FCL ACTION ALERTS
April 7, 2008

Opening Our Hands to the Poor and Needy: Budget Justice in California

Dear Friend of FCL,
 

The Legislative  Issues Briefing will be held in the Social Hall at St. John’s Lutheran Church,  17th and L Streets, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Registration:  Complete the  registration form and return with your payment for the Issues Briefing to  California Council of Churches, 4044 Pasadena Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821.  You may register online at www.calchurches.org. Early-bird  registration must be postmarked by May 6 . For more information, please call  (916) 488-7300 x.3  Everyone is  welcome.

We are lowering the  fee to $15 to encourage more participation.  We are streamlining our lunch and  providing limited bottled water.   To help conserve resources, please bring you own water bottle that may  be refilled from pitchers at the LIB event.  Share rides when you can.  

Tuesday Meetings  with Legislators:  Afternoon visits to legislators will  be coordinated by the California Interfaith Coalition.  The purpose of the legislative visits  will be to advocate for issues linked to the workshops. Meetings will be  focused on contacts with the heads of key committees and legislative  leadership.  Appointments will be  arranged and all visits assigned.   All meetings will begin at either 1:00 or 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 and  will end by 2:00 p.m.  When you  arrive at, your assigned legislator, the time of the visit, and Capitol room  number will be provided to you.   Since members of the Senate and Assembly leadership will not  necessarily be your particular legislator, every effort will be made to link  you to your representatives and those critical to the budget process.  If you desire to meet with your own  legislator individually, please do so outside of the time set for the  Legislative Issues Briefing meetings.

Parking: There is limited  parking around St. John’s for the Issues Briefing.  Some public parking lots are available  within 1-2 blocks of the church and costs between $6 and $15 for the day.  Car pools and the use of public  transportation is encouraged. Parking is available at the corner of  16th and L. , between 17th and 18th on L and  at other garages and lots or on the street near St. John’s  Church.

Invite a  friend:  Congregations and  judicatories are encouraged to underwrite one or more delegates to the  Legislative Issues Briefing Day. Please send us the names for official  registration in advance of May 13 so we may order lunches.

What is Happening  with California’s Budget?

Every year after the  ‘boom’ of the late 1990s, California has been afflicted with a shortfall of  income relative to the very real needs of our state’s poor and needy.  Because of Proposition 13, our state  Legislature no longer can easily restore tax rates or create new sources of  revenue.  We can cut taxes – but  then it takes a 2/3 vote to restore those rates, a vote we cannot  guarantee.  Rates were cut during  the good times, and now we are operating with insufficient income to fulfill  the programs that keep ‘the least among all of you’ from utter deprivation. We  now operate with tax rates that go back to the mid part of the last  century.  Californians have not  had a tax increase since 1991 – and that restored rates set in the 1930s.  We have had several cuts for  upper-income earners and for the Vehicle License Fee that allows us to drive  at those same, very low rates set in decades past.  Taxes that were once ‘normal’ rates  are now artifacts of a time and place that is long gone.  And we cannot restore them to fulfill  current needs.

Why are social  programs so vulnerable to shortfalls and therefore cuts?  Due to other constitutional  initiatives and federal requirements established over the past decades, about  80 percent of the budget is locked in place.  It is programs for the poor, for  children, for the sick and infirm that are not protected, that are always the  targets of budget cuts.   

We have said often  that annual budgets are really moral documents.  They reflect our society’s  values.  If saving taxes for those  who are affluent is our only goal, then what have we become as a people?   It is not extreme to say that we  balance our annual budget on the backs of the poor; each year we have held  back cost-of-living increases, foster child protections, medical care, child  care allowances, and many other programs.  What is less obvious is that each of  these cuts can and does fall on the same family, the same child, the same  person.  

This year our call  is to make wise cuts (the Department of Corrections has a declining population  but expanding budget) but first and foremost, we now must restore  revenues.  We must close tax  loopholes that let some people not pay the taxes the rest of us do.  We must look for new, up-to-date  sources of revenue.   

California cannot  become a state that cares for nothing and no one but those who have already  been blessed with good incomes and social stability.  We are the voices that speak for those  who cannot be here to speak for themselves.  

“Speak for those  who cannot speak for the rights of all  the destitute.” (Pr.  31:8)     This is our  mission.  Please lift your voice  to open our hands for budget justice!

Opening Our Hands for the Poor and Needy

Agenda for the Day, May 13,  2008

2008   LIB REGISTRATION  FORM

Please register me for the May 13  Legislative Issues Briefing  Day!

Name_________________________________________________________________________
 
Address_______________________________________________________________________
 
City/State/ZIP__________________________________________________________________

Telephone________________________e-mail________________________________________

Congregation/Denomination______________________________________________________________

_______  I will join targeted legislator  visits, 1 and 1:30 p.m., May 13, 2008
 
Your  Assembly  Member:__________________________________________________________
 

Your State  Senator_______________________________________________________________
 
LIB  registration fee includes lunch and all conference materials..  

Please check  what applies:
 
_____  $15 early bird LIB registration  (postmarked by May 6, 2008
 
_____  $25 LIB registration (postmarked after  May 6 or received at door May 13, 2008)
 
_____  Need vegetarian lunch,  please

Please check form of  payment:

_____  Check enclosed.  Make check payable to:  California Council of  Churches
 
_____  Credit card:  ___VISA  ___Master Card  ___Other   #______________________________

Name on  Card____________________________________________Exp.date________________
 
Phone  number__________________________________   Security code (3 digits on back)_______
  
 
Signature________________________________________________________________________
 
 
Email (if  available)________________________________________________________________
 

Mail form and check payment  to:

California Council of  Churches
4044 Pasadena Avenue, Sacramento, CA  95821

You may FAX credit card payments  to:   916.488.7310

For more information call  916.488.7300 x.3 or go to www.calchurches.org
 

Sincerely yours,

Jim Lindburg
Legislative Advocate

Friends Committee on Legislation
717 K St., Suite 500-B
Sacramento, CA 95814

(916) 443-3734

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