San Francisco vs. Tampa: California dreamin’

Economists and lawmakers in Florida expect the state to have to contend with another budget deficit in the coming year, on the order of between $2.5 to $3 billion.

That will be rough, considering that the legislature and Governor Charlie Crist had to deal with a similar deficit this past year that was balanced with spending cuts and higher taxes and fees.

But Florida legislators' dilemma is small change compared with what's happening in many other state capitols as the Great Recession continue to take its toll, nowhere more dramatically than in California.

As some of you may know, this reporter hails from San Francisco. "The City," as its denizens call it, is staring at a $522 million deficit in the coming year, prompting a story in one of the city's alternative weeklies last week calling it "The Worst Run Big City in the U.S."

The piece argued its case with conviction. Yet, even though frustration runs deep among my many city-dwelling friends over the high cost of living (a parking ticket for failing to feed a meter cost me $63, which would have been a $25 fine in downtown Tampa) and the inconsistent bus system (but not their cable cars or their light rail system), most of them aren't ready to run for the hills just yet. That's because San Francisco's citizens embrace so many things that make the city attractive to people worldwide, including its progressive politics.

(For example, as Hillsborough County prepares for a year-long debate over a penny sales tax to begin construction of a light rail system, the big news in the past week regarding the SF Bay Area's 37-year-old system, BART, was that wireless access was going to be provided for commuters who travel in the Transbay Tube linking San Francisco to Oakland.)

Meanwhile, one thing that unites the state capitols of Tallahassee and Sacramento these days is the vitriolic atmosphere and lack of bonhomie between the political parties.

Over the break I listened to an interview on the NPR affiliate in San Francisco, KQED, with a former California Republican state legislator named Bill Bagley who has written a new book bemoaning the lack of civility in state politics. His analysis of the deteriorating conditions between the parties sounded very similar to what I've heard from long-time state leaders in Florida: specifically, that term limits have made state government more ungovernable in recent years, not just because of a lack of experience but because of a lack of socializing — lawmakers from opposing parties used to have the time and opportunity to get to know each other better. There is now an attempt in California to modify term-limit laws.

Nothing like that is in the works in Florida, but some activists in the state are attempting to accomplish what California voters approved last year — somewhat.

As CL has frequently mentioned, proposed ballot measures this coming year would force Florida's Republican legislature to draw congressional and legislative districts in a compact and constitutional fashion that would make seats more competitive.

California voters approved a similar measure last year that will go into effect in 2012. That only affects state legislative seats, but takes the re-apportionment process out of the hands of lawmakers (Democrats, in California's case) and gives it to a non-partisan commission.

In both Florida and California, the hoped-for result are state legislatures not dominated by one political party.

Republicans in both states find common cause with the national GOP in one major respect: their refusal to raise the hackles of anti-tax crusaders like Grover Norquist.

California's budget woes continued incessantly in 2009, with one reason being that the state requires a two-thirds majority to raise taxes. Though the clear majority (of Democrats) wanted to avoid draconian spending cuts by instituting at least some tax hikes, the Republicans remained intransigent.

Of course, in Tallahassee the reluctance to reconsider the state's capricious exemptions to goods and services that should be taxed has led to a dismal Florida distinction: The state continues to be ranked one of the lowest in the nation in education spending and provision of health insurance for children.

This article appears in Dec 30, 2009 – Jan 5, 2010.