared for the state Legislature.

Local farmers say migrant farmworkers are critical to their businesses, and without them they would have to close their farms or move their operations overseas.

Martin disagrees. He said illegal immigrants displace American workers by taking low-skilled jobs, keep wages low by creating an overabundance of workers and stifle innovation by reducing the need for mechanized labor.

"The product of the illegal immigrant is not included (in the report) because if that is an essential product it will get done one way or another," Martin said. Employers "would have to pay better wages or invest money on mechanization."

Martin's study looks specifically at the costs of educating illegal immigrants' children, providing medical care to illegal immigrants and jailing those convicted of committing crimes. The report estimates the total cost at $10.5 billion each year, but that is offset by about $1.7 billion in taxes that illegal immigrants pay.

The study assumes that there are about 1 million children of illegal immigrant parents in California, or about 15 percent of the state's K-12 school enrolled population. The estimate is based on a 1994 study by the Urban Institute that concluded there were 307,000 illegal immigrant children enrolled in the state's public schools.

Martin also added an estimate of 597,000 U.S.-born children whose parents are illegal immigrants arriving at a total of 1,022,000 children. Multiplying the number of children by the estimated $7,577 the state spends on average per pupil, the study arrived at the $7.7 billion figure.

Including the number of U.S.-born children in the study is one of the reasons pro-immigrant groups said the study is biased.

"I think FAIR is without doubt an extremist organization that tries to portray itself as a mainstream group," said Christian Ramirez, director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, an advocate group for legal and illegal immigrants.

The study's author defended the report, saying that the children were born in the United States as a result of their parents' illegal entry into the country.

"In no way does the report identify them as different kinds of citizens, because they would not have been born in the U.S. had their parents not come into the country illegally," Martin said.

To arrive at the cost of providing health care to illegal immigrants, the federation's study used an earlier 2000 analysis of health expenses paid by border counties that concluded the state spent $908 million on medical care for immigrants.

Martin said he adjusted the 2000 figure for increases in the population and inflation on the cost of providing health care and estimated that the state will spend about $1.4 billion in 2004.

The report also estimated that the state will spend another $1.4 billion to jail the 48,000 illegal immigrants in state prisons. California is compensated by the federal government to offset the cost of housing this population, but the federal payments were a fraction, about $111 million, of the total cost, Martin said.

To figure out the contributions that this immigrant population makes in taxes, the federation's study said it adjusted the Urban Institute's study estimates of $732 million for population increases and concluded that they contribute about $1.7 billion in sales, income and property taxes.

A similar study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., and released in August, said that illegal immigrants cost the federal government $10 billion more than they pay in taxes.

The federal government pays about $2.2 billion in medical treatment for uninsured immigrants, according to the report. It pays $1.9 billion in food assistance programs, such as food stamps and school lunches, for low-income families. And it pays $1.4 billion in aid to schools that educate illegal immigrant children.

Martin said states bear most of the cost of illegal immigration.

"State costs are much higher on a per capita basis because of the fact that the largest expenses are medical care and education and those are borne at the local level, not the federal," Martin said.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/12 ... 2_5_04.txt

Shwanzanewbler is the one who needs to grow a pair and admit it IS the Illegals that are driving the state bankrupt, and in many ways. least of which is they are chasing the Californians who did pay taxes, away...Oh and then there are the multitude of other costs of illegals Mr Guv...

I thought he had ballz himself but he turned out to be a gutless puke, turning on the citizens to cover for illegal invaders..

Originally Posted by Tbow009

Shwanzanewbler is the one who needs to grow a pair and admit it IS the Illegals that are driving the state bankrupt, and in many ways. least of which is they are chasing the Californians who did pay taxes, away...Oh and then there are the multitude of other costs of illegals Mr Guv...

I thought he had ballz himself but he turned out to be a gutless puke, turning on the citizens to cover for illegal invaders..

I think he does not want to admit that illegals are the problem because he could have done something about it long ago but he did not. It is a major reason we are so broke....and much of it is his fault

Indeed, the Legislature needs to focus on more pressing issues such as the font size on health workers' name tags (bill courtesy of Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward)

Hope they can resolve that one. Maybe they need to form a Font Size Subcommittee, or Task Force, or appoint a Font Czar, and then have lots of meetings and discussions about the pros and cons of various font sizes.

OMG - Califormexico Legislature: Get a clue!!! Your state is imploding!!!

"Every dollar not spent to house an undocumented immigrant inmate is a dollar that can be spent on health care services and education and other important programs to Californians.

Every dollar not spent to house an undocumented immigrant inmate is a dollar that can be spent on health care services and education and other important programs to Californians AND NON-CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!!!!