GUEST COMMENTARY-In a truly ironic twist, we just had Times columnist George Skelton (who covers Sacramento) and departing Times columnist Jim Newton (who covered many local issues) give, respectively, their recommended fixes for our state and city/county governments.
Which would all be well and good if the problems they now decry hadn't occurred on their watch, and in large part because of their fixed, intransigent "liberal" bias. And while Skelton and Newton probably consider themselves part of the self-righteous answer to our problems, perhaps a healthy dose of humble pie would be a good idea for them because they helped cause our state and local messes.
After all, those two are the ones who kept adhering to policies that ultimately led to a one-party, inbred system that enriched a few while proclaiming to help the little guy ... while a continuing efflux of generational Californians who built this state finally threw up their hands, and either withdrew from civic life or just fled the state into one of the saner states in our nation.
Which means that the rest of us still living here are either too stupid or stubborn to conclude we're beyond repair, or we have more courage and integrity than Skelton or Newton with respect to serious confronting ... and I mean CONFRONTING ... the California problems that threaten to spread like a cancer to the rest of the nation:
1) Perhaps not all Democrats, but THIS group of Democrats running Sacramento and Downtown LA are the puppets of public sector unions--particularly educational unions--that don't give a rip about students, taxpayers and families ... but unions who make damn sure they've got the self-serving volunteers and money to elect their personal favorites. (Photo.)
Governor Brown's attempts to limit-set the state's educational and other unions when he "temporarily" raised taxes to balance the budget? Quietly being placed aside as talk of permanent tax hikes get louder, and dying the sure death that former Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed reforms did when he first became governor, and when he thought he had a voter mandate to reform Sacramento ...
... and before "Benedict Arnold" Schwarzenegger decided if you can't beat 'em, then join 'em. So now Skelton says that Brown needs to stand up to the UC Regents and insatiable public sector unions pushing an unsustainable public pension our state can afford, and Newton recommends containing the influence of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Perhaps Skelton should follow Newton's path and now depart from the biased Times, because neither really backed Schwarzenegger when it counted, and neither really backed Antonio Villaraigosa when he attacked the UTLA. Villaraigosa deservedly lost a lot of voter respect by the end of his mayoral term, but on education he showed some serious guts--and as with Schwarzenegger, he had wholly insufficient support from the press.
A press that, as with Skelton and Newton, would do well to learn how to Connect-the-Dots and recognize how political courage never wins without honest and courageous journalistic support.
2) We just had a slew of Sacramento politicians nailed on corruption charges, and we are in the middle of a host of corrupt and misguided educational projects such as bad iPad deals and Common Core being rammed down the students throats (and their taxpaying families) ... and yet not a courageous word from either Skelton or Newton as to which group of politicians are truly behind this nonsense.
And nary a favorable word as to which end of the political spectrum are most outraged, and have been most outspoken, about the lack of political transparency and honesty in either Sacramento or Downtown Los Angeles.
On his way out, Newton suggests that "two mayors, Riordan and Antonio Villaraigosa, spilled much political blood trying to devise a better system for overseeing schools. They came up short, but they were right." Yet did Newton ever have the temerity and spine to do honest reporting when it really counted, and recognize the historical prediction of that Democratic and American icon, FDR, who originally opposed public sector unions?
Not all unions ... public sector unions! The ones who did exactly what FDR feared, and who take taxpayer money and spend it on campaigns to make sure they get their favorite boys and girls into office. And does Skelton, in his holiday wish list for Sacramento, really take it to the ongoing dysfunctional California Democratic Party system and suggest more political parity to keep things transparent and balanced?
No ... because in Skelton and Newton's world, only Republicans need to be reformed and bipartisan. Which would be fine, if an inbred Democratic world was any better than an inbred Republican world.
Here's a hint for the press--both for those who hold their nose and tolerate Republicans and Independents, or those who obviously hold Republicans and Independents in contempt: stare in the mirror, ask YOURSELF if YOU need to show more impartiality, and Connect the Dots that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" because ALL one-party systems are ripe for corruption and dysfunction.
3) While Skelton makes an excellent point against "Democrats now always bowing to labor and Republicans not consistently cowering before the anti-tax crowd", he doesn't Connect-the-Dots between how the outdated tax system and public pension system he decries, and who's really, REALLY trying to fix it (and ditto for Newton).
And neither of them give credit to a California Republican mantra which should also be one proclaimed by Democratic and Independent leaders, because it's true from a mathematical, not politically partisan perspective:
WE DON'T HAVE A TAX PROBLEM, WE HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM.
Let me translate this for anyone who's willing to drop their obsession with "good guy/bad guy politics" or partisan politics of any sort, and let me translate this to Skelton, Newton, or any other biased self-proclaimed know-it-all from the media who needs to drink a tall glass of "shut your mouth" to wash down that aforementioned, long-overdue piece of humble pie.
I've jokingly referred to "Alpern's Law of Taxes" (which really isn't MY idea, but just common sense that's been extolled by others for centuries, if not millennia): IT'S NOT THE AMOUNT OF TAXES THAT INFURIATES TAXPAYERS, BUT THE PERCEPTION OF HOW THEY'RE BEING SPENT.
When we're fighting the Nazis, or their modern-day equivalents in the Taliban/al-Qaida, we can and should raise taxes to take ownership of our generational struggles. FDR was right to do it in the 1940's, and G.W. Bush was wrong to not do it when he declared a War on Terror. Ditto if taxes are being raised for infrastructural needs SO LONG AS THEY ARE SPENT WELL.
However, pension spiking and allowing public sector workers to retire in their mid-50's while the rest of us have to work until we drop dead of exhaustion. is NOT a prescription for a proper public investment of the taxpaying public as our infrastructure and governmental services crumble and disappear.
So Republicans have and did raise taxes (both Republican and Democratic voter majorities in L.A. County voted to raise sales taxes for transportation Measure R), and they need to do so again under the right circumstances. But shouldn't Democrats get past "blame the Koch Brothers and Bush" to acknowledge that our taxes are too-often being spent poorly?
Do the likes of Skelton and Newton have the spine and moxie to suggest that public sector unions undo the Governor Davis Debacle and start calculating CalPERS and local/city/county investment returns at 4% or less (and have public sector workers pay more into their systems) until they're no longer draining our state and local governmental coffers?
Do the likes of Skelton and Newton have the spine and moxie to suggest that while raising taxes on the rich is politically expedient, raising income and sales taxes on EVERYBODY combined with a moratorium on raising the state and local budgets (if not lowering them by 5-10%) is the best way to make everyone sacrifice together and keep our budgets balanced for the long-term?
Do the likes of Skelton and Newton have the open-mindedness to abandon their never-ending dogma of "end term limits" and listen to the voters who are smart enough to ignore them? After all, the City of Long Beach did show how a popular Mayor (Beverly O'Neill) could retain her office with a write-in vote in a city that also retained general term limits.
(We are the same nation that had its tone set with our first President, George Washington, who many would have gladly been elected king but who proclaimed that he was only one man ... and who voluntarily left office to leave it to others to take on the responsibilities of leading.)
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As for little ol' me, I'm just a dermatologist who's also a local/volunteer civic leader and a transportation advocate in favor of Proper Planning and Good Government--and I'm always happy to be proven wrong.
But as for Skelton and Newton, they're not too smart or too wise to acknowledge they really ARE biased, and really DON'T have all the answers, no matter which closed-minded and "progressive" rag chooses to hire them.
They, like the rest of us, really need to Connect the Dots and acknowledge when bad policies and bad politics are connected in a vicious circle that is self-serving and society-destroying.
Let's hope that 2015 is a turning point when we all (certainly myself included, but especially the wizened columnists at the Times and other media outlets) can reopen our minds and rehash the "truisms" that need to be thrown out like yesterday's news.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] He also does regular commentary on the MarkIsler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 105
Pub: Dec 30, 2014
