Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

The Legislature held a budget drill on Tuesday, voting on two proposals - one presented by the Republicans and the other by the Democrats. Both failed (Republican plan: 12-24; Democrat plan: 21-14). So, yes, California is still without a budget.

The Democrats proposal included $4 billion in tax increases and the kind of bookkeeping gimmickry that doesn't address our problems - spending beyond our means and heavy taxation and regulation, which kills jobs and stifles the economy.

The "tax reform" that the Democrats offered actually equals middle class tax hikes - and that's not our definition; that was the definition by the non-partisan Legislative Analysts' Office.

The Republican budget plan was crafted based on conservative projections of California's revenue stream. It was balanced without relying on tax increases and it created a prudent reserve of $900 million. Sure, our budget included difficult spending reductions. But it's no different than the difficult decisions families and businesses are having to make.

Floor speech on budget
One thing to remember, while the state's revenues that go to the General Fund (the "account" which pays for much of the state's day-to-day operations) are down from recent years, the overall spending proposal in the Governor's May Revise is 7 percent larger than the budget two years ago (in terms of total dollars and when you consider the federal and special fund contributions to the state).

The reality is California must get people back to work - that's what will solve our budget problem.

Click here to view my an excerpt of my floor speech.

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Stealthy teacher proves that education dollars should go to classroom, not bureaucracy

Here's an inspiring story about an elementary school teacher who almost single-handedly turned a school's math scores from dismal to great.

Denise Maimone applied logic when she stealthily went into Georgetown Elementary School, located in a remote region of El Dorado County, and rejected the notion that every single 8th grader is somehow magically prepared for algebra, when in fact most aren't. Instead, she parsed out those kids who were ill-prepared for the rigors of higher math and those who had the skills and brought the school's math test scores up by 88 percentage points - the highest, by far, in the state.

As a founder of a private Christian school, I have always supported and protected funding for education. It's really a no-brainer to support the education of our future generation. That being said, I don't think California leaders achieve academic greatness simply by dumping lots of money into the system and hoping for the best. I have always said the quality of our education investment dollar outweighs the quantity - Ms. Maimone is a shining example of my belief.

And she is a model for the rest of the 1,000+ California school districts to follow.