I've already posted on California's budget crisis. Last summer when the budget was being put together. Last fall when the first revenue shortfalls appeared. Last month when it was obvious that the State House could no longer ignore the problem. Now, finally the first stages of the game are being played. And that first stage? Blame. The way this works; the liberal MSM blames the recalcitrant Republicans for obstructing "solutions." Translation; the Democrat legislature cannot ram through dangerous tax increases. The Democrat legislature blames whomsoever is currently in their target sights. For now that is Da Governator. When Arnold was sworn in in the recall election his first act was to repeal the hated vehicle registration tax. “There is an ongoing gap between state expenditures and revenues that this governor helped create by slashing vehicle fees and refusing to balance that loss with revenue from another source,” Perata [Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Oakland] said in a statement. “That alone accounts for $6 billion of this problem.”
Bullsh¡t. Complete utter bullsh¡t in case you are keeping score.
California has a structural deficit/debt problem. No amount of taxes can close the gap. No amount of spending cuts are possible.
Next step: Schwarzenegger will declare a fiscal emergency under Proposition 58, a very weak balanced-budget measure, forcing the Democratic-controlled Legislature to deal with the budget problem supposedly before acting on other issues. This kills the child healthcare plans and any number of grand projects Sacramento was planning. Strangely it also probably means that a lot of untapped bond authority will finally get spent on real projects. High Speed Rail is now officially dead for a generation at least.
There's 12 million families in California. They spend $116 billion a year. What the heck do we get for our $10,000?
17 comments:
F I R S T! Posting from Mommy and Daddy's couch :-)
Murst! On the bright side, when CA quits paying the bills we can ship back all the convicts y-all have spread across the midwest. Tee hee!
Rob:
"There's 12 million families in California. They spend $116 billion a year. What the heck do we get for our $10,000?"
Apparently, what you get is San Francisco planning to make identification available to illegal immigrants so that they have access to "services".
Gee, but you folks out there are swell!
What do we get?
I have a very hard time answering that. Mostly, because of the diffusion of responsibility. How much of our roads are from California taxes and how much from Federal taxes? Our law enforcement is almost all Ca taxes, but it is a fraction of the 10K. Our prisons are expensive, but we also have Federally appointed overseers to make sure we spend more money on prisoner care. Education is significantly Ca money, but a lot of what we blow it on is due to Fed mandates. We do have extensive social services, but I am not sure they are more extensive than other states with large urban bases.
To truly address this issue, you need clarity of responsibility. Then the voters could actually target areas that do not serve their needs.
The Democrat legislature blames whomsoever is currently in their target sights.
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I am very tired of seeing this adjective used incorrectly Robert. When used as a an adjective it is "Democratic", when it is a noun like and individual member of the party "Democrat". Afterall it is the "Democratic Party"
I deliberately misuse the terms because it drives the Democratics crazy. I'll stop when they stop conflating Republican and Conservative. In many ways Clinton's administration was more conservative than the current occupants'.
Since this annoys you it means you must be a Liberalistic. ;-)
To answer a post in the previous thread, I think most states will be facing the same problems--not just California and Arizona and Maryland, but also Utah, Virginia, Massachusetts, Washington, etc., etc. The only states that will really escape it are the more-cows-than-people states like Vermont or Nebraska, commodity-rich states where the tax base isn't critically dependent on real estate or retail sales.
And get ready for state politicians lining up in front of the cameras to deliver platitudes on why they can't cut back spending.
"The time when people are losing their jobs is not the time to cut back on assistance for the unemployed!"
"The Governor says we can't afford spending more on healthcare--but we can't afford to not do more for healthcare!"
"This stadium will actually bring more money into state coffers than it cost when completed--if we halt construction now, it might mean that the state will lose money!"
"Rebuilding this highway isn't about development as much as it's about public safety!"
"After the hurricane [ / wildfire / earthquake / volcano ] hit, we made a promise to the people that we would rebuild, and we need to keep that promise!"
(There might be a future for me as a consultant for local government politicians . . . )
How can this be?
Illegal immigrants contribute so much to the economy, we should be overflowing with dollars. At least that is what WSJ says.
This cronic shortfall can't be happening. Those sneaky xenophobes must be tricking us somehow.
The republicrats represent only the wealthy. Vote for Hugo Chavez!!
I am just pointing out the bad grammar. I know that Limbaugh uses it as well but I don't equate you with him.
I agree with your assertion on Clinton. As for being liberalistic, I am a libertardian demopublican.
I agree Dawg,
To the California Congress spending money is only second to their need to breath. They stole and continue to steal the gas tax money. In case people in California are unaware we the people of California voted for a gas tax that was suppose to be used exclusively for the ROADS. It amounts to ~$4,000,000,000.00 a year nearly every year since it was established the state has stolen the money to make up for budget shortfalls in the General fund.
The remaining citizens of California must hold the line not give in to ANY new taxes or tax increases. Those criminals in the State Congress are going to have to find a way to live within their means. They siphon funds from Police, Fire, Education and Transportation to fund their hair brain social engineering schemes and Employee Unions that give them generous campaign donations. Then expect us to raise our taxes to pay for the Police, Fire, Education and Transportation because they know we will do it.
It is time that our state puts running the business of running the state first and social engineering second. $116,000,000,000.00 is plenty of money to fund the basics and a few other perks.
It is not enough to fund a communist state however, and until the people of California vote to become a communist state we should not have to pay for it.
The answer is California voters need to demand that their elected representatives fix the problems. The ones who don't solve the problems should be swiftly booted out of office, regardless of party affiliation.
Last I checked, Californians were not undertaxed. That leaves only one solution. I realize that the government employee unions in California wield an enormous amount of power, but if the situation isn't turned around California will become Michigan with mountains and nice weather.
Rob -
Can you get the cantidates to stop making that connection? Each is trying to show they are more conservative than the others*, as if this was "the magic word".
Definitely agree that the Clinton camp was much more conservative than the Bush(jr.) camp.
* All except for Guliani, who is trying to convince the world he is "9/11 more 9/11 conservative 9/11 than 9/11 the 9/11 others... 9/11." :)
PV:
"but also Utah, Virginia, Massachusetts, Washington, etc., etc. The only states that will really escape it are the more-cows-than-people states like Vermont or Nebraska, commodity-rich states where the tax base isn't critically dependent on real estate or retail sales."
I'm not sure that Virginia belongs in that basket.
We have Northern Virginia, which is fairly recession-proof, since it's economic engine is the Federal government. And further down the Piedmont, Richmond metro has the State government, which serves the same function, on a smaller scale.
The Tidewater has the Navy, and transportation, as the dollar declines, the ports will pick up business...along with all the supporting trades there.
The Shenandoah Valley has agriculture...and coal, which looks to have a fairly promising future.
It's a pretty stable economic triad.
Certainly the counties, who live and die by property taxes, are going to have to eat a big shit-biscuit as the assessments decline,but outside of schools and police services, there's not much else that county government really provides that needs a continuous cash infusion.
Bilgeman, I would tend to agree with what you ahve to say, but most of what you've described also applies to Maryland, and they are getting hit very hard at the state level.
What percentage of the budget has been mandated by voter propositions? I don't think those things can be cut by the legislature. I think that is a huge problem in this state.
Last, h8trz.
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