New news is good news
By Melissa Daar
Also featured on the California Progress Report
In the last 24 hours, we’ve received some good news in the most recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California. It looks like more and more Californians are starting to understand that we can’t just expect to solve our problems with drastic cuts to the state budget. As of January 2011, the majority of Californians (and a majority of frequent voters) support Governor Brown’s budget proposal. As a network, we may not love every aspect of his proposal, but it turns out that it could be a great tailwind for our discussions with elected officials and the people of California on the impact and essential importance of our programs.
The Governor has rolled out his budget in a very public and consistent way. The people’s reaction reaffirms recent Frameworks and Demos research. That research shows that when people truly understand the state budget’s relationship to public “goods and services” like education, public safety, and health and human services, they’re more open to the necessary trade-offs of budget cuts vs. revenues.
Governor Brown has made it clear that the state is in serious financial trouble and that Californians have to make some tough choices. He is actively moving the statewide conversation away from one of financial crisis to a strong call to action: All of us must make choices, albeit hard ones. Public opinion research shows that this conversation in turn opens a more-productive dialogue about budgets and taxes.
As advocates for health and human services, our approach should emphasize that the state budget is where we decide our collective priorities – and make decisions about how we want to live. If we want good schools, the state budget is how we fund them. If we want good health care options, the state budget is how government programs can support preventative care and promote healthy life choices. This is exactly the conversation we must have with the constituents we want to reach.
We also need to make clear our strong commitment to innovation and reform of government programs, without exception. All the steps we’re now taking to improve HHS services can help keep our economic problems from worsening in the future. And that’s a message that resonates with our public.
We’re in a unique moment to go beyond our usual messaging of “don’t cut” and “no more drastic cuts.” The window of opportunity is open for us, if we choose to take it. We’re all in this together, and now is the time to convene dialogues about our collective priorities – and to drive home that we can use the state budget as the right vehicle on the road to economic recovery.
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Melissa Daar, Full Court Press Communications on behalf of the HHS Network of California
