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

Yesterday, the voters sent a strong message to the California Governor and Legislature – enough is enough! Taxpayers have done their part and will continue to pay their fair share of taxes to the California treasury. After all, California taxpayers pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. Now it's the time for politicians to give taxpayers something in return: Like topnotch, efficient services and the best value for their tax dollars. We must stop wasteful spending, end programs that don’t work and adjust spending to the revenue stream – that’s what hard working Californians do in their household and business budgets and that’s how their state government should operate.

Taxpayers are willing to pay for education, but they don’t want to pay for increased spending in public school, which has ballooned more than $11 billion in the last six years despite a declined enrollment of 75,000 students. Especially when test scores and drop-out rates have remained stagnant and these problems continue to go unaddressed.

Californians want improved infrastructure, but they are sick and tired of paying for the construction of overpriced government buildings by public enterprises, weighed down in bureaucracy, when the same building costs 30 percent less at the hands of private builders.

Finally, while taxpayers don’t mind paying for an efficient state prison system, they are fed up with paying for one that oversees a failed parole program and as a result, is sending more people back to prison on minor offenses than prosecutors are sending from new arrests and convictions.

Taxpayers want value for their tax dollars just like they want value for their groceries, vehicles, clothing and other consumer purchases.

This means Sacramento must start delivering money to our public schools more efficiently. Let's begin by sending more dollars to classrooms and cut middle managers and bureaucracy. Sacramento must cut public benefits to illegal immigrants, and finally they must make sure public employee wages and benefits match up with the private sector. Thousands of state workers receive more than $100,000 in annual public pensions while private sector employees see their own 401(k) and other retirement plans disintegrate. This is an outrageous state of affairs and one that needs to be brought back into balance quickly.

In 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger commissioned the California Performance Review, which thoroughly analyzed state government and detailed up to $20 billion in specific recommendations to dramatically cut state government. After much fanfare and chest-pounding, the report was completely ignored. It must be dusted off and its provisions adopted to give taxpayers what they deserve.

The question is: will Sacramento listen? That’s a question that remains unanswered as special interests continue to promote their unique needs first and, as usual, fight to maintain the status quo while taxpayers are expected to continue paying the price for inefficient government budgeting.

Truly, California’s financial downturn might be seen as an opportunity to overhaul California’s long-standing practice of embracing poor fiscal management to cater to power brokers and radical special interest groups.

Instead, our dire situation should cause Legislative leadership and the Governor to return steadfastly to the practice of upholding the needs of every-day citizens as the number one priority in the budget debates.

A more efficient state government might arise from this crisis if we roll up our sleeves; engage in non-partisan talks about the realistic behavioral changes California government must make if the Golden State is to become governable once again.