May 14, 2007

Perata open to selling lottery

Don Perata responds. To paraphrase, the budget screws the poor, has no guiding logic, and postpones the inevitable reckoning. He is not a fan of the lottery and would be fine dumping it on the private sector if there is money to be made and the voters go along. The full text:

“It looks like once again, the most vulnerable Californians are in the free-fire zone. We are not providing cost-of-living-adjustments to those who need it most. We are still trying to take away from people who are trying to live in their homes the opportunity to continue to live in their homes.”

“These people have no one to speak for them and these are the people we are trying to bring from poor to working class to middle class. Now that is a plan.”

“If you look at this budget, there is no rhyme or reason to anything that is being done. I would defy anybody to sit down and plot this out and say this is the fiscal policy of the state of California. It’s not there.”

“Let me just add one thing that goes a little bit beyond the arc of this budget. What is being begged here is the need for us to sit down and change the way California funds programs and captures revenues. I think the governor needs to take this on, or he’s not going to want to serve the last three years of his term.”

“We haven’t had a rational policy in this state since 1978, when we moved away from local control and we put all the money and all the emphasis in Sacramento. . . . The governor ought to lead that charge – a bipartisan effort to rationalize the way Californians contribute their taxes and receive services so we are no longer a sidecar to the federal government, where we just drive up and dump the money to them.”

“Let’s face it, the lottery is like an expanded bake sale. That’s all it is, it’s extra money . . . . I don’t think we should be in that business to begin with. I have no problem getting out of it, but it will not fix a thing. That money is there. If we can earn something off it, fine, let’s look at it as straight up business deal . . . . If it’s going to be there by the will of the people, I think the governor is right, it probably should be put back on the ballot.”

Posted by dweintraub on May 14, 2007 3:30 PM