Partisan

Well, partisan politics are alive and well in our fair state.

(If you are a Republican, I mean you no offense. Seriously. In fact, I need you - I need you to read what I'm about to write and if you live in California, call your State Representative(s) and share this post with them).

It is unfathomable to me how the Republican legislators in our Senate cannot understand this critical thing: you cannot close a FORTY TWO BILLION (that's with a B!!) gap between revenue and expenses by simply cutting expenses. You forced that approach through this time last year - gutted education budgets and other services across the state and managed to make it through THAT fiscal year, albeit barely.

We are now a year later - and as we all know, our economy - of our state AND of our nation - is in far worse shape than we were a year ago. Things are BAD. Hugely bad. It is IMPOSSIBLE to bridge the ever-widening gap between our state's revenue and our state's expenditures by cutting expenses alone. THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO CUT. So the 'compromise' being presented NOW is a combination of reducing expenses and some increases in taxes.

We're not talking zillions of dollars in tax increases. We're talking raising vehicle licensing fees; raising sales tax; raising gasoline tax. Are those painful? Yes, sure. For all of us. Are they dire? Far from it. Admittedly, budgets are tight and certainly, we'd all prefer to not pay more for a gallon of gas. Or more tax on a clothing, etc.

But if the alternative is doing NOTHING, (which is what all of our legislature has been doing regarding our state budget's Armageddon for months now), I'll take taxes.

The Senate is short ONE REPUBLICAN VOTE. Just one. They've already had some Republican Senators cross party lines and vote for the budget that raises these taxes. They need one more. Just one.

It is mind-boggling to me how the party known as Republicans in our State are failing to see the 'big picture'. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. Holy Cow. The Governor is about to send out TWENTY THOUSAND lay off notices to State employees. All construction projects are stopped. That stoppage alone is costing FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. Done, poof, gone - while they spend the night, caucusing over and over and being as stubborn as mules.

These are dangerous times. How do they not see that? How can they be so short-sighted that they don't see that the people they are elected to serve and protect are suffering a long, slow painful slide into oblivion? We are the eighth largest economy IN THE WORLD - just our little state. And yet, we have a legislative process that requires a 2/3 majority to pass a budget - and we can't get enough Republicans to agree.

Even our Governor - himself a Republican - the guy who a year ago forced it to be all about 'cutting expenses' - failing to recognize (at that time) the revenue side of the equation - has turned around and realized that WE CAN'T CLOSE THAT LARGE OF A GAP BETWEEN MONEY IN AND MONEY OUT by only addressing the expense side of the equation. It's just not possible. That gap continues to grow. And it will only get worse as our legislature fails to come to an agreement.

It is the craziest thing I've ever seen. And I'm in the middle of it - I'm waiting to find out how much money my district won't get this year (because the State is taking some of our current revenue back - only they haven't confirmed exactly how much they're taking - and let me tell you, that's pretty frickin' stressful when your district's spending some of the revenue it may not get and you are the person responsible for keeping things in the black - NOT in the red) and next.

So, if you are a Republican in California, think 'big picture'. Yes, we'll pay a bit more on things we all buy, use and need. But we'll have infrastructure. Education. Fewer unemployed people. A chance...to survive what is happening to our nation's and our state's economy. We are sliding further and further into an abyss of unknown proportion.

Please. It just takes one of you to 'do the right thing'. This is not the time to think like a Republican. It's the time to think like a citizen of California. Your constituency - and the rest of us - are counting on you.