![\"Atkins,](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/web-IMG_0786-300x184.jpg\" "\\"web")
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.
\nCalling Atkins and Gloria \u201cgreat heroes\u201d and leaders in both the San Diego and LGBT communities, Jacobs introduced Atkins first, who said she was excited by the Governor\u2019s budget. It was released Jan. 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in almost a decade, and I have to thank the voters of California for this,\u201d Atkins said, \u201cwe have a budget that starts out balanced, that restores money to the colleges and universities, to the communities colleges, and [to] K-12.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkins, who was recently selected as the Assembly\u2019s majority leader, also serves on the Joint Legislature Audit Committee, and was previously San Diego\u2019s first Budget Committee chair, when she served on the Council in 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re going to see in this budget is that we\u2019ve 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,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s huge. We also know there are many other places in the budget where we have a lot of work to do,\u201d Atkins said. She and the assembly will now work through Brown\u2019s proposal to help finalize the state budget.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a huge sea change in how we\u2019re going to provide health care, because we are supportive and want to implement the Affordable Care Act,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to be thoughtful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Todd [Gloria] will tell you, when you have the majority it actually becomes harder, because then you have to govern with responsibility. You can\u2019t do crazy things,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to having a strong Democratic majority,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cIt is my desire and my strong belief that we should be able to hold onto this forever. We are a Democratic city now.\u201d Mayor Bob Filner, also a Democrat, is the first from the political party to hold his position since 1992.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that power comes responsibility and I think that requires us not to over reach,\u201d Gloria said, \u201cbut to show that we can run the city in a responsible manner \u2026 and one that shows our progressive values as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gloria also commented on the proposed State budget, saying, \u201cWhen the State does well, the City does well.\u201d However, he also then highlighted several \u201cland mines\u201d that would affect the City\u2019s budget, including military and social service cuts at the federal level as well as last year\u2019s Proposition B.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe voter-approved Proposition B, which was presented to the voters as pension reform [and] as something that would reduce our pension bill,\u201d Gloria said, \u201chas increased [the pension bill] by $27 million. \u2026 That\u2019s $27 million I do not have to put to your libraries and to your rec[reation] centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to now serving as Council president, Gloria will remain Budget Committee chair, and told the crowd he hoped to focus the Council\u2019s energy on infrastructure by creating a similar committee focused on repairing roads and restoring services.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Council president, one of the powers that I have is to form a committee system [and] one thing I didn\u2019t want to waste time on \u2026 was the creation of the Infrastructure Committee. Like the budget, if it\u2019s not a focus of the council, it will not get done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time to start restoring major services in a fiscally responsible manner, so that we can show the public that
\nall these reforms that we put in place are not being done just to benefit the city, but to really benefit our neighborhoods,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
California budget tops discussion, followed by transportation, homelessness, affordable housing By Anthony King | SDUN Editor Joined by San Diego Council President Todd Gloria, State Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins highlighted Gov. Jerry Brown\u2019s newly released California budget at The LGBT Center\u2019s Community Coalition Breakfast, held Friday, Jan. 11.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Atkins, Gloria address new session at Community Breakfast","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}