(Sacramento) – Assemblymember Norma Torres (D-Pomona), responding to Governor Brown’s budget proposal, says she’s pleased with some parts of the Governor’s budget proposal, specifically his decision not to propose cuts to K-12 education and public safety. In this Assembly Access video Assemblymember Torres also says she’s glad the Governor did not include accounting gimmicks in his budget proposal to deal with the state’s budget deficit.

For the voters who value equality where each Californian deserves equal rights regardless of sexual orientation they will find out that Republicans will put forth a wrecking crew ready to take down anti-discrimination laws, school safety regulation and partnership registration laws.

Yes, we do need to bring forth the private sector jobs to make California a successful place. However we need to make sure that personal and economic freedom is both respected. If we want the recovery it will take two to make it work and make it where we do not have to suffer in the name of recovery.

For California Republicans, the 2/3rds requirement is sacred like mom and apple pie and for a Republican to even consider the idea of supporting the repeal for the 2/3rds rule would sound blasphemous, but there is a sane argument for the the repeal for the 2/3rds rule in California government.

For the Democratic Party it will give them a chance for them to own their legislation, no need to pry Assemblyman Adams or any other gullible termed out Republican legislator to reach the magic 2/3rds number to pass their economy destroying tax increases and enlargement of government. The Democratic Party would be solely in charge of their fiscal legislation and that would be beneficial to the Republicans because naturally their policies do kill off economies and voters will know squarely who to blame in the next election.

For the Republican Party, they will have to learn to fight for the majority where 41 seats in the Assembly and 21 seats in the State Senate will give them the inspiration to be a governing party, not just a party just only satisfied in getting their 27 seats in the Assembly or 14 seats in the State Senate. Republicans would have to build a bigger tent in order to get their majority status and expand the political party so they could actually govern. Republicans would need to learn how to go to places that formerly embraced them such as Glendale, Ontario, Pasadena, Torrance and learn to make a new collation to help provide a majority for the party.

We need to go through the sacred cows of Sacramento and make changes as soon as possible, figure out how to be law and order without sending masses to our prisons. End the death penalty even though many of us including myself would like to send the death row all off to be executed. Reduce our state public pension liabilities so we do not have future crisis in the future in covering them. Eliminate regulations that cripple our economy such as AB 32 [2006] would also be a start.

Democratic leaders want to gather new revenue, but we also have to make sure we run our government in a fiscally responsible matter. Just like the farmers in the Central Valley we have to make priorities with finite resources. Republicans think we have endless water, and Democrats believe we have endless money, but we don’t.

The 2/3rds requirement has done little to help prevent the growth in government in California. Maybe with accountability we will have real political change in California.  In the next budget cycle we are expected to have another nasty budget deficit of 21 billion dollars all over again, Democratic Party legislators will call for an answer of tax increases, but if they were held accountable for their legislation they would know they would need to do it right else they will be fired in the next term.

The solution for our education problem is to mandate that 70% of our education funds go actually into the classroom or the school the student belongs to. Also, we should tell parents that teachers are not the total end-all for student achievement, but parents are also part of the equation for student success. Teachers can only do so much for student achievement, but a student’s desire for learning is also influential in how a student achieves.

It is cultural fact of life that those demographics that encourage achievement and success will make it to the top. We just have to make it where we can spread the culture to all ethnic groups and income levels.