Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tells more than 100 members of the Sacramento Press Club during an August 16 speech near the state Capitol that he is urging Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature to reform the state’s system for securing revenues with a goal of increasing funding for public education and other vital services.

The LA leader declared that it is time to end the “tyranny of the minority” that requires new revenues to be passed by a two-thirds majority.  He also said state funding for public education has declined so precipitously that it is unreasonable to act teachers to succeed under such conditions.

The mayor said California’s funding per student under then-Gov. Ronald Reagan allowed California’s schools to become the best in the nation.  The much-lower current funding is forcing California to wrestle with Mississippi for last place in public schools.

The mayor said that up to $28 billion could be raised if California closed corporate property tax loopholes and other parts of the “Swiss cheese” of its revenue system.

The mayor said that reform to governmental efficiency, pensions, and education would be the price of the new revenues.