Swanson, Other Assembly Members Meet with Public
More than 200 parents, teachers, public officials, and other community members showed up this morning to hear Assembly Members Sandre Swanson, Loni Hancock, Mary Hyashi, and John Laird discuss the governor’s proposed budget and what can be done about it.
All four assembly members advocated turning up what Swanson referred to as “street heat”–e.g., by calling, writing, and protesting the legislature. “Silence is consent,” said Loni Hancock, the Democratic sssembly member from the East Bay. “You need to let us know you care.”
But all four also noted that because Democrats are in the minority in the Legislature, it is difficult to get bills passed that would benefit schools, health care, the environment, and other progressive causes.
Bills that the Democrats have attempted to pass have included efforts to tax the profits of oil companies (California is the only oil-producing state that doesn’t do so), increase taxes on the richest residents in the state by 1 percent, and eliminating the loophole which allows buyers of yachts to avoid paying sales tax.
All have failed.
The representatives also noted that they are fully aware that AUSD doesn’t get as much per student as other Bay Area districts do and that, like all other districts in the state, AUSD is mandated to provide programs that the state will not fund. “We understand that,” Swanson said, “and we are committed to working on it.” Added Hancock, “We know that school finance is broken in this state. We need to lay the whole thing on the table and get it right.”
Swanson noted that this year’s budget crisis is “an opportunity to redefine the direction of the state. We need to decide what our priorities are and fund from there.”
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