California Needs a Budget Now!
Time is running out - if you care about cuts to environmental programs and natural resources, as well as schools and our health care system, please take a moment to call your legislator on Thursday, July 31st, to let them know what budget cuts mean to you!
By calling 1-888-268-4334, the toll-free "Cuts Hurt" Hotline will connect you directly to your legislator, so you can tell them why taking a fair and balanced approach to the state budget is so important to YOU. You can also find your legislators and their district office phone numbers through this link: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
Thursday, July 31st is a day that will be focused on communicating the importance of passing a budget that will protect California's environment and environmental programs and California's 278 state parks.
The budget is already late, and we need our legislators to take action NOW in order to protect our state's future! We need to tell our legislators to vote for the Conference Committee Budget, AB 1781, which includes some spending cuts, but also closes tax loopholes and provides additional revenues to prevent even deeper cuts to education, health care and public transportation programs.
Two Key Points to Make in Your Call:
- Protect State Parks! We need to urge legislators to include the State Park Access Pass proposal in the final budget. The California State Park Access Pass is a proposal to provide critical funding for the state park system, while at the same time offering Californians free day-use access to their state parks. It creates a new funding stream for supporting California's state parks by instituting a $10 surcharge on vehicle license fees.
- Protect Public Transportation! As gas prices rise and Californians flock to our buses, trains, and ferries, it's more important than ever to ensure that public transportation gets the funding it deserves in the state budget. Add the urgency of climate change and transportation's 40% greenhouse gas emissions share in California, and public transportation funding becomes even more critical. But, the governor's proposed budget would redirect $1.4 billion in dedicated funds away from public transportation. And now, there are rumors that the governor and legislators are considering even deeper cuts to public transportation spending! Say No to the governor's proposal to raid state transit funds!
California's future is just too important not to pick up the phone and call. It's time to make YOUR voice heard!
MORE TALKING POINTS:
· Californians need a balanced approach to solving our state's budget deficit of $15.2 billion, in order to protect vital services for all Californians, such as public transit, parks, safe drinking water, schools, hospitals, and more.
· The budget proposed by the Conference Committee takes a more balanced, comprehensive approach than the Governor's budget proposal - it includes cuts and closes tax loopholes and restores revenues to prevent even deeper cuts to programs that affect Californians.
· California's environmental programs are chronically underfunded and remain under threat without a budget in place. Yet these programs are important to Californians' daily lives:
o Dependable transit to travel to home and work (and help reduce greenhouse gases),
o Safe and reliable drinking water
o Accessible state parks for recreation and low-cost vacations,
o Protection of wildlife and natural resources that serve as key indicators for the health of our environment
· The compromise budget's revenue package is needed to prevent even more severe cuts to programs that protect our air, water, parks, coast and other resources.
· Protecting our environment improves the quality of life for all Californians - and it's clear that a cuts-only budget is a short-sighted approach that fails to invest in our future. We need to find balanced solutions and new sources of revenue, to protect the priorities we care about most.
· Support the Conference Committee Budget and include the State Park Access Pass in the final budget.
· I urge Assemblymember/Senator (Insert Name) to support the compromise approach of the Conference Committee and to please include the State Park Access Pass in the final budget.
Please call your legislators on Thursday, July 31st, the Environmental Day of Action on the State Budget!
