Can California Cities Reclaim Control Of Their Revenues?

As one of his first actions as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger repealed the increase in the vehicle license fee approved during this year's budget negotiations. The result of this action is that city and county governments are left with $4 billion at risk, causing an obvious budgeting challenge and grave concern over the future of locally supported programs and services. This is a recent and highly visible example that manifests local governments' inability to control their own revenue stream. To reset and realign the state and local fiscal arrangement, Former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg has filed the California Home Rule Amendment for inclusion on the November 2004 ballot. MIR is pleased to present this opinion piece by Robert Hertzberg in which he argues the need for this amendment.

Thanks to Larry Segal