A public policy group representing the Bay Area's largest employers on Friday endorsed Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan, including asking voters to extend tax increases and eliminating local redevelopment agencies.
California's budgeting for the past decade has been "a childish exercise," a litany of fiscal parlor tricks and passed bucks, Bay Area Council President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Wunderman told reporters after emerging from his executive committee's meeting with Brown. "But there's good news: an adult has entered the room, and his name is Jerry Brown."
While council members don't like the higher taxes, he said, they believe it's important for business to be part of the solution to the Golden State's crisis.
Brown called the council's blessing "a very important endorsement for this package" of realigning government so that many state services become local responsibilities; cutting the budget "drastically in many cases;" and extending 2009's income, sales and vehicle taxes for another five years.
Brown said he hears and will heed the council's call for public pension reform, regulatory reform and long-term budget reform after this immediate budget crisis has been overcome. With the deficit standing at $26.6 billion, Brown has set March 10 as a deadline for the Legislature's approval. The Legislature's budget conference committee finished its work Thursday afternoon, casting a party-line vote to push Brown's plan to both chambers' floors for action and likely votes next week.
Brown said next week's deadline remains necessary in order to leave enough time to arrange a special election on the tax extensions for June 7, eight days before the constitutional deadline for passing next year's budget. He said he'll be working hard between now and then to overcome misgivings from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Wunderman said he and his team will be in Sacramento to push for the plan, too.
Wunderman in January had said his group "could be supportive of the tax extensions, but they could impact job creation and investments in plants."
On eliminating redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones, he had said, "We know there are some boondoggles, and money not always used in ways intended, but they've also helped with major improvements in areas suffering from economic malnutrition."
He had said the council would poll its members on these and other issues.
But Friday, Wunderman said he'd heard "virtually unanimous support" from the executive committee for backing Brown's plan. Although he'd prefer not to see redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones eliminated, he said, the council sees it as a tough necessity that's part of the bigger budget picture.
The Council wants "true incentives that attract businesses to California," and the very best incentive is fiscal and regulatory stability in Sacramento that breeds economic stability statewide, he said.
Asked whether he believes Republican leaders will give a dispensation to GOP lawmakers who support letting voters decide on the tax extensions in June, Brown replied, "No, but I will give dispensation and I know how to do that" -- a reference to his long-ago stint as a Jesuit seminarian.
He also cited the New Testament account of Nicodemus, who visited Jesus only at night to avoid being seen by his peers.
"That's where we are now" with Legislative Republicans, he said.
California's budgeting for the past decade has been "a childish exercise," a litany of fiscal parlor tricks and passed bucks, Bay Area Council President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Wunderman told reporters after emerging from his executive committee's meeting with Brown. "But there's good news: an adult has entered the room, and his name is Jerry Brown."
While council members don't like the higher taxes, he said, they believe it's important for business to be part of the solution to the Golden State's crisis.
Brown said he hears and will heed the council's call for public pension reform, regulatory reform and long-term budget reform after this immediate budget crisis has been overcome. With the deficit standing at $26.6 billion, Brown has set March 10 as a deadline for the Legislature's approval. The Legislature's budget conference committee finished its work Thursday afternoon, casting a party-line vote to push Brown's plan to both chambers' floors for action and likely votes next week.
Brown said next week's deadline remains necessary in order to leave enough time to arrange a special election on the tax extensions for June 7, eight days before the constitutional deadline for passing next year's budget. He said he'll be working hard between now and then to overcome misgivings from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Wunderman said he and his team will be in Sacramento to push for the plan, too.
Wunderman in January had said his group "could be supportive of the tax extensions, but they could impact job creation and investments in plants."
On eliminating redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones, he had said, "We know there are some boondoggles, and money not always used in ways intended, but they've also helped with major improvements in areas suffering from economic malnutrition."
He had said the council would poll its members on these and other issues.
But Friday, Wunderman said he'd heard "virtually unanimous support" from the executive committee for backing Brown's plan. Although he'd prefer not to see redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones eliminated, he said, the council sees it as a tough necessity that's part of the bigger budget picture.
The Council wants "true incentives that attract businesses to California," and the very best incentive is fiscal and regulatory stability in Sacramento that breeds economic stability statewide, he said.
Asked whether he believes Republican leaders will give a dispensation to GOP lawmakers who support letting voters decide on the tax extensions in June, Brown replied, "No, but I will give dispensation and I know how to do that" -- a reference to his long-ago stint as a Jesuit seminarian.
He also cited the New Testament account of Nicodemus, who visited Jesus only at night to avoid being seen by his peers.
"That's where we are now" with Legislative Republicans, he said.
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