For our state, a time for statesmanship

Construction was halted in February on the Valley Performing Arts Center.

After decades of dreaming and planning, girders now rise from the dirt on the campus of Cal State Northridge—the steel bones of what promises to be the region’s next cultural landmark, the Valley Performing Arts Center.

But these days, the construction site is infuriatingly quiet—a quiet that speaks loudly to the inexcusable failure of the state of California to pass a budget and close a $42-billion deficit. Last month, to save money, the department of finance halted all bond-funded construction, including the Valley Performing Arts Center.

The project’s price-tag is now certain to soar because of a delay expected to last at least three-months. But worse, 150 construction workers are suddenly jobless. Their households have seen a recession turn into a depression. Who knows what struggles await them in these worst of economic times.

From one end of the state to the other, the budget deadlock is stealing jobs and threatening scores of projects and programs—from transportation improvements to neighborhood health clinics—as Sacramento finds it easier to get to “no” than to “yes.”

While the President and Congress are trying to jump start the economy, our state has become the home of the anti-stimulus, reducing employment, deferring payments of various sorts and generally constricting the flow of money into our state economy. California’s credit rating is now dead last in the nation, making money even harder and more costly to come by. The dollars we’re unnecessarily spending on debt service could be used to strengthen our schools and services.

By allowing the state’s deficit to balloon during the protracted budget negotiations, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot—and hit an artery. And the longer the stalemate continues, the more extreme the remedies, potentially ripping holes in vital safety-net services for the poor.

Ironically, the state now is looking for a bailout from hard-pressed local governments, who’ve seen their revenues from property taxes evaporate as home sales plunge and foreclosures rise. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, has been asked to pony up millions to cover state costs for transit projects that otherwise might not get built.

Even worse, Sacramento has asked California’s counties to absorb the cost of state-mandated social programs that cost tens of millions of dollars each month. In short order, we’d be out of cash to provide police and emergency services in the event of a natural disaster. Even if we could agree to underwrite state programs, odds are it would be a long time (if ever) before we’d see a dime repaid.

The moment has long come to put political differences aside. The consequences of this endless intransigence are harmful to every man, woman and child in this state-even more so for the most vulnerable among us. Lives and livelihoods are at stake.

It’s time for all of us to act like statesmen for a change.

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