One of California's most powerful union groups is spending $1 million in a television advertising blitz to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to solve the state's budget crisis with both spending cuts and new taxes.
The ad, airing starting today in the Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego media markets, essentially challenges Schwarzenegger's claim that voters who rejected the May 19 special election budget reform initiatives were casting votes against new taxes.
The SEIU, which numbers 700,000 members in California, including in-home health care workers and others who stand to lose under proposed state budget cuts, waged an aggressive campaign against Proposition 1A, the centerpiece of the special election initiatives. While Prop 1A would have triggered $16 billion in extended tax hikes, the union charged that spending restrictions in the measure would threaten vital services in California over the long term. The SEIU supported the unsuccessful Prop 1C, which would have allowed the state to borrow $4 billion against future proceeds of a revamped state lottery. SEIU Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers, was neutral on Prop 1A.
In a news conference to announce the commercial, called "Common Sense," SEIU executive vice president Eliseo Medina said California's budget crisis threatens cuts in critical state programs and harm to the state's most vulnerable residents if new taxes aren't considered.
The ad flashes images of Schwarzenegger along with oil derricks, cigarettes and liquor - which the SEIU argues are appropriate targets for taxation to help resolve California's $42 billion deficit.
Calling for balancing spending cuts with new taxes, the ad warns: "The politicians propose cuts that hit families with no sacrifice from the special interests. It means a million kids will lose health care. Hundreds of thousands denied college. Seniors forced into nursing homes."
Schwarzenegger, in a budget address June 2 to the Legislature said the "measure was clear" in voters' rejection of the special election initiatives: "Do your job. Don't come to us with these complex issues. Live within your means. Get rid of the waste and inefficiencies. And don't raise taxes."
But Medina said, "With all due respect to the governor, I think he is wrong.
"People were not voting to have the governor go out and whack seniors, poor people and people with disabilities," Medina said of the election results. "What they are saying is they want a balanced approach. He (Schwarzenegger) is going on a very lopsided approach that is based on cuts."
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