Cuesta College Classified United Employees

March 15, 2011

John—

I am on BART after having just landed in a rainy San Francisco after speaking to the CalWORKs Training Institute in a very sunny San Diego. Of course, while I was taking advantage of Virgin America’s Internet service, budget news broke.

But, did it break in a positive “breaking” news sense, or as in the very “broken” news sense? Unfortunately, it appears to be the latter.

Both the Assembly and the Senate have scheduled floor votes for 1pm tomorrow on the governor’s budget. At this point, however, it appears that the requisite two-thirds vote to place the tax extensions on the ballot are not yet available. And, with the state Republican convention coming to Sacramento this Friday, most insiders see this as the final possible vote this week, and thus the last chance for a June 7 and possibly June 14, ballot.

We will be tweeting the latest news.

Now is our chance. This is the defining moment. Call the remaining swing legislators.

Tell them to ignore John and Ken and the Washington special interests who threaten to put their “heads on a stick,” and tell them that California’s community college students, faculty, staff and supporters will put them on a pedastal for letting the voters decide the very difficult budget choices ahead for California. This gives the voters a chance to stop $2.5 billion in cuts to community colleges and lost educational opportunity for 400,000 of California’s college students.

Finally, take note of the great work your CalWORKs staff members are doing for their students. In this awful budget environment, there is no constituency that is under attack from all angles—education, subsistence, health care—than our CalWORKs students. Be proud of the hand up that we are giving them, and let’s continue to fight to open doors of opportunities for these mostly single parents and their children, our next generation of students.

Sincerely,

Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer, The League
Orange Coast College ‘94 

Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org

March 14, 2011

Dear John,

This morning, several thousand of our students rallied on the steps of the State Capitol. While the rain dampened their signs, it couldn’t stifle their voices. Their chant of “Let the people vote” could be heard clearly in the Capitol’s halls, according to our sources in the building.

Unfortunately, the positive rally was met with increasingly dire news from the Capitol.

Catching by surprise a Capitol community that had been captivated through the weekend by the events in Japan, Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway this morning told a Fresno radio station that Senate Republicans that had been negotiating with the governor had abandoned talks.

While this was immediately assumed to be part of the budget kabuki, the situation appeared more ominous as we looked into them.

The talks broke down over two significant issues—the length of the tax extension and the specifics of cap on state spending.

On the first issue, there had been a debate of whether the tax extensions would be for three of five years. Some argue that by extending the taxes for three years, Governor Brown would be held accountable should he seek reelection. Governor Brown argues that the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst has identified a five-year gap averaging $20 billion, and his plan addresses that by a blend of spending cuts and tax extensions.

The latest is the statement by Republican Senator Tom Harman of Orange County, one of the five GOP senators negotiating with the governor, that he will only support an 18-month tax extension to address the existing $25.4 billion shortfall and nothing further. Labor groups expected to finance the campaign to approve the extensions say “why bother?” I have to admit, as we’ve been preparing to run a campaign to inform the voters of the choice ahead, that I somewhat agree. We are exhausted from this year-in, year-out problem and the last thing we want to do is repeat this agony in two years, even if it results in a devastating all-cuts budget.

The other issue is a cap on state spending. There have been lots of caps on state spending, and another one is scheduled for the ballot in June 2012. However, some conservatives see a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to dramatically reduce state spending. Because of the deep cuts to balance the budget over the last three years (including $800 million in general fund cuts to community colleges, including the governors proposal), if a spending cap is enacted now that limits expenditure growth to inflation and population growth, a major victory could be achieved for advocates of limited government.

The governor and Democrats have counter-proposed a spending cap for the period of the temporary taxes, but the proposal has been rejected and no middle ground proposal has found resonance.

Everyone around the Capitol was waiting for the governor to show his cards, as today is the day that the governor is required to call a special election to fill Jane Harman’s congressional seat (CD36). Everyone was expecting him to call it for either June 7 or June 14 to indicate the status of budget negotiations. The county of Los Angeles has begged the governor to consolidate any statewide special election with that for the vacant congressional seat.

He just called it. For May 17 (with a July 12 runoff, if necessary).

That is the strongest indication yet that there won’t be a special election, and the odds of an all-cuts budget may have just increased significantly. We aren’t giving up yet, though, as we would even keep open the option of a non-voter-approved tax package.

This may be the governor’s only term, and he might be willing to break his holiest vow—to oppose any tax increase not approved by the voters—if he could find a bipartisan solution to get California’s finances back on track. But, that’s akin to pouring seawater on fuel rods—do it and everything is history, including reelection chances. That said, the political career of any Republican that votes to let the voters decide is also likely over. A collective political suicide however may be exactly what it takes to get one of the worst periods of California governance behind us.

We will continue “tweeting” the latest at http://www.twitter.com/ccleague.

Finally, I’ve gotten some pushback from our Republican faculty, staff, trustees and students. That’s fair. We have sounded pretty partisan lately. However, this morning I was reminded that, at our first March in March in 2003, we were in the midst of beating the heck out of Governor Gray Davis for disproportionate and unfair cuts to community colleges. I remember being part of a team circulating a censure petition of him at the Democratic convention. Over the years, our targets have been Democrats and Republicans, really whoever has not acted in the best interest of California and its community colleges.

As I grew up a Dodgers fan, I’m reminded of an analogy. We bleed neither Democratic Blue nor Republican Red. We simply bleed the palette of community colleges. And, I hope you’ll join us with that same passion (like that of our staff members that were painting signs last night at the office, along with about 15 students from the Student Senate).

Keep up the fight.

Sincerely,

Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer, The League
Orange Coast College ‘94 

Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org

March 9, 2011

Dear John,

Greetings from Los Angeles Harbor College, where I will be talking shortly to the LACCD board about the huge cuts (between $25 million and $72 million!) faced by this district.

Throughout this budget crisis, we have sought to provide transparent and accurate projections of local district budget impact. Because we now have new data that was released with the “First Principal Apportionment”—the first time in the year when we get real indications of the growth and fee collections of each district—we can now provide better projections for what each district’s budget might look at from three different budget scenarios.

We have also worked with the Chancellor’s Office and believe we have a better algorithm to project the impact based on each district’s blend of credit, noncredit and CDCP FTES enrollment. Additionally, an estimated number of eliminated course sections is now also provided, along with an updated number of lost headcount students.

Thank you for your patience in this ever-changing situation, and we welcome your feedback or questions!

Sincerely,

Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer, The League
Orange Coast College ‘94 

Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org

March 8, 2011

John-

Tick-tock…

We have been waiting all day to hear some news to lead us to be an optimistic a deal is near. While yesterday ended disappointingly with the “GOP 5”—five Senate Republicans who have been negotiating with the governor—declaring an “impasse,” we are also used to the negotiating tactics that have been used for years around the Capitol.

In fact—we use a phrase in Sacramento, “budget Kabuki,” after the elaborately choreographed and made-up Japanese dance-drama, to describe the often theatrical developments that occur in tough budget years.

Separating dance steps from serious negotiation meltdowns can be difficult, and even the most veteran observers sometimes call it wrong. Nevertheless, last night’s blow up appears to have been traditional budget posturing.

As evidence of that, this afternoon, the “GOP 5”—Senators Blakeslee, Berryhill, Cannella, Emmerson, and Harman—returned to the governor’s office and emerged proclaiming progress and optimism.

As of now, we know that the Senate is planning to vote on Thursday for the budget cuts, with or without the tax extension vote. They are planning to make it clear that Democrats are willing to make the difficult votes to cut their beloved programs, which could end some political careers, in an attempt to get the swing Republicans closer to a vote for a June tax election.

Meanwhile, community college advocates have been swarming the Capitol the last two days. Yesterday, 200 FACCC conference attendees met with legislators, and today more community college advocates joined the Board of Governors for an advocacy day. And, this followed the Governor Jerry Brown’s surprise appearance at the Board of Governors meeting yesterday.

Keep up the advocacy. I’m betting on a flurry of activity with a budget deal between Friday and Monday nights. However, I’ve also learned over the years that wagering on legislative activity is a poor substitute to an honest living.

Sincerely,

Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer, The League
Orange Coast College ‘94 

Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org

Click here if you don’t see images below

March 7, 2011

Dear John,

This is it. Votes on the budget package are expected as early as Wednesday, but don’t be surprised if we are still tweeting updates in the middle of the night Thursday or Friday.

As Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg said yesterday at the FACCC Advocacy and Policy Conference, “This next week is a key, seminal moment in modern California history.”

Simply put, the decision to let the voters consider a balanced approach by which we postpone scheduled tax cuts for five years is bigger than Proposition 13, Proposition 92, AB 1725 and SB 361 were for community colleges.

That’s why League staff scrambled on Friday to visit five key legislative offices in Stockton, Modesto, San Luis Obispo, Visalia and Yucaipa on Friday, and visited every office in the State Capitol. It was a great day of advocacy, even if Yucaipa almost didn’t happen after I locked the keys to my rental car inside and our advocates at Modesto had to wait as legislative staffers took a very long lunch.

We thank the over 125 community college advocates that joined us for these events, which were covered in the Sacramento Bee, on San Luis Obispo television, in the Visalia Times-Delta, and in several other media outlets. Here are some of the pictures of the events.

Yesterday, we ran newspaper ads such as the one above in the Barstow Desert-Dispatch (above), Modesto Bee, Porterville Recorder, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Stockton Record, San Luis Obispo Tribune, and the Visalia Times-Delta.

Now, this week. Here are some of the things you can do to make a difference, along with the time it takes to make a difference. If you give just a few minutes or hours, you can help stop the $2.5 billion cut to community colleges over the next five years.

1.      Forward this alert to your friends, family and co-workers. (1 minute!)

2.      Post a link to our Call Your Legislators page on your Facebook page by visiting the page and clicking “recommend.” (2 minutes!)

3.      Call your two state legislators. (5 minutes)

4.      Print out this Let the Voters Decide flyer and post it where your friends, family and co-workers see it (of course, wherever appropriate). (10 minutes).

5.      Call the 13 swing legislators. (39 minutes).

6.      BONUS: If you live in the city of San Franciso, or attend City College of San Francisco, call Senator Leland Yee (who is running for mayor) to urge him to support the balanced approach. (2 minutes!)

Advocacy isn’t difficult. In an hour of your time, you can make a huge difference.

We are making progress even if it has been an uphill battle. As former Republican Assemblymember Roger Niello said at the FACCC conference yesterday, we must raise our voices against, and correct the factual lies of, John and Ken. Niello should know, as the shock jocks put his “head on a stick” in 2009 after voting for a reform package and two years of temporary taxes.

The latest visuals on John and Ken’s website shows the twelve Republicans with an open mind being run over by a bus and with their decapitated heads placed on posts. Now, I’ve seen plenty of radical, ugly, and ill-informed political rhetoric over the years from activists on both the left and right, but rarely are they supported by mainstream advertisers as the largest drive-time radio show in the state.

They have a million listeners, which is significant when only 4.9 million Californians voted in the May 2009 special election. We have nearly 3 million listeners, but we must raise our voices. Beyond our current faculty, staff, students, trusteees and community supporters, 85% of the likely voters in the June special election either went to community college or have someone in their immediate family who did. To them, you are a stronger voice than John and Ken. It is up to you to communicate to your legislators and paint a real picture of the decision at stake.

This is a defining moment. California’s Community Colleges took $400 million in state cuts in 2009-10. We are prepared to take an additional $400 million in 2011-2012. You have seen the impact to essential community college programs enabling opportunity such as Matriculation, EOPS, DSPS, and CalWORKs. You have seen the students waiting to get in the doors, while the “lucky ones” have been asked to pick up $190 million in additional student fees to backfill the state cuts.

An all-cuts budget is simply too risk for California’s future. Over 60,000 additional course sections would be eliminated at a time when thousands of students are on waiting lists. Thousands of full- and part-time faculty and staff would be laid off, and important training programs for nurses, electricians and computer programmers will be on the chopping block.

Will we take a responsible approach and make $12.5 billion in budget cuts and suspend the scheduled tax cuts for five years, or will we double the cuts and cut $25.4 billion (29% of 2010-11 general fund expenditures)?

Those are the only two options on the table this week. It is indeed a defining moment.

Sincerely,

Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer, The League
Orange Coast College ‘94 

Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org