Assemblymember Skinner Takes to the Airwaves on Governor Schwarzenegger's Failures

East Bay Assemblymember Nancy Skinner is the first Democratic lawmaker to take to the airwaves challenging Governor Schwarzenegger for failing to get a single Republican in either the California Assembly or State Senate to vote on any budget revisions that could avert Californias cash crisis. Skinners ad is running on cable television in her East Bay District Thursday and Friday on CNN, MSNBC, CNN Headline News, CNBC, Fox News, and Comedy Central (Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report). In the ad, Skinner says: As your State Assemblymember from the East Bay, I am concerned about how the economic downturn is affecting our California communities. Job loss and foreclosures are at an all time high and our neighborhoods are hurting. In Sacramento, I am working with state leaders on budget solutions that will preserve vital services, protect our children's schools, and restore funding to shovel ready infrastructure projects that can put people back to work up and down our state. With the enormity of Californias budget deficit such a solution requires a balanced package of spending cuts and new revenues. But Governor Schwarzenegger has not been able to lead his own party to a reasonable compromise. We can do better. Join me, tell the Governor we can fix Californias budget problems without rollbacks to worker and environmental protections or devastating our schools. Together lets move California forward. Skinner explains why she needed to communicate with her constituents. With 69 days since the Governor declared a fiscal emergency and called the legislature into special session, he has failed to get a single Republican vote for any solution. Id prefer that Democratic and Republican lawmakers act together to solve this budget crisis. But my Republican colleagues have refused to vote on any proposals—even their own. Accepting the enormity of the immediate problems we are facing, I and my fellow Democrats acted and put a majority vote solution, a balanced package of spending cuts and new revenues, on the Governors desk. Since the Governor vetoed the only plan with sufficient votes so far, we must now look to the Governor to deliver Republican votes. The Governor claims that unless we deregulate environmental protections and overturn labor laws, the state cant move forward. I reject the Governors assertion that we need to suspend environmental and worker protections to move infrastructure projects. There are shovel ready projects that could be restarted immediately reemploying workers up and down the state if we act now. Californians need to talk to our Governor and let him know we can fix the budget with a balanced package of cuts and revenues, without suspending environmental and worker protections or devastating our schools.

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YouTube | January 14, 2009

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