Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, takes over as state Senate leader after the current session ends. The Bee talked with him about the budget and taxes.
Q: Why would the Democrats roll out a tax plan that they knew ahead of time the Republicans wouldn't vote for?
A: There's actually some consensus that has developed over the past several years. It's clear from even the way the Republicans are acting in the budget negotiations, there is a common recognition that we cannot cut our way out of this problem. The Republicans aren't putting $15 billion of cuts on the table, for good reason. … That would implicate the department of corrections and law enforcement, public education, transportation, a whole host of other policy areas that are not necessarily partisan in nature, so now the debate is framed very clearly.
Q: Are the Democrats concerned that the increase in taxes would have a negative effect on business retention in California?
A: I think the Democrats are approaching the tax question in an intelligent way. Look at the upper-income tax. This was a tax that (Pete) Wilson, a Republican governor, pushed through. I know the claim is made that wealthy earners would leave California, but that belies the facts. I did Proposition 63, the mental health initiative, which was just a surtax on earnings over $1 million, and there hasn't been some great flight out of the state. … People choose to live in California for a lot of good reasons, and ensuring that we have the resources to properly invest in education and health care and an infrastructure, I think, is more important to the business community.
Q: Does the state of California have a revenue problem or a spending problem?
A: That's a question that is always asked in the political context, and I believe we have a revenue problem. … The governor went through the stage of blowing up the boxes … he didn't find a lot of the waste, fraud and abuse. We have a very complex state, with a growing population and with significant unmet need, and so I think we have both a revenue problem, and we have a major structural problem. … We're misaligned, for example. Local government has significant responsibility to provide services and little authority over the revenue side of the equation.
Q: Many of your constituents are state employees. What do you tell them when they ask why the budget is always so late?
A: I tell them that as Democrats we're not going to settle on a budget that hurts the very people we were elected to serve.
Q: Why is it that the state always seems each year to spend more money than it takes in?
A: The system of public finance that we have in California is not keeping up with the public demand for public education, for more and better quality transportation, for improved access to health care, and for first-rate local government public safety and other services.
Call Daniel Zarchy, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1203.
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