Will GOP Senator Abel Maldonado Break the California Budget Stalemate and Sell Out California Taxpayers?
State Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, gestures while calling for more reforms on the state budget plan before the Legislature, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Feb. 16, 2009. Maldonado has been pressured to vote for the spending plan, hammered out between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders
So, what does Senator Maldonado, the reputed stalemate breaking vote really want?
On Monday, Maldonado said he would “take a look at” voting for the budget package if it included financial penalties for future legislators who fail to pass state budgets on time or drive the state into deficit. And Maldonado, who lost a 2006 bid for state controller to a more conservative challenger, said he wants future California primary elections to be “open,” allowing voters to cross party lines to cast a ballot.
Though widely believed to want to run again for statewide office, Maldonado said in an interview: “An open primary is for the people of California, it’s not for me. I don’t want anything in this budget that’s for me. I’m not for sale.”
Yet, Senator Maldonado has made it clear over the weekend what is on his WISH LIST.
The Santa Maria Republican told reporters Monday outside his office that his list of demands includes four things. He wants an open primary system similar to those used by local governments in which the top two vote-getters regardless of party run in the general election. The system is said to favor moderate candidates, such as himself, rather than encourage primary hopefuls to woo voters at their party’s extremes. He acknowledged he plans to run for statewide office, but sold the open primary as more of a “good government reform.”
The open primary change would have to be approved by voters. Maldonado did not specify when he wanted it, but sources said he has asked that it be included on the May special election ballot before Maldonado attempts to run for statewide office next year.
Maldonado wants two items sure to be unpopular with his colleagues. He wants a law passed so the state would stop paying lawmakers if they do not approve the budget on time. He also wants a ban on legislative pay raises and per diem increases in years when California faces a budget deficit. An independent board, the California Citizens Compensation Commission, currently sets legislative pay.
And he threw in one last item: remove the pork spending from the budget package. He didn’t specify what qualified as pork, but leaders already have provided small sweeteners for various members to help win their support, such as $35 million annually for Orange County, where Sen. Lou Correa lives. Maldonado also wants to block state Controller John Chiang from spending $1 million on new office furniture, something Chiang’s office said was approved before Chiang was elected.
Maldonado sounded amenable to only getting part of his wish list, however. “I think government reform is a priority. It could be one, it could be two, at the end of the day, I want government to be reformed.”
It is obvious that the Senator wishes to run for California statewide office and wants his vote breaking the California State Budget Stalemate as a quid pro quo to help facilitate that result. However, what Maldonado does not understand is that by selling out California taxpayers, he will incur their wrath both Republican and Democrat.
The Democrat Leaders and Governor Schswarzenegger have played him the perfect fool. They will blame him as to holding up the proceedings and anything untoward as a result of the passage of the budget they will blame Abel.
So, rather than being an anti-tax hero in the GOP, Maldonado will be played a patsy by the Democrats and end his political career.
Not a smart move, Senator. Not for yourself or the California taxpayers.
In the meantime, California taxpayers can help persuade Senator Maldonado to not support the Big 5 budget deal with its concomitant tax increases. Here is his contact information:
Capitol Office
State Capitol, Room 4082
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4015
Fax: (916) 445-8081
San Jose Office
100 Paseo de San Antonio, #206
San Jose, CA 95113
Phone: (408) 277-9461
Fax: (408) 277-9464
Monterey Office
590 Calle Principal
Monterey, CA 93940
Phone: (831) 657-6315
Fax: (831) 657-6320
San Luis Obispo Office
1356 Marsh Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: (805) 549-3784
Fax: (805) 549-3779
Technorati Tags: Abel Maldonado, California, California State Budget, Arnold Schwarzenegger
4 Comments
Roxan
I have a sent a common-sense list several times to the CA governor but it seems neither he or most of the CA government have common sense and are thoroughly corrupted and do NOT have the legal citizens of this state in mind.
*ILLEGAL ALIENS
Not considering the massive costs they incur through FREE: Births, WIC, etc benefits, schooling (including their COMIDAS GRATIS-breakfasts/lunches), the DREAM Act (with Gil Cedillo also advocating we give them either free school books or greatly watered down prices as well as cheaper in-state college rates) and he relentlessly pushes for drivers’ licenses for illegals. … ? Why is that you don’t care about any of this?
*SCHOOLS (always whining for more money-when they refuse to fix the obvious) (MUST be held Accountable).
1. Evict ALL illegal aliens.
2. No FREE COMIDAS GRATIS
3. No DREAM Act (why should illegal aliens get the cheaper in-state rates) while legal citizens moving to another state get sacked with the higher out-of-state rates?
4. Evict all chapters like MEChA/La Raza, etc that advocate AZTLAN/ANAHUAC.
5. Terminate charter schools like Academia Semillos de los Pueblos {Marcos Aguilar} who also hate the stupid white race and advocate AZTLAN/ANAHUAC
6. Bill the nation of origin for services rendered to illegals.
7. Bill EVERY parent of EVERY non-English-speaking student and make them foot the bill for teaching them the English Language (instead of constantly sticking the bill to the SHEEPLE TAXPAYERS).
*OCTO-MOM {NADYA SULEMAN}
1. Do NOT give her a penny in public monies (she was already on the public dole with at least 3 of her children)
2. Make the participating hospitals/doctors eat the costs of their Irresponsible in-vitro fertilzation and medical care/births and offspring care after birth.
*CHURCHES/NON PROFITS/FOUNDATIONS:
End the tax-exempt status of ALL participating churches, non-profits/foundations who advocate for the ILLEGAL ALIEN CAUSE.
*BUSINESS/CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE/MASONIC LODGES/ROTARY CLUBS/OIL COMPANIES WHO ADVOCATE IRRESPONSIBLE RUN-AMOCK CORPORATE BEHAVIOR:
1. End ALL tax breaks for ALL corporations and other above-mentioned bodies who either advocate or actually: Offshore, outsource, use all manner of visa holders and illegal aliens.
2. Make oil companies pay “Extraction fees” –without passing it onto the consumers.
2b. Oil costs are rising again (supposedly because there is “maintenance”going on)….Are we getting deliberately screwed again????
3. Tarriff ALL foreign goods.
4. Bring manufacturing back to California.
5. Use E-VERIFY
*ENVIRONMENT:
It’s expensive to Chem Trail almost every day in this state. Why do you permit it?
While we keep hearing about the “environment” and carbon taxes, etc, why is Chem Trailing ignored?
*Q: What about CAFR?
CONCLUSION: The corruption is massive in this state (in BOTH parties). It is only common sense to address ALL these issues before you even begin to think about taxing us more. Great, Obama gives us a “tax break” while the individual states will soak up those “tax breaks” at the state level…How wonderful and thoughtful of you.
Roxan
While I’m at it on this site: If we get clobbered with any “carbon footprint” or “environmental taxes”, I have MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) which makes me very aware of the environment.
But the Al Gores, environmental groups and “Earth Justice/Day/Hour” people-Global Warming Crowd and Rockefellers and (Club of Rome) don’t acknowledge us in any way, shape or form……This also applies to those ill with: Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome or 9/11.
They also don’t mention a thing about: HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) weather manipulation-CHEM TRAILS, Depleted Uranium/White Phosphorous from our perpetual wars, fluoridated water, GM Terminator seeds or China’s/India’s high pollution rates.
Think about that when the “government” wants to impose more taxes on us in the name of “Global Warming” and the “environment.”
If they actually “cared” about these things, all this would have been addressed.
Finally, it’s also interesting how the “environmental groups” were warning constantly about overpopulation and badgered the young in the 60s/70s about (0-Population-Growth), yet didnt’ tell the targeted groups about Kennedy’s Immigration law in 1965 (somehow the immigrants were NOT badgered about their birth rates) and the targeted groups were NEVER told about the Latino Movement (AZTLAN/ANAHUAC) to outbreed us and now we’re being made fun of because “we didn’t make babies.”….(Armando Navarro) comes to mind. Nor were we told about the chapters of MEChA, La Raza, etc in the schools…….and when I wrote the Sierra Club about illegal aliens, they naturally didn’t care about illegal aliens and the high rates that have come into this nation…..but quite frankly at this point in my life, that doesn’t surprise me.
When the environmental groups don’t care about anything I’ve mentioned, I realized they were just one huge, giant fraud (probably working in conjunction with AGENDA 21) and the UN.
Finally, why are the so-called “environmental groups” and their ilk deafeningly silent on these issues?
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H.B. Corcorran
Dear Senator Maldonado,
Just had to write and let you know how excited I was to learn of your proposal of an open primary. I would love to see this taken another couple of steps by switching to the IRV (Instant Runoff Voting) method of voting which would not only eliminate the need for a runoff election but even eliminate the need for a major election saving the state and candidates millions of dollars. The way IRV works it would positively rank all the candidates in the true order of preference by the voters. I would be delighted to talk to you about how it works. You can also pull information off the internet.
Your push for no legislative raises when there is a deficit is another great step in the right direction. I would also suggest one more step and that is a reduction in pay based on the percentage the budget exceeds taxes paid. This would provide an even stronger incentive to keep the budget under control. We also need to do something about eliminating earmarks because that is where a lot of this pork sneaks in.
We also need to consider switching from our present complex tax code and system to the Fair Tax method of collecting our state tax from California residents. This would insure that everyone, including all the illegal invaders and politicians would pay their fair share of the state tax and eliminate the need to calculate your state taxes every April 15th to determine if you owe the state or the state owes you.
I would be delighted to discuss any of these items with you whenever it’s convenient for you. I’m in and out a lot so if I don’t answer the phone, please leave a message and I’ll return the call as soon as I can, which is sometimes just a matter of minutes.
Sincerely,
H.B. Corcorran – W5BYG
3113 S. Rene Dr.
Santa Ana, CA 92704-6730
714 557-6230