Government spending grows out of control

On Thursday, Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Costa Mesa) voted against the 2005-06 budget.

This vote was a very difficult decision for me. There are many things in this budget that are great improvements over past budgets, but my concerns are far greater.

We can not spend the state out of the fiscal crisis created by Gray Davis. I was elected to reduce government spending and make allocations based on our priorities. Instead, this budget increases spending $10.6 billion, 13.5%, over last year’s budget. That can only make the problem worse in the future.

This budget makes the problem worse next year. As adopted, the structural deficit will be over $4 billion dollars next year. It is a mistake to continue pushing the hard decisions off to the future. Instead, we should buckle-down now and make the choices we were elected to make.

Another huge problem are the taxes hidden in this bill, by the old ploy of ‘fees’. Fees are increased for CEQA, the Coastal Commission, landing, streambed alteration, and home movers. These are important areas that will continue to hamper California’s economy. We need to cut the red-tape and make California a business-friendly state again.

I did vote for SB 62, the transportation budget bill, because I believe fully-funding transportation is a high priority for California. This is a needed investment and I am proud to support it as did the vast majority of Californians when they passed Proposition 42.

Just because state revenues are up, we can not continue to spend taxpayer’s money like they will remain year after year. That is the process which put our finances in such dire straights and must be stopped.

My commitment is to a budget that makes California government smaller. We must do a better job of setting our state’s priorities and funding those we can afford. While I applaud this budget for not raising taxes, fully funding transportation and repaying local government, I can not in good conscience vote to increase spending another $10 billion.”