With an eye toward similar potential disaster in Contra Costa County, some wonder if it’s even possible to void such contracts. One observer opined that pro-union Democrat legislators have helped install safeguards against such
action, while another informed source quoted the California League of Cities, saying it was possible.

Meanwhile, an Open Letter that appeared in a recent edition
of Police Pay Journal, defends firefighters and police against poor municipal management and bad PR.

According to far flung reports around the world, “Fearful of contagion, municipal officials across the US are looking with nervousness at the precedent-setting experience of Vallejo, a city of about 120,000 people, 30 miles north of San Francisco. in a region that was once synonymous with economic prosperity”.

Indeed, Vallejo’s motto was and may yet be,”City of Opportunity.”

Here are some excerpts from the article:

The Census Bureau report strongly refutes the oft-cited “fact” that California is near the bottom in per-pupil school spending. The national average was $9,138 in 2005-06. California was at $8,486, with New York the highest at $14,884 and Utah the lowest at $5,437 – one of 22 states, in fact, that fell below California’s level.

In terms of school revenues, California was 25th among the states at $10,264 per pupil, just under the national average. It was above average in per-pupil income from federal and state sources and about $1,700 per pupil below average in local revenues, thanks to Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax limit measure.

Overall, therefore, California isn’t nearly as deficient in school financing as the education establishment would have us believe. But neither is it wasting money on administrative overkill, as critics on the right contend. Its per-pupil spending on non-instructional “support services” was in fact, slightly below the national average at $3,050, although the sub-categories of overall and school site administration were a bit above average.

“The Legislature must respond to the Governor’s call to rein in spending. The State of California must take a hard look at its spending priorities and its funding obligations. Retiree pension and health care costs and our water storage and delivery infrastructure are only two of many unavoidable needs that must be addressed. The debate over how to resolve these issues will dominate this year’s agenda.”

“I agree with the Governor that our “boom or bust” budgeting has to stop. If we can put a process in place to help smooth out the peaks and the valleys of our spending, then we will be in much better shape during the difficult years.”

In an interview with Halfway to Concord, Houston characterized the Governor’s speech as typically flowery and positive, but was in essence, an “I told you so speech,” that portends a third attempt by the Governor to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment that the Legislature, dominated by Democrats, has twice soundly rejected.

Clearly, “the Governor is the only adult in the room,” said Houston, who represents Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties. “We can’t sustain automatic spending increases built into legislation favored by the Democrats.”

Houston explained Gov. Schwarzenegger’s call for 10-percent across-the-board spending cuts as the only solution to out of control spending where the “obligations and formulas cannot work or be sustained except in ‘boom times.’”

Houston explained that the Governor will present his new budget proposal later this week and the only exceptions to his spending cuts would be in areas where federal funding requires some matching monies. Protections for public school funding would remain in effect as, though actual dollars may decrease, the percentage of the overall funding would not change per Prop 98 requirement.

When asked why it is that when faced with a $14-billion dollar deficit, Democrats complain that Republicans should compromise and raise taxes instead of Democrats reducing spending themselves, Houston laughed, “Democrats in the Legislature now have nowhere else to go. They can no longer steal funds from local government, our schools, or transportation. They will finally have to address the structural deficit they created.”