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Ok. As of this writing I have over 3,500 Twitter followers. Normally one follows those with more Twitter followers, unless the Twitter account has quality Twitterers following them; that's true for me. I've learned that such a position attracts the larger Twitterers, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has over 200,000 Twitter followers himself. Now, he's following me!
What? You've got issues with him? Hey, it's Ahhhold, baby! Yah know? Of course I followed him back, which means we're Twitter friends. Very cool. A pipeline to California's governor who has a pipeline to this blogger - nothing to sneeze at. It's prized. It doesn't mean I voted for his initiatives in the last election; I didn't. But truth be told I voted for him twice in the California gubenatorial races starting in 2002.
Why?
Because as a Dem, I felt the California Democrats needed a shakeup, an ass kicking; we'd become a bit too arrogant in our power and forgot then that the party serves the people, not the other way around.
For me, the personal last straw came at a fund raiser I went to a few years back when as a certain big time California Senator player in the party walked by me and as I said "Hello Senator. How are you" told me to, ah, blank off, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
Now, I'd never known this person and was just being polite; he walked by at close range. Why he did that, I don't know, and others tell me that's just the way he is. Regardless, I'd had it. That happened to be 2001, the year before the year of the great California recall election. The one that put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor's chair and I was one of the Democrats who crossed the voting aisle to make it happen. I figured his democratic wife Maria Shriver would keep him in check, perfectly in the middle, and I was sort of correct.
Ah, governor, leave education alone! Unlike the Pink Floyd song, we do need an education. But seriously, California's economic growth was fueled by its universities. The guvs objective should be to restore the UC system to 90's levels of public funding as a percentage of total funding. Then, Berkeley received over 65 percent of its budget from the government and it was affordable; not any more. We've got to change that.
The Leader
While Schwarzenegger will not go down as the best governor we've had, he will be considered the best leader we've had. There's an idea that California's ungovernorable anyway; I happen to disagree with the idea, but it's a powerful one. The initiative process is seen as the problem, but it's not. The simple fact is the state doesn't take in enough money because after Prop 13's passage in 1978, lowering property taxes to a uniform one percent state wide, our tax revenue has been chronically low relative to need and that emerged as a problem starting after 1987. That's the fact, jack. The problem's not complicated at all.
First, we need about $30 billion from the federal government. Then, we need a two-tiered property tax system: one for businesses at a higher rate and leave the current level for residential structures.
Arnold's Tweets
Ok. What's our gov tweeting about? Have a look:
- Check out this tool from LATimes: http://bit.ly/L2Bph. It is your chance to make the tough budget decisions. Tell me how you do.
- Met with the treasurer and the controller. We need to act to close this $24 bil deficit by June 15 to avoid running out of cash.
- I love public participation so I want to hear your ideas for solving our budget, no matter how radical. Use #myidea4CA.
- I don't want to cut your CalGrant, @heidi_luvs_jery. I hate these cuts. But we can't spend $ we don't have. I welcome creative solutions.
- FresBee Ed Brd ltr today. Submit q's with sub. line "Governor question" to metro@fresnobee.com. @scoopy559 will be tweeting.
- I just met with the mayors for the big cities to talk about how we can work together with the budget and to hear their ideas.
- http://twitpic.com/6xydi - I just went upstairs to talk to the Senate leadership about the need to so what it takes to come to an agreem ...
- http://twitpic.com/6wycj - At Calabasas High School discussing our first-in-the-nation Digital Textbooks Initiative.
- http://twitpic.com/6r6wd - Entering Charles Drew University's commencement ceremony
- Don't forget to tune in to ask me questions at 10:45. www.sacbee.com/live.
- Great question, @deelynn39, but remember the day has 24 hrs. If I couldn't find 1 hr for fitness, I would feel like a loser.
- Thanks for the kind words, @LuvenRN. I'm proud of the nurse ed initiative - nursing is so important for the future of health care.
- Thanks, @BigJiggity. State payroll is actually only abt 10% of GenFund. Biggest expense is education followed by soc services and prisons.
- You shouldn't have to be a secret agent to find out where your tax dollars go. Contracts, etc to be posted on web: http://tiny.cc/B1Xob
- I joined the team to bring FIFA World Cup soccer to U.S. & CA in 2018 or 2022. Let's bring it back to USA http://bit.ly/GmgkW
- Tomorrow I'll be at the SacBee Ed Brd taking questions from readers about the budget. Join in at 10:45 am at http://www.sacbee.com/live/
- Today I checked out a VW Passat with a hydrogen fuel cell. Zero emissions - I can already imagine it on the Hydrogen Hwy.
- Just addressed a joint session of the Legislature to urge them to work with me to prove the pundits wrong and get California back on track.
- Weekly video response to some more of your questions. Good night - have a fantastic weekend. http://bit.ly/15qcKW
- I answered a lot of your questions about the Hummer yesterday in this video: http://bit.ly/hhvPw
A read of the Guvs Tweets reveals that he wants us to know what he's working on. A good use of Twitter. I much prefer this information to knowing that he's brushing his teeth. What's of greatest importance is he wants to see your solutions for solving California's budget problems, "no matter how radical."
Smart cookie. The guv knew I was gonna blog this information, so he followed me. Not bad.