California budget tops discussion, followed by transportation, homelessness, affordable housing

Por Antonio Rey | Editor SDUN

Joined by San Diego Council President Todd Gloria, State Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins highlighted Gov. Jerry Brown’s newly released California budget at The LGBT Center’s Community Coalition Breakfast, held Friday, Jan. 11. The balanced budget includes significant increases in funding for elementary and high schools, community colleges and universities throughout the state.

The pair were invited by The Center CEO Delores Jacobs as a way to discuss the upcoming legislative sessions for the Assembly and Council, giving an opportunity for community members to speak with and ask questions to the politicians.
Calling Atkins and Gloria “great heroes” and leaders in both the San Diego and LGBT communities, Jacobs introduced Atkins first, who said she was excited by the Governor’s budget. It was released Jan. 10.

“For the first time in almost a decade, and I have to thank the voters of California for this,” Atkins said, “we have a budget that starts out balanced, that restores money to the colleges and universities, to the communities colleges, and [to] K-12.”

Atkins, who was recently selected as the Assembly’s majority leader, also serves on the Joint Legislature Audit Committee, and was previously San Diego’s first Budget Committee chair, when she served on the Council in 2005.

“What you’re going to see in this budget is that we’ve made promise to the voters in California and to Californians to restore education funding, but we did it because you stood with us and you supported Proposition 30, and I want to thank you for that,” Atkins said. “As economists around the world will tell you, the quickest way to grow your economy is to invest in your people, invest in your students [and] invest in your kids.”

Proposition 30 was the 2012 voter-approved sales and property tax increase. Related to the new tax, Atkins said highlights of the funding increases include $300 million for community colleges, $250 million for the University of California system, $250 million for the California State University system and $2.7 billion for K-12 schools.

“That’s huge. We also know there are many other places in the budget where we have a lot of work to do,” Atkins said. She and the assembly will now work through Brown’s proposal to help finalize the state budget.

Atkins also said the assembly would soon implement a special session on health care and how to implement the Affordable Care Act, which will provide coverage for an additional 3 million Californians.

“We are seeing a huge sea change in how we’re going to provide health care, because we are supportive and want to implement the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “We need to be thoughtful.”

Both the Assembly and the Senate will have a Democrat supermajority, and Atkins and Gloria, both Democrats, said the responsibilities for the party are greater.

“As Todd [Gloria] will tell you, when you have the majority it actually becomes harder, because then you have to govern with responsibility. You can’t do crazy things,” Atkins said.

The City Council currently sits at a four-four, Democrat-Republican split, after former-Councilmember Tony Young stepped down leaving the district four seat vacant. A special election will be held to fill the seat March 26.

“I’m looking forward to having a strong Democratic majority,” Gloria said. “It is my desire and my strong belief that we should be able to hold onto this forever. We are a Democratic city now.” Mayor Bob Filner, also a Democrat, is the first from the political party to hold his position since 1992.

“With that power comes responsibility and I think that requires us not to over reach,” Gloria said, “but to show that we can run the city in a responsible manner … and one that shows our progressive values as well.”

Gloria also commented on the proposed State budget, saying, “When the State does well, the City does well.” However, he also then highlighted several “land mines” that would affect the City’s budget, including military and social service cuts at the federal level as well as last year’s Proposition B.

“The voter-approved Proposition B, which was presented to the voters as pension reform [and] as something that would reduce our pension bill,” Gloria said, “has increased [the pension bill] by $27 million. … That’s $27 million I do not have to put to your libraries and to your rec[reation] centers.”

In addition to now serving as Council president, Gloria will remain Budget Committee chair, and told the crowd he hoped to focus the Council’s energy on infrastructure by creating a similar committee focused on repairing roads and restoring services.

“As the Council president, one of the powers that I have is to form a committee system [and] one thing I didn’t want to waste time on … was the creation of the Infrastructure Committee. Like the budget, if it’s not a focus of the council, it will not get done,” he said.

“Now is the time to start restoring major services in a fiscally responsible manner, so that we can show the public that
all these reforms that we put in place are not being done just to benefit the city, but to really benefit our neighborhoods,” Gloria said.

While the community meeting primarily focused on financial and budgetary issues, the two elected officials also discussed the Balboa Park Centennial, undergrounding in the City and homelessness.

During the question and answer period, community members asked about affordable housing, public transportation, transit and the airport, pedestrian safety, and health insurance rates. Helping individuals who are homeless was repeatedly brought up.

“There are so many issues where I think our progressive values do a better job than they have been doing, and I look forward to that opportunity,” Gloria said.