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9A Page 7 the potential dire consequences facing California if the measures are defeated. The League of California Cities endorsed the propositions on April 6 to help prevent a deeper state fiscal crisis and to enact some long-term state budget refonns. "A number of city officials told the Governor they understood the state's fiscal plight because they are already making deep budget cuts to core services and any loss of property tax funds to finance the state budget would be crippling, It said Chris McKenzie. League executive director who attended both meetings. One of the two budget options put forth by the Governor on Thursday, May 14. would borrow local property taxes. With this official announcement, more and more cities are engaged and looking to pass resolutions declaring a state of severe fiscal hardship. City officials should contact their regional public affairs manager to take action. A sample resolution can be found on the League's Web site http://www.cacities.oro/resource files/28002. SAMPLERESOLUTIONF I N DI NGASEVEREFISCAL HARDSH IPMay8.odf. Local Associations Plan State Governance Reform Summit Restoring Local Control Will Be Focus of Summit July 17-18 Whatever the outcome of the May 19 statewide special election. there is a growing belief among Californians and local government leaders that the state government has become hopelessly dysfunctional. The League board of directors supports the May 19 ballot measures, however it is keenly aware that late budgets, partisan gridlock, a lack of a long-range fiscal plan and a failure to address water resources, education and the other major pressing issues of the day are evidence of the need for fundamental reforms in how the business of California state government is conducted. The League supported the establishment of a Fiscal Reform Task Force earlier this year by the City-County-School (CCS) partnership to study and recommend reforms to the state budget process and the state and local fiscal systems to address the dysfunction and gridlock that seems to have infected state government. The CCS Task Force has been meeting for the last few months and is prepared to submit a list of governance and fiscal reforms to address many of the problems plaguing state government. The major focus of the preliminary report is on the importance of restoring local control in our state-local system. Meeting in Sacramento last month and reviewing the preliminary recommendations of the CCS Task Force. the League board of directors concluded that it was essential that the League and our sister local government associations provide leadership on state governance reform. The board unanimously adopted a resolution (http://www.cacities.ora/resource files/28001.RESOLUTIONENDORSINGSUMMITONST A TEGO VERNANCEREFORM-Final.pdf) inviting our county and school board partners to co-sponsor a Summit on State Governance Reform. The invitation was recently accepted by the executive committees of both the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) and California School Boards Association (CSB) and is being considered this weekend by the delegate assembly of CSBA. Tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 at the Grand Hyatt Regency in Sacramento, the Summit will consider recommendations from the task force and feature debates on other ideas on state governance reform. In the near future, the League will be inviting cities to designate a representative to attend the two-day Summit, which will also be attended by League board members who will be ending their July board meeting early to participate. 7