State and Local Budget Cuts

Spare me the rhetoric about cutting bureaucracy that we heard from state Assembly members in Sacramento who voted May 27 to eliminate the state’s public information officers.

As a state public information officer, I do not think it is wasteful for state government, a $50-billion institution with 200,000 employees, to employ 190 professional communicators to provide information on state government to 31 million Californians.

One common function of public information officers is to give the news media (and therefore the public) quick, reliable answers when they inquire about freeway projects, toxic waste sites, education matters, public health problems and the myriad issues involving state government. The Assembly now says that state agencies must not make any special effort to provide this information.

This action might save $7 million--less than one-tenth of 1% of the current state budget deficit. The Assembly could simply have cut appropriations to state agencies by that amount and let department managers decide which cutbacks to make.

Instead, the Assembly now says that no state agency--including those that must disseminate critical and sensitive information to protect public health and safety--can employ a professional communicator for any reason, even if an agency can make cuts in other areas.

Assemblywoman Valerie Brown (D-Sonoma), author of the proposal to eliminate information officers, was quoted as saying, “In my own business, when I have to cut, PR goes.” I challenge Brown to find one business with assets of $1 billion or greater that has no public-affairs staff responsible for communicating with its customer base and the news media.

The Assembly did not cut state government’s fat--just its vocal chords.

ALLAN HIRSCH

Elk Grove

* Gov. Pete Wilson’s $2.6-billion property tax transfer to state schools works out to about $96 per Californian.

The Los Angeles City Council’s just-passed $3.9 billion budget comes out to about $1,147 per Angeleno. If the city’s voters reject new sales taxes this November, local politicians will have to cut $96, or a little over 8%, for per capita spending.

While no one likes belt-tightening, an 8% cut hardly justifies the doomsday, we’ll-have-to-close-the-jails talk. It’s time our elected officials started making some tough decisions.

DAVID W. HUNTINGTON

Los Angeles