The Intersections of Austerity and Decentralization?

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The other day, Naomi Klein asked her Twitter followers for the "real definition of austerity," the most looked-up word of 2010 according to Websters.  Someone tweeted back, "Tightening your belt. (Around your neck.)"

We're in a time of global austerity - a time when the global evaporation of the mega-bankers swindled wealth becomes an excuse to slash and burn what tenuous public services exist in the countries lucky enough to have them.  Austerity measures are perhaps most associated with the 1980's--when the IMF imposed Structural Adjustment Programs on recently liberated countries of the Global South, and governments of industrial nations did the same thing to themselves domestically.  The Regan years. The world never recovered, and now it's happening again.  

In the United States, austerity is enacted most on the state level.  Whereas the federal government can continuously print money or borrow money,* the states cannot.**  And yet most of the social safety net in the U.S. is administered at the state level.   This past November, Republicans -- who tend to hate on public services -- made sweeping gains in power at the state level in the November elections.  A loss of revenue, plus the inability to borrow vast sums, plus Republican power? This is the perfect recipe for imposed austerity.   

So how 'bout California?

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On January 10th, Jerry Brown unveiled his new CA budget plan.  It balances the the budget, eliminating the projected $25 billion dollar deficit.  That's billion with a B.  California spending currently stands at about $105 billion/year, to get a perspective.

Brown is widely praised for his straight talkin, no bullshitin method of accounting, which is why Democrats are generally behind him.  As Assemblyperson Jared Huffman says, his budget actually attempts to "solve our chronic fiscal mess instead of kicking the can down the road with gimmicks and borrowing [like Arnold did]."

Okay, props for that.

The plan is two fold: $12.5 billion dollars cut from the budget and about $12.5 billion dollars worth of taxes extended--but this second part is contingent on voter approval during a special election in June.  (Why do the tax extensions, but not the budget cuts, have to be approved by the voters, huh?)  And the cuts, are reportedly spread over a majority of all social programs (except k-12 education).

So what to think?

Well, as a person calling in to a radio news show stated, this is "just another neoliberal budget...it does nothing to increase progressive taxation."  Gov. Brown's budget spares the prison guard union and the adult prison industry.  He even appointed two folks tied to the prison union.  Public services only exist in response to a vastly unequal society, and budget cuts will always attack those most marginalized and disenfranchised by an oppressive economic system.

Governments are and have been slashing social services.  This deepens pain, numbness, rage.  We are witnessing the elimination or worsening of... learning opportunities for youth, counseling for mentally unstable folks, support for low-income single parents, job training for young women and men in the criminal justice system, care for foster children, health services for discriminated-against families, aid for victims of domestic violence, paychecks for case workers, resources for college students, and jobs!

That's kids and teens in shittier schools--schools that foster self-hate, that push kids out, that cannot understand the youth they pretend to serve.

That's more emotionally wounded souls with nowhere to turn.

That's more young, middle-aged, and elderly women with children they can't feed--children they fear are going down the wrong path, but they are so overburdened they don't know what they can do anymore.

That's more men two see only two doors before them--prison or death--because all others have shut.

That's more children who have to learn to survive by themselves on the streets.

That's more uncles, aunts, granny's and grandpas who die preventable deaths from chronic disease or alcoholism.  More dad's who can't work because of severe back pain and mom's who have to work the graveyard shift.  More children suffering from asthma and lack of nutrition.

That's more women and men and trans-identified people suffering trauma that hardens throughout their bodies, building barriers to other and all parts of their life, causing fractures and fissions where there where once whole things.

That's more housemates who can no longer afford rent, who are building up thousands of dollars in debt that they just don't, can't, think about right now.

That's more college students who can no longer take classes on ethnic studies and learn the real history of her people.

Support the social movements demanding a halt to the slashing! 

BUT...is there any silver lining?



YES.  First, Gov. Brown budget includes the previously laughed-at proposal of eliminating the state Department of Juvenile Justice.  Yes, abolishing the system of state-based youth incarceration.  (It would be fully transfered to the counties.)  People have been advocating for closing this horrendous and violent system for a long time.  It would be a big win.  Sign the petition!  Show some support!

Along these lines, is there something to be said for Jerry Brown's philosophical commitment to decentralizing power.  Can we find some hope?

His budget proposes structural transformation, or "realignment" - more power on a county level, which is where ordinary citizens have better ability to influence governement.  It's closer to the people.  Services can serve the needs of the people better.

Much of this goes back to Prop 13, which was passed in 1978.  It has put California in a perpetual budget crises.   It is also considered the "third rail" of California politics, meaning that neither major party even considered touching it.  (Kinda like the prison industry.)  Prop 13 essentially ushered in the Reagan years: when the rich refused to pay their taxes and got the laws changed to reflect that.  Prop 13 capped property taxes at 1% of the property's value.  This severely limited the income of the counties, which depend on property taxes.  County budgets were then supported by state money, therefore ceding a degree of sovereignty and power to the state.

Now, there's opportunity to bring power back to the county level. But the perpetual question is, What about the money?  How are local governments supposed to fund themselves?  How can we bring back progressive taxes and strong property taxes, especially on large corporate owners?  Brown's proposal doesn't address the adequacy of funding social services and how funding for county-run programs has dried up in past "realignment" programs.

But we must also keep in mind that the way things are going, we can't count on having a lot of money.   People all over the world are doing - as they have been - more with less.  It's best we hop on that train too.  A lot of it has to do with building strong and resilient communities, both in our resource-use but also in how we look out for each other.

Until then, lets try to make sure Brown and the CA legislators are tightening the belt around our stomachs, not our necks.



*Actually the same thing... All the money that "the U.S. prints" to fill its deficit holes is actually printed by the Federal Reserve, a consortium of the largest private banks, and then loaned to the federal government at interest.  (Even though Congress has the constitutional power to print it's own money if it wants!) To go down this rabbit hole, click here.

**Basically all governments (all countries and U.S. states) except the U.S. federal government are in danger of bankruptcy if they borrow two much.  The U.S. is immune because it regulates the U.S. dollar, which is cornerstone of international financial power.  But that is only for now.  In the long term, the U.S. appears to be heading down the shithole...in a more systemic way.