Just one week ago the recall of Governor Davis passed with a significant majority, and Arnold Schwarzenegger received more votes than Governor Davis received to remain in the Governor?s office. What impact will this have on Foster City?s budget and our City services?
To answer that question, we must first look at the immediate impacts, and then make some assumptions on the longer-term impacts. I don?t think there will be an immediate impact on the Foster City Budget because the State Budget for Fiscal Year 2003/04 was signed in September.
The Foster City Budget has already ?shifted? $884,823 of our local revenue to patch up the State Budget. To fully comprehend the word ?shift?, imagine a bank robbery going up to a teller with a gun and saying ?This is a shift! Hand over the money.?
I see one possible additional loss of Foster City revenue ? the Vehicle License Fee. Under existing law, the state owes Foster City $1.1 million in Vehicle License Fees, which is now in jeopardy. If the new Governor is able to reverse the increase in Vehicle License Fees, the present law requires those lost fees to be ?backfilled? from the State?s General Fund. The State General Fund just plain doesn?t have the money available for the required ?backfill?
I believe the long-term impact of the Recall will protect Foster City revenue. Polls show that Californians are even more dissatisfied with the Legislature than they were with the Governor. This compelling new evidence of vulnerability should cause our representatives in the Assembly and Senate to be more attentive to voters? concerns about ?shifts? of local revenue to the state.
To hammer that message home, the League of California Cities is preparing an initiative that would require a simple majority vote of the people before any ?shift? of local revenue can be made in the future. This initiative will amplify the message of the Recall. While it may be difficult to change what has happened in the past, future ?shifts? can be prevented.
The long-term result of the Recall on Foster City, and all California Cities and Counties, will keep local revenue for local purposes. State budgets for the past 10 years have taken local money and returned some of that money to our local government in the form of ?grants? and ?programs? burdened with administrative overhead costs. We never get a dollar back for a dollar sent.
It is ironic that we regularly thank our state and federal representatives for returning our money to us by continuing them in office. I would rather vote for someone who stops taking our money in the first place. That?s what California voters said loud and clear in the Recall Election.
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