E-mail a friendKaren Bass
airdate June 15, 2009
In ‘08, Karen Bass became the first African American woman and first Democratic woman to serve as California Assembly Speaker. She's also the first African American woman in the U.S. to serve in this role. Prior to making history, she held the Assembly leadership positions of Majority Whip and Majority Floor Leader. Bass was formerly a community organizer, founder of the Community Coalition in South L.A.—considered a model for energizing communities—and a physician assistant in the nation's largest trauma center.
California Assembly Speaker talks about the proposed cuts of the governor vs. the Democrats. (1:57)
Full interview. (12:39)
Karen Bass
Tavis: Karen Bass just marked her one-year anniversary as the speaker of the California State Assembly, the first African American woman to hold this critical post. This week, she and fellow Democrats will release details of their own budget proposal, which will likely differ in many respects to those of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
She joins us tonight from Sacramento. Madame Speaker, nice to have you on this program - an honor, in fact.
Karen Bass: Thank you. It's an honor to be on.
Tavis: I'm not going to keep you long because I know you've got a lot of work to do and I'm not going to belabor our conversation, but just for a few minutes here let me start by asking - and I shouldn't say asking, but making note of the fact that for those of us who live and work in California, we know that today is the deadline for a balanced budget and obviously it's not going to happen today.
Bass: Well, actually, in fact, we have a budget that's in place. What we're challenged with now is closing a $21 billion deficit because of the continuing decline in revenue because of the national recession. So technically we have a budget in place, but we have to close the deficit, and we need to close it by June 30th.
Tavis: All right. So let me start by asking, then, how did it get this bad in California?
Bass: Several ways. Number one, California was at the epicenter of the recession because of the foreclosure crisis. Forty percent of the foreclosures in the nation took place in California, and so that's one reason.
But also, California's different than 47 other states. It takes us a two-thirds majority - a super majority - to pass a budget, and my Republican colleagues, because of conservative talk radio and because of the stance of the Republican Party, will never vote to raise revenue.
In fact, the six Republicans that finally, after many months, took that vote, many of them are now facing recalls and attacks from their own party.
Tavis: So if politics, then, are the reason why we can't get this deficit adjusted and you can't do anything about the politics, why not - what would the process be, then, for changing that two-thirds rule that hangs it up in the first place?
Bass: Well, you're right on the money. With that, we have to go to the voters, and we plan to do that in November of 2010, but we have a crisis right in front of us right now.
Now, I am confident that we will be able to have our proposal together, actually, in the next 24 hours. We'll be voting on it in several days, just because it takes a while to draft the bills. But we will meet the deadline before the 30th of our proposals as to how to close the $21 billion deficit.
Tavis: How different, then, will your proposal - that is to say Democrats, who you lead in the House, in the assembly, how different will your proposal be from that that the governor has offered?
Bass: Well, let me just describe for a minute. The governor is calling for the elimination of health insurance to about a million children, he's calling for the elimination to financial aid Cal Grant program for college students, he's calling for the elimination of CalWORKS, our Welfare.
What we are fighting for and what we will be able to deliver on his desk, we are going to preserve the safety net programs. We are going to face deep cuts, but we are going to have a balanced approached. There is no way we can close a $21 billion deficit through cuts alone, so our proposal will be a mix of revenue and it will be a mix of cuts.
And I also have to put the cuts into perspective, because over the last three years we've cut more than $25 billion out of the budget in California, and right now, frankly, our safety net is almost on life support. But where the Democrats disagree is that we are not going to be the only state in the country that wipes out the safety net.
Tavis: A few weeks ago I ran into you. You were making a round of mega-churches here in Los Angeles. I was at one of those churches to speak that Sunday morning, and I ran into you - not just you, but you were hanging out with a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bass: With the governor, that's right.
Tavis: So you and the governor were making rounds together, and yet you have very different proposals. Why were you and the governor going to Black churches and other mega-churches in the city, speaking together, then?
Bass: Sure. Well, a couple of weeks ago we absolutely were on the same page. We were out campaigning for the passage of the ballot measures. And frankly, if those ballot measures had passed, our $21 billion deficit would not have been as large.
Unfortunately, the voters voted those propositions down, and so the governor's proposal on how to close the deficit is different than ours. I think from his perspective, his viewpoint is that the voters are now telling us that they want these cuts. I disagree that that is what the voters were telling us when they voted down the proposals.
So there are many times when we're on the same page with the governor and then sometimes we differ, and this is an example of where we have two different approaches. We both agree we need to close the deficit, but I don't believe that we close the deficit by eliminating programs to the most vulnerable Californians and to education.
Tavis: The voice of the California voters was clear, to your earlier point, about these ballot measures some weeks ago. What did you read into that? How did you read that vote?
Bass: Well, I read it a couple of ways. One, I read it and also know through polling that voters were clearly telling us, "Sacramento, you solve it. Don't bring it to us to solve." But I do know that one of our challenges in California is the initiative process. That's why we went to voters in the first place, because you probably know that as legislators, we only have control over about 10 percent of the budget in California.
About 90 percent is determined by initiatives that voters have passed over time. So any time we need to make an adjustment in those initiatives, we have to go to the voters, and I think the voters were frankly frustrated with it.
Tavis: Are California voters schizophrenic, or is it time - let me rephrase that. Are California voters schizophrenic, or have we gotten to a point now where we're ready to change the process, and that is to say now the process of all these initiatives?
Because I tell you, as one California voter, I get sick and tired of going into the voting booth and having to wade through page after page after page of initiative when I elected y'all to do that.
Bass: Well, you know what? It's actually - most of the time it's not the legislature that puts the initiatives on the ballot.
Tavis: Fair enough, fair enough.
Bass: It is individuals. I think there's several things that need to change, and I think frankly that this crisis presents an opportunity that it's ripe to look at change. Number one, we need to modernize our tax system. Number two, we need to modernize our tax system. Number two, we certainly need to change the initiative process. Number three, we need to eliminate the two-thirds.
So there are some fundamental things that need to change in California. We already have these structural problems, but when you put the worst recession in the nation since the Great Depression on top of the structural problems that already existed in California, that's what's caused the crisis to be so severe.
Tavis: Let me get personal, if I can, for just a second. I want to put up a quote from you, Speaker Bass. You said recently in the "L.A. Times," "I ran for office so I could protect and expand the very programs that I'm now tearing apart. It's very difficult," close quote. Tell me more.
Bass: Exactly. Well, you know me, I've been an activist all my life and I have fought for many of the programs that are in place right now. First and foremost is foster car. A couple of years ago I was able to win $84 million in the foster care system, and that $84 million is on the chopping block right now.
So you can only imagine, Tavis - I spent five years trying to address that situation. It's pretty painful to actually have to pare down programs, but the fact of the matter is is that we are in a national recession, and so many programs will have to be cut.
But you know, it is also an opportunity, so for example, we need to cut corrections. Well, maybe it's time that we bring about some change when we cut back on corrections. You know we have the highest recidivism rate in the country. Maybe we can have some cost savings and make some policy adjustments at the same time.
Tavis: Speaking of policy adjustments, what are your personal parameters as the speaker, as a Democrat, for what you will do, for what you will not do, and where the line is for you?
Bass: Exactly. Well, the line is drawn at we will not eliminate programs. We will not cut education to the extent that the governor is proposing. And so that is where my line is drawn.
I think it's very important that we balance the budget in a responsible way, that we have a balanced approach - not through cuts alone. That we are able to meet the deadline and that we do no harm. Because some of the cuts that have been proposed would actually lead to people dying.
For example, a 24-year-old young woman came in and testified that if we instituted the cuts that were called for with the HIV medication, she would literally die. And so the line has to be drawn that we cannot balance the budget in a way that we literally put people's lives on the line. That's where my line is.
Tavis: And yet you know this, and I know you know it because I'm reading the news and watching it every day as we all are in California at how some of the persons who have supported you, some of the constituencies that we know to be friendly to Democrats and constituencies that Democrats are friendly to are beating at your door and leading protests and being very vocal about what they think might be on the chopping block.
How do you personally navigate knowing that even if you don't cut them out, you're going to have to cut programs that are important to constituencies that have supported you in your elector efforts?
Bass: Well, I was definitely elected to serve, and in the role I'm in now, I was elected to govern. And so it's most important that I act responsibility and what that means is that I can't stand around and let the state default for the first time in California's history.
But having said that, for all the years I spent out there protesting as well, I welcome the protests, frankly, because the more the issue can be raised in the public, the more the awareness is in the public about the cuts, I think it helps us in the long run.
We have to put the fire out right now, but Californians, we really need to ask ourself the question, what is the quality of life, what is the standard of living that we want in California, and how are we going to pay for it? Because oftentimes people want services but they don't necessarily want to pay. And we have to reckon with that at some point in time.
Tavis: To your point now - you mentioned earlier at the top of this conversation that the housing crisis got us in this mess in the first place more severely than other states. But let me ask you now - we're seeing, of course, around the nation, but specifically to Californians, to California residents, what is it that we can do, what is it that we have to come to terms with, to take your last point a bit farther, what do we have to come to terms with about what we are willing to live with and not live with in California?
Bass: Exactly. Well, I think that we need to look at a number of things. For example, proposition 13, for many years ago, when we capped property taxes. We capped property taxes on commercial property. Maybe we need to revisit that. There are some hard questions that we need to ask ourselves in California.
But one thing in regard to the housing crisis that I need to mention is that today a law went into effect in California that says that if you are in foreclosure, there is a moratorium on foreclosures now for 90 days. Ninety days, the banks have to work with the individual to try to do a loan modification, and that's a law that we passed to address the housing crisis, and it goes into effect today.
Tavis: Finally, no one put a gun to your head and made you run for assembly speaker. You ran, you won, and we all celebrated the fact that we had the first Black woman in the country running a legislature. We were certainly happy here in California as to your elevation.
Bass: Thank you.
Tavis: If in the - you're very welcome, then and now. If in the process you end up getting push-back where your election is concerned because of the tough measures that you will have to put into place, will it have been worth it?
Bass: Well, you know what? As painful as this year has been for me, and it definitely has been painful, given why I ran for office to begin with, I'm glad I'm at the table. I'm the only woman at the table, I'm the only person of color at the table, and I'm happy that I'm there.
Again, you know that I'm going to fight as hard as I can to preserve the programs, to preserve education, and sometimes you're called to serve in a time of crisis, and I certainly was. I would have wished it another way, but look at our president - look at what he has to deal with.
Tavis: On that note, I'll leave it right there. (Laughter) California assembly speaker, the first Black woman in the country to lead a state legislature. Her name, of course, Karen Bass, from the city of L.A.
Speaker Bass, nice to have you on. All the best to you in the coming days, I know you'll need it.
Bass: I appreciate it.
Tavis: Take care.
Bass: Okay.
Back to June 15, 2009