YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

State Needs to Muster Courage to Invest in Our Future

In recent weeks, educators and students in Ventura County have banded
together to protest proposed cuts to education spending. The cuts
could eliminate billions of dollars from schools in the state at
every level, from K-12 through the community college system and into
the California State University System.

When will this state realize sacrificing its future prosperity does
no one any good? When will we, as Californians, recognize we must
take far more creative measures and make more immediate sacrifices to
ensure a vibrant society?

It is utterly abhorrent that the world's sixth largest economy and
the nation's most populous state cannot muster the courage to invest
in our future. One would think a society home to Silicon Valley, the
entertainment industry and the emerging biotechnology and green
business industries would understand that success and creativity come
from investment, determination and commitment, not scorched Earth tactics.

Saving this state and its economy means raising taxes. It means
raising taxes to pay for teachers' salaries. It means raising taxes
to pay for school construction. It means raising taxes to pay for
financial aid and grants to stimulate scholarship among those who
otherwise wouldn't be able. It means raising taxes among those who
have benefited from the services this state, and this nation, have to
offer so the entire society can share in those benefits.

If we want to see crime vanish from our streets, we need to pay for
the services that will remove it. That means paying not just the law
enforcers that solve the immediate problems -- although we must be
ready to fund that which we demand -- but for the chance to create
opportunities that make a life of crime unnecessary and irrelevant.
It also means shifting and readjusting our perception of crime.

This is where creativity comes into play. It is far past time for us,
as a society, to stop treating non-violent offenders in the same
fashion we treat those who prey upon and victimize our society. Think
of the millions of dollars we would save if we finally took a stand
against locking up drug offenders and fully decriminalized possession
of marijuana, while treating drug addiction of any sort as it should
be treated, a medical issue. That would free space in our immensely
strained prison system for the most dangerous offenders, allow law
enforcement to focus on drug dealers who stoke the problem, and
lessen the possibility that those imprisoned for minor possession
charges will get caught up with other, more violent offenders.

Creative solutions do not stop at the criminal justice system. If we
want better roads with less traffic and more access to our homes and
jobs, we must be willing to pay for them. We must adjust our gas
taxes (a move admittedly quite unlikely to happen) so they are
dependent on the amount of fuel we use. That means paying for a
percentage of our fuel consumption, not a flat rate. Those who use
more fuel will pay more, ensuring an influx of cash to use to pay for
alternative transportation networks, mass transit systems, and better roads.

One might say that would unfairly punish businesses dependent on
cargo shipments and other transportation, but perhaps we need to look
at it in a different way. If heavy fuel users were paying for the
impacts they have on the transportation system and more people were
using mass transit, that would mean more efficient travel for those
who still need to use traditional transportation (thus saving on time
and money) and more investment in this state on construction and
other jobs necessary to pay for deploying new infrastructure.

If we cannot adapt, if we cannot sacrifice short term profits and
gains for long term strength and success do we deserve to lead, do we
deserve success?