The history: Year after year, billions of much-needed state dollars are given away to corporate and other special interests in last-minute, secret backroom budget deals at the expense of seniors, children, working parents, people with disabilities, and all California families.

In 2009 alone, Governor Schwarzenegger gave more than $2 billion away in new secret corporate tax loopholes while billions of dollars were cut from health and human services investments in our future.

Every year, these massive giveaways result in severe cutbacks to vital health and human services for families, which in turn costs the state jobs and economic productivity and threatens to eliminate critical services for millions of seniors, low-income children, people with disabilities and others. What's more, other secret deals not even related to the budget are repeatedly struck that harm working families, our environment, and our democracy.

Our solution: Stop the Governor's secret backroom deals that put corporations ahead of families. Open the doors on the "Big 5" and make our leaders accountable for the choices they make.

Tell our Governor and legislators to pass a budget that reflects our values and includes a Family Recovery Plan for California! We all win when we have a budget that creates and maintains jobs, provides a strong safety net for where there are no jobs, and goes after targeted federal and state funds for California's families.