Act Now to Demand the Governor Resolve the Budget Crisis, Not Make It Worse

[Pam Coukos]

Please take just a moment today to send an e-mail to the Governor urging him to stop playing politics with California's financial stability.

Please also thank Speaker Karen Bass for standing up for the needs of the people of California.

State Comptroller Chiang said today: "Without action by the Legislature and the governor, we literally are weeks away from a meltdown of state government that threatens the delivery of critical public services our citizens deserve and expect."

Click here to e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger:

Click here to e-mail Speaker Bass: (when you reach that page, click on button "contact Speaker Bass")

Report your contact here:

These are the e-mails I sent this morning:

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

As a resident of California, a parent of a public elementary school student, and a graduate student at the University of California, I am deeply alarmed at how close our state is coming to a complete shutdown because of the failure to resolve the budget crisis.

When you ran for Governor, you pledged to focus on fiscal sanity and to reform a broken political system. Instead, you are now playing politics with our state's financial security. Given the dismal state of the current national and worldwide economy, we should be focusing on building up the safety net and increasing state spending. But you are supporting a small group of Republican legislators who are holding us hostage to a misguided agenda of deep cuts and extreme deregulation.

We need to pass a budget now, one that reflects the priorities of the citizens of California. Do not take advantage of this crisis to ram through a right-wing legislative agenda that cannot stand on its own. Show the leadership you promised us and stand up for the people.

Sincerely,

Pamela Coukos
Community Organizer
Oakland, CA

******

Dear Speaker Bass:

Thank you for your strong support of the citizens of California at this critical time. I am upset that the Governor appears to be playing politics with our state's financial security. As a resident of California, a parent of a public elementary school student, and a graduate student at the University of California, resolving the budget impasse is very important to me. We need to pass a budget now, one that reflects the priorities of the citizens of California. I appreciate your leadership on such an important issue to all of us.

Pamela Coukos
Community Organizer
Oakland, CA

More resources:

Article on Comptroller Chiang's statement:

Here's some of the latest on the effects of the budget crisis, from David Dayen at Calitics (also an Obama organizer from Southern California).


From Brian Leubitz, about holding the budget hostage to an extreme political agenda:

[Marta Evry]

Thanks for this Pam,

I sent my emails out this morning.

[Cynthia Parral]

I sent an email out to the governor this morning and will send out a thank you email to Speaker Bass later today. I added to your sample email by registering my opposition to the governor's goal of weakening labor and environmental protections through the budget negotiating process.

[Cath in SLZ]

Thanks for making it a bit easier by including the link. I wish people were more angry and felt the urgency to do something about the stalemate in our budget process. Do you think it is because people don't care or that they don't know what to do? I think we need to put more pressure on each our our state representatives as well as the Governor to work toward a real compromise and a realistic budget.