Write a Letter to the Editor!
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in support of a responsible budget!
To help you get started, please see the sample LTE templates below. You can use these as a starting point – feel free to customize and personalize to give your letter your own personal point of view. The samples below are tailored for whether or not your legislators are Republican or Democrats.
Click here to find your legislators.
LTE for Republican legislative districts (94 words):
The prospect of an all-cuts budget, an unthinkable outcome if the Governor’s revised budget proposal that includes extending revenues is rejected, is truly terrifying. Eliminating adult day health care services for seniors and people with disabilities means forcing thousands into costly nursing homes and state run institutions. Further cuts to CalWORKS and SSI/SSP, on top of the $8 billion cut in recent years, means struggling families, who desperately want to work, are pushed off the edge. We can and should do better than this. An all-cuts budget is not the answer; it’s an atrocity.
LTE for Democratic legislative districts (121 words):
The importance of passing the Governor’s proposal simply to maintain the same level of taxes we’ve all been paying for years now is plainly obvious. Without these revenues, Californians will be subject to even more deadly cuts, cheap one-offs, and other gimmicks that put our state back in this very same position next year. Just as important, though, is opposing the implementation of a “spending cap,” which would lock-in low funding for health care and human services programs for an indefinite number of years. If cuts make life worse, a spending cap would make sure it never gets any better by preventing restoration of decimated health care and human service programs and forcing an artificial ceiling on funding for HHS programs.
You can also use the following talking points and facts to write your own letter to the editor:
HHS Network – Key Messages & Talking Points
- We’re not out of the woods yet
$6.6 billion in revenues still leaves a $10 billion deficit.
- Don’t “cap” California’s future
Cuts make life worse; a spending cap guarantees it will never get better.
- California has better choices
By passing the Governor’s proposal to simply maintain current tax levels, and “Stop the Drop” in revenues scheduled to happen on July 1, we can avoid making any more cuts to the programs we all care about.
1. We’re not out of the woods yet: Even with the $6.6 billion in new revenues, California is still facing a $10 billion shortfall.
- The Republicans’ proposal, based on rosy assumptions about future revenues, aims to close the remaining $10 billion gap by imposing nearly $2 billion more in cuts to health and human services programs.
- Meanwhile, California has cut billions from basic health care and social services that help seniors, people with disabilities, poor kids and struggling families.
2. Don’t “cap” California’s future: If steep cuts to health and human services make life worse for seniors, kids, and families – spending caps guarantee it will never get any better by creating an artificial ceiling that limits California’s ability to respond to the needs of a growing and aging population.
- California doesn’t have a “spending problem,” we have a REVENUE problem. General fund spending has been relatively flat since Ronald Reagan was governor. Spending on corrections, debt service, and transportation has increased, while spending on virtually all other parts of the budget has declined in recent years.[i]
- California’s Tax System Is Part of the Problem:
- Tax cuts enacted since 1993 will cost the state more than $13 billion in 2011-12. The Legislature continued to cut taxes through the worst of the state’s budget crisis.
- Corporate income tax collections have declined as a share of profits.
- Taxable sales have declined as a share of economic activity due to the rise of the service sector and untaxed sales. [ii]
- Spending caps = endless cuts: A spending cap would also force additional cuts to health and human services because it fails to take into account rising health care costs – which grow faster than inflation – and the aging of our population.
- Meanwhile, the Governor’s modest proposal merely maintains the same taxes we’ve all been paying for the last few years.
3. California has no other options: Californians have been presented with a variety of options, but only one solution actually closes the state’s deficit: Pass the Governor’s proposal to extend existing revenue streams to get our economy back on track and give vulnerable seniors, poor kids, people with disabilities, and struggling families a fighting chance.
[i] http://cbp.org/pdfs/2011/110203_chartbook.pdf
[ii] Ibid
