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Renewing the Promise of California
The Angelides Plan to Build a Better Future for California and Middle Class Families
California climbed to the summit of the global economy in the 20th century by investing in education, innovation, and our people. It became a model to the world by giving everyone who worked hard the opportunity to share in California's growing prosperity.
As we enter the 21st century, we remain a place of unbounded potential, the center of invention and innovation, alive with energy and aspiration, the frontier of the American Dream.
Yet at the same time more and more Californians fear what the future holds for them and their children. The hopes and dreams of middle class families are under attack.
Intense global competition has made jobs less secure and eaten away at job-based health insurance and pensions. With most of the gains of economic growth flowing to corporate profits and the very wealthy, middle class families are being left behind, struggling with stagnant wages, rising health care and college costs, and soaring gasoline prices.
Arnold Schwarzenegger came into office promising to put California on the right course. He promised to balance the budget, tear up the state's credit card, protect education, expand health care for children, and represent the people, not the special interests. Then he broke each and every one of those promises.
Instead of helping middle class families, Arnold Schwarzenegger, like George Bush, has turned his back on them. He has offered no over-arching plan to improve their lives, economic security, and hopes for their children, or to build economic prosperity in the 21st century.
The centerpiece of the Bush-Schwarzenegger agenda is protecting tax cuts for the very rich and corporations. They have piled up debt on our children and shifted burdens onto the middle class. They have slashed investments in education. As Bush sought to dismantle Social Security, Schwarzenegger tried to take pensions away from police, firefighters, and teachers.
As Bush raised the cost of loans for college students, Schwarzenegger imposed higher tuition and fees on students at California colleges and universities and turned away thousands of qualified students. At a time when families need more help to make ends meet, Schwarzenegger twice vetoed a minimum-wage increase, cut health care for children, and blocked health insurance coverage for children and for 1 million working Californians.
Time and again, Schwarzenegger and Bush have stood with oil, tobacco, pharmaceutical, insurance, and HMO corporations at the expense of middle class families. Their message to hard-working families is stark and radical: You are on your own.
These policies are failing our economy and our people. To counter the corrosive effects of a winner-take-all economy, we must give all those who work hard the opportunity to share in our economy's success. To compete for and win the high-wage, high-skill jobs in the global economy, California must invest more in its people, not less. To build our long-term economic strength, we must make smart investments to grab the next wave of new ideas and technologies.
Governor Schwarzenegger has no credible plan to expand the middle class and build California's economic strength for the 21st century. His fiscal policies have left the state facing multi-billion-dollar deficits for years to come. If he is reelected he will do what he has done before: break his promises. He will again slash education and health care, raise college tuition and fees, and pile more debt on our children. And he will again stand with big corporations at the expense of middle class families.
As Governor, I will renew the promise of California, building a better future of hope and opportunity for our state and middle class families.
As President Clinton did when he took office, I will start by cleaning up the state's budget mess. I will restore fiscal responsibility and put California back in the black so we stop pushing our obligations onto our children and so we can focus again on building California's future.
I will help hard-working families by cutting middle class taxes, rewarding hard work, making college and health care more accessible and affordable, and honoring seniors.
I will invest again in educational excellence and innovation for our children, so that California has the best-trained workforce to compete in the global economy and our young people have the skills and knowledge to succeed.
I will build our economy by expanding lending to small businesses and cutting their tax burden. To create jobs and new opportunities, I will make smart investments in leading-edge industries like renewable energy and the biosciences; in infrastructure that supports our economic strength and our environment; and in the urban neighborhoods and diverse emerging communities of California that have too often been left behind.
In my first hundred days as Governor, I will put this agenda before the people of California. I will call on them to join me to set a new direction for California, so we can restore our rightful place as America's home of hope and opportunity.
 Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to balance California's budget, but he has proposed and signed three budgets in a row that spend billions more than the state takes in. He promised to “tear up the credit cards,” but like George Bush he has borrowed massively to cover up his deficits, running up the state's deficit borrowing from $18 billion when he took office to $24 billion. He has admitted that he has no plan to close the $4.5 billion hole that his budget leaves for next year, which means that, if reelected, he will once more slash education and health care, raise college tuition and fees, and pile even more debt on our children.
I have a plan to clean up the state's budget mess--restoring fiscal responsibility, balancing the budget, and putting California back in the black so we can focus on the future:
- Common Sense Efficiencies and Reforms. I will cut wasteful spending and make government run more efficiently by, among other things, increasing the productivity of state operations at the same rate as the private sector, eliminating low-priority programs, cracking down on tax cheats, and managing the state's real estate like a business.
- Restore Tax Fairness. To avoid cuts to education and health care, I will temporarily restore, for three years, the top income tax rates on the wealthiest Californians, those couples making more than $500,000 a year, which were proposed and enacted by Governors Reagan and Wilson. This temporary measure will require the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians to pay an amount equal to only about one-fourth what they are receiving annually in Bush tax cuts. It will cost a couple earning $1 million a year about the price of two caffe lattes a day.
- All New Priorities Within a Balanced Budget. I will pay for new investments in California's future--including help for the middle class, small businesses, and seniors--line by line, dime by dime, within a balanced budget by closing wasteful loopholes for big corporations, which help a favored few at the expense of the overall economy. I will a create a commission, like the federal base closing commission, to review California's tax code and recommend a package of corporate loopholes for elimination in a single up or down vote.
 A strong middle class is the bedrock of California's economic strength. But today the middle class is under pressure from all sides. They are working harder and more productively than ever before, yet their wages are lagging while all of the gains of economic growth flow to the wealthiest 1 percent. Even as wages stagnate, the costs of middle class life are soaring: since 2000, health care costs are up by 43 percent, college costs by 76 percent, and gasoline prices have doubled. Over the last two decades, the state and local taxes paid by poor and middle class households in California have gone up as tax rates for the wealthy and corporations have been cut. Middle class families today pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than do those earning over $500,000 a year.
Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to be the people's governor but he has piled $2.5 billion in new taxes and fees on middle class families. As Governor, I will support the middle class, cutting their tax burden, rewarding work, expanding access to cost-effective health care, and empowering more families to climb the ladder of success.
Reward Work
- Cut Middle Class Taxes. I will enact a middle class tax cut for families making up to $100,000 a year to help them meet the rising cost of housing, health care, college, and gasoline. My tax relief plan will help 4 million families and provide up to $660 annually in tax relief for a family of four. My plan will create a refundable state earned income tax credit (EITC) equal to 15 percent of the federal credit and raise the dependent credit by $200 per child.
- A Minimum Wage Protected from Inflation. I will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. The 1.4 million Californians who work at or near the minimum wage need a pay increase to help lift them out of poverty, and the minimum wage should be indexed so that inflation does not push them back down.
Make College More Affordable
- Roll Back Arnold Schwarzenegger's College Tuition and Fee Hikes. I will cut the cost of a four-year degree at the University of California by nearly $5,000 and the cost of a California State University degree by nearly $2,000 by rolling back tuition and fees to where they were before Arnold Schwarzenegger took office.
- Expand financial aid. I will expand college financial aid at community colleges, state colleges, and universities so more students can enroll and earn degrees.
Increase Health Coverage and Control Health Costs for Californians
- Insure All Kids. I will provide affordable health insurance for all kids, covering the 800,000 young Californians, most of them children of full-time working parents, who currently lack health coverage.
- Expand Health Care Coverage. I will require corporations with more than 200 employees to offer health insurance coverage to their workers. This will provide health insurance for 600,000 workers and family members and lower costs to taxpayers and responsible employers who are already covering their workers.
- Crack Down on HMO Waste. Families and businesses in California are paying an estimated $10 billion a year in health care premiums for HMO overhead, profits, and executive pay. I will regulate HMOs to cut that waste, improve medical care, and control costs for consumers.
- Raise Health Care Efficiency. I will work with health care providers, consumers, and technology firms to speed the deployment of new technologies such as electronic medical records and information systems that will make health care more efficient and raise the quality of care for patients.
- Lower Prescription Drug Costs. I will set up a website to let consumers compare prices and order cheaper prescription drugs from safe international pharmacies in Canada and other nations. And I will enact a mandatory prescription drug discount program that forces pharmaceutical companies that want to do business with the state to make affordable prescription drugs available to working families.
Honor seniors
- Increase Property Tax Relief for Seniors and the Disabled. Seniors and the disabled living on fixed incomes are being hit particularly hard by rising drug, health care, and housing costs. I will provide a 50 percent increase in property tax relief for low-income senior and disabled homeowners and renters, assistance that Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to eliminate. My plan will provide up to $236 a year in additional relief to homeowners and $174 a year to renters.
 A 21st century economy runs on the knowledge and skills of its people. California can succeed only if we prepare more of our young people to compete for and win the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future.
Today, California is not making the grade. Even with recent progress in test scores, we're 48th out of the 50 states in student achievement, with schools in our poorest neighborhoods struggling the hardest. We're 43rd in what we spend to educate each child. We're 39th in the percentage of high-school graduates who go directly to college.
In the face of these challenges, Arnold Schwarzenegger has no plan to improve our schools or to close the state's budget deficit without once more making deep cuts in education.
Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have a plan to fully fund Proposition 98 in the years ahead to provide funding our schools can count on, so that every child, every year, receives a well-rounded education, including the academic basics, art, music, and physical education. It calls for innovation, achievement, and accountability while providing additional resources for targeted new initiatives. And it sets ambitious goals California must meet to educate the workforce our economy needs and deliver the opportunities our children deserve:
Close the Achievement Gap
- Raise Student Achievement. California has the most rigorous academic standards in the nation. But Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush have shortchanged our schools and walked away from the hard work of actually raising student achievement to match the expectations we have set. I will close the achievement gap by giving schools targeted grants they can use to pursue innovative strategies for raising achievement, such as incentives for teachers to teach in low-performing schools or more class time and smaller classes for students who need more help. I will also increase the number of quality charter schools statewide, especially in communities with high dropout rates and poor passage rates on the high school exit exam.
- Reduce the Dropout Rate. I will set a goal to reduce, by the end of my governorship, the number of dropouts by 25,000 a year by providing targeted grants to expand quality pre-school education for children who can't afford it and to identify and give extra help and guidance to middle-school students who are falling behind; and by holding high schools accountable for their graduation rates.
Increase the Number of College Graduates and the Number of High School Graduates Ready for Work
I will set a goal to increase the number of Californians who earn bachelor and associate degrees by 40,000 a year by the end of my governorship and will expand the number of high school graduates ready for work.
- Strengthen Counseling and Outreach. I will double the number of school counselors and expand successful outreach and academic preparation programs to help disadvantaged students enter college and succeed there.
- Make College More Affordable. I will roll back Arnold Schwarzenegger's college tuition and fee hikes and substantially expand state scholarship aid for deserving students.
- Create California Tomorrow Fellowships. I will award California Tomorrow Fellowships to as many as 10,000 California students a year who pursue an undergraduate degree in science, mathematics, or engineering.
- Increase Rigorous Career and Technical Courses. I will increase by 50 percent the number of California Partnership Academies for high school students seeking work or community college certificates upon graduation.
Recruit, Train, and Support 40,000 New Teachers
- Teachers for Our Future. My comprehensive Teachers for Our Future plan will recruit, train, and support 40,000 teachers over the next four years to assure that every child has a well-trained teacher in the classroom and that every teacher has the support he or she needs to do a difficult and vital job.
- Attract bright young people to teaching. I will create a Teach for California initiative to recruit talented young people and mid-career professionals from California and across the nation into teaching.
 In an increasingly competitive global economy, California can only prosper by taking the high road. We cannot win a race to the bottom. That's the problem with the Bush-Schwarzenegger economic agenda. We will succeed by being the best--by promoting entrepreneurship, investing in technological innovation and scientific research, building the knowledge and skills of all our people, and improving our environment and quality of life. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have a plan to strengthen the small businesses that create most of our new jobs; to make smart investments that preserve California's leadership in innovation and environmental quality; and to expand opportunity so that more Californians fully participate in our state's prosperity:
Support small businesses.
- Cut taxes for small businesses. I will enact a tax cut of up to $5,000 a year to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
- Create a Small Business Success Initiative. I will launch a Small Business Success initiative to make micro loans--loans of $500 to $40,000--broadly available to help more Californians start and grow their own business.
Make smart investments in California's economy.
- Spur California Innovation. I will call on the state's pension funds to create a California Innovation Initiative, making $1 billion in investments in biosciences and other cutting-edge California industries--to earn a solid return for the pension funds and taxpayers while spurring the next wave of technological innovation and creating jobs and opportunities for Californians.
- Make California the global leader in clean fuels, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. My Clean California plan will reduce gasoline use by 25 percent over the next 10 years, fight global warming, and make California the world leader in developing and exporting clean fuels, vehicles, and energy-efficiency technology. By leading in this vital industry of the future, California can clean up the environment and create hundreds of thousands of high-skill, high-wage jobs and new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
- Expand the Double Bottom Line Initiative. I will build on the success of the Double Bottom Line initiative I launched as Treasurer by urging the state pension funds to direct an additional $7 billion in investments into the urban neighborhoods and diverse emerging communities of California that have too often struggled in poverty and been left behind. The Double Bottom Line initiative has earned solid returns for taxpayers and the pension funds while creating jobs, business opportunities, and housing in the communities that need them most.
- Exploring New Frontiers of Knowledge. I will provide $100 million annually to restore and expand General Fund support for basic research at the University of California, which Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut.
- Smart Investments. Building on the Smart Investments initiative I launched as Treasurer, I will make smart investments in California's infrastructure. I will target these investments to support smart growth, sustainable development, and livable communities, protecting our environment, our quality of life, and our economic competitiveness. With a balanced budget as its foundation, my plan will allow us, over time, to make additional infrastructure investments beyond those on the November ballot.
Download more information:
»Renewing the Promise of California
»The Angelides Plan to Cut Middle Class Taxes
»The Angelides Plan for a California Small Business Success Initiative
»The Angelides Plan to Cut Education Taxes and Fees
»Projected 2007-2008 General Fund Budget Summary
»The Angelides Plan to Cut Taxes for Small Businesses |
