Sacramento Metro Chamber President & CEO Matt Mahood provided chamber member comments on the governor's proposed budget solution to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week. Metro Chamber members and stakeholders were surveyed for their views on budget cuts and tax increases. Survey Results

Mahood was included among a dozen statewide business and political leaders meeting with the governor on Nov. 14. Among the findings from members that Mahood passed along to Schwarzenegger were:

Business and voters are ready to accept deep cuts in all the areas we proposed to them in our survey including, but Metro Chamber members are most supportive of cuts in these areas:
--$78 million in reductions to parole spending for low-risk offenders
--$320 million in reductions to state employee compensation
--$349 million in reductions to Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment grants
--$250 million in reductions from shifting some public safety spending away from the General Fund

Metro Chamber members are not supportive of cuts to K-12, higher education and the CalWORKs program.

Surprisingly, business and voters appear ready to accept “some” higher taxes to meet the budget shortfall. Metro Chamber members are most supportive of:
--$293 million from a five cent increase in the alcohol excise tax
--$528 million from a tax on oil producers for the right to extract oil in California
--Permit tax hikes okay, however, if not coupled with deep spending cuts and incentives to get people back to work, the support will evaporate immediately.

The budget must ensure the burden is spread evenly amongst all the citizens proportionally. It is the only fair way to get out of this financial trouble.

Metro Chambers suggest that the governor can jump-start the economy by making sure that the previously approved bond money gets to the street immediately.

In terms of the proposed various economic stimulus measures, Metro Chamber members were most supportive of:
--Allowing employees to work a flexible schedule upon request, without being paid overtime. This will help both small business as well as large business.
--Clarifying meal and rest period laws: This will help both small business as well as large business.
--Reducing barriers to public-private partnerships and design-build agreements.
--Streamlining the permitting and review process for non-structural hospital construction projects under $2 million in the six-county Sacramento region is critical.
--When asked, 79.5 percent of the Metro Chamber members who answered the survey agreed that that we should support Schwarzenegger's proposal to close California's $11.2 billion budget shortfall.

Among individual comments that the survey generated were:
--I don’t disagree on the infrastructure spending (and that does help a broad sector of our economy), but I hope we also stress that the governor needs to take actions to free small, medium and large business from costly red tape, encourage research and development that is so critical to our innovation economy and take actions that encourage much needed capital investment.
--We need to position for an impending economic stimulus package that will primarily consists of job-creating infrastructure projects. Roads, bridges, levees, and other public projects that are "ready-to-go" to construction will rank high and we should make sure that we are advocating (with specifics) for our fair share.
--I suggest that the state implement an incentive system for the staff-based on reducing budget expenses and give them a portion of it back, even increase it if the state hits its customer satisfaction goals.
--I would simply say that we have to get the job done. It is no longer acceptable to say “no further cuts” any more than it is acceptable to say “no new taxes.” Personally, I suggest reinstituting the vehicle license fee. It is an ad valorem tax so those who own high-end vehicles or multiple vehicles will pay more but I presume that are capable of paying more which means this is a progressive tax. It could balance a sales tax increase such as has been proposed. With the dramatic reduction in gas prices, folks should be able to handle this. I would suggest a sunset on the provision however.