SACRAMENTO, CA—Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) made the following statement in response to the Governor’s State of the State speech:
“From the day the Governor took office, he promised to cut up the State’s credit card, fix California’s fiscal problems and balance the budget. On August 24, 2007 the Governor declared ‘the budget deficit is zero.’ Now four months later he says we have a $14 billion imbalance. Either some catastrophic event has occurred to create this huge hole or the Governor has been less than forthright with us. Tonight he said definitively ‘we do not have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.’ Three minutes later he asks how we can meet all of our needs and says ‘There isn’t enough money in the public sector to do all of it.’ It sounds to me like the Governor is making a case for a revenue problem. Until the Governor recognizes that the $6 billion hole he created his first day in office is causing great damage to our state or somehow restores the $6 billion revenue stream, we can’t have an honest conversation about this budget crisis.”
For those joining in gay marriages today, the road from outlaw status to respectability was paved in the Legislature over three decades.
From decriminalizing sex between same-sex couples, to outlawing job discrimination against homosexuals, to adding gay members to the legislative roster, the government has been taking steps, measure-by-measure, that have led to gay couples joining hands in marriage ceremonies across the state.
