When the ‘49ers crossed a continent toward California, they left everything behind because of the faith that “we can do better.” Those 1930s Dust Bowl refugees headed to California along Route 66 with the belief that “we can do better.”

From across America, from around the world, people have turned to California’s golden dream with the promise to each other that “we can do better.”

In looking at this Tuesday’s propositions, I believe that “we can do better.”

We CAN do better!

We can do better than a jury-rigged budget based on knowingly false assumptions. We can do better than state spending growing twice the rate of inflation/population growth. We can do better than the highest sales and income tax rates in the nation. We can do better than bonding against future lottery revenues, banking on an increasingly ignorant population gullible enough to play it in the first place.

We can do better than massive tax increases in the midst of our state’s worst economic downturn in 70 years.

If the propositions pass, especially the Governor’s Prop 1-A flagship, then we will still be faced with another immediate shortfall and cries for more band-aids and fiscal legerdemain.

If they fail, our immediate fiscal crisis will be greater, but it will force us to implement real long term solutions.

They must include streamlining public education, so dollars flow directly to the classroom, not top-heavy bureaucracies. Do we really need a State Office of Education and 58 separate County Offices of Education? Let our school districts govern themselves. End all categorical funding and empower boards to make real fiscal and academic decisions.

Teachers take a lot of criticism, and certainly their unions have become a reactionary force at pure turf protection. But we do need teachers, and the best ones know how broken the system is. It is the top-heavy administration, the edu-bureacracy and army of consultants that yearly work to reinvent the wheel and institute the latest fads.

In the entire public education system, teachers are outnumbered by non-instructional personnel. More bureaucrats, secretaries and administrators than actual teachers! Let’s pledge to reverse that to a 2-1 ratio. We could have competitive teacher salaries, ask them to do light administrative duties (with computers, that’s now pretty simple), slash administrative overhead and still save money and have better educational results.

We need to look aggressively at cheaper ways to monitor non-violent offenders and decriminalize personal adult choices. Californians have chosen a more enlightened path on marijuana than simply throwing all into the costly criminal justice system, one which will now be respected by Washington.

Public employee pensions are retiring our most valued workers just as they become most productive. A 50-year old police officer now retires, just as his tempered wisdom and experience are needed more than ever. With people living longer and birthrates plummeting, our pension system defies fiscal and demographic reality.

Redevelopment money should be restored to serving the public, not building shopping centers or new ballparks or NFL stadiums. Redevelopment agencies currently divert $6 billion annually into mostly private development schemes that should be left to the free market.

Cities, counties, redevelopment agencies and the state sit atop thousands of acres of unneeded properties that should be sold. Yes, Governor—sell the LA Coliseum. You have a buyer right across the street in USC. Unlike the Chargers or Raiders, the Trojans aren’t demanding a new stadium at public expense—they’ll buy our old one!

California’s history is filled with booms and busts. It is part of a cycle, part of this psychology that brought people here in the first place. From Donner Pass to Cajon Pass, they stood at the brink of a new land, a new life. We now stand on the brink of the darkest hour in state government—and the promise of a new dawn in which to remake our state government.

We CAN do better. And we will!