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California Night Sweatin'
Just for the record, since I get asked this a lot: the reason I'm not writing about the California budget mess, 
even though I live in California, is because I just can't stand to. Sorry. If you ever thought there was a group of lawmakers who could make the U.S. Congress look like a sober, highminded deliberative body, the clowns in Sacramento are them.
In case you're interested, here's the latest. No budget agreement is on the horizon, but on June 29 Dems tried to pass a bill that would have saved a bit of money. It was a technical measure related to how education money is distributed via Proposition 98, but the bottom line is that it would have saved the state about $3 billion. It had to be passed before June 30 or not at all, but Arnold Schwarzennegger flatly refused to consider it. Why? Who knows. No "piecemeal" budgeting, he says. He wants an entire budget all at once that slashes $24 billion without increasing taxes so much as a dime, or nothing at all. Why? Again, who knows? It's like trying to figure out a five year old.
So, anyway, our gargantuan budget deficit, much of it caused by almost lunatic irresponsibility on Schwarzenegger's part in the first place, is now about $3 billion higher because of further lunatic irresponsibility on Schwarzenegger's part. And while Dems may not exactly be heroes in this mess, at least they're doing something. Proposing things. Trying to keep the state from resorting to IOUs for blind people. Hoping to do something to prevent our credit rating from going down the toilet, making our budget problem even worse. Something. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger has no plans at all, and the sullen Republican rump in the Senate and Assembly just sits around and votes no on everything. No proposals, no ideas, no nothing. Just no, no, no.
Like I said, it makes Washington DC look like the second coming of Periclean Athens. Depressing. But if you really want to know more — and you're a stronger man than me — check out the fine folks at Calitics. They'll keep you up to speed.
Hey but at least the unions
Hey but at least the unions will get paid. That's what Democrats really care about.
Legislator Payments
The legislators are getting paid in cash, not IOUs. I know that the state is required to pay many state employees in cash, but can we at least pay the legislators in IOUs? It is their fault. Incentives matter!
California mess
Sorry--if you think the California legislature is pathetic, I invite you to glance at the NY legislature, which is behaving like a bunch of kindergarteners (no offense to kindergarteners intended), while our hapless governor-ish guy fulminates periodically for the cameras. You're not going to get the title of Worst Legislature without a fight from us combative New Yorkers.
Worst Legislature? How so?
Worst Legislature? How so? While in California the legislators do nothing, here in NYS our legislators worked so hard that we had two senates!
Thank goodness our NYS political leaders have risen to the challenges of these trying times. Oh, and what kindergarten are they from? Oops - uncalled for snark. My daughter just graduated kindergarten and I know that she and her classmates are more mature than that.
I live in San Diego, where
I live in San Diego, where our reactionary board of supervisors has a pretty fair cash reserve. For state-funded programs administered by the county, they plan to keep making payments to their clients in cash, to be repaid eventually by the state. The county guy on the news said they had enough reserves to make full payments for "at least a couple of months."
I'm a tax and spend liberal and would gladly increase my taxes, say 10%, to pay for the programs that will be cut.
Because there were no exit polls at the special election (newspapers couldn't afford them), we don't know for sure why people voted the May initiatives down, but the politicians say it was because it included taxes. I think it was because it had too many cuts and weird changes.
Let's take a balanced look at things...
....it *is* a lot cheaper to register a car now, isn't it?
its simple. Take across the
its simple. Take across the board cuts now to fix the budget. Get the state back on track. Then do the hard work to straighten it out later.
anandine, Raise taxes on
anandine,
Raise taxes on whom?
Do you want to see more businesses leave the state?
Just take across the board cuts. If the services cut are really missed, they will be voted back in. If it was just pay offs to too many workers doing not enough tasks, it won't be missed. But let's at least try that.
Raise income taxes on everyone
John Hansen, I'd say raise income taxes on everyone, share the pain.
let Malibu burn
It would be nice if the people who supported the Arnold and deregulated utilities would suffer, but many of them are too wealthy to suffer any consequence from less state provided social services and lack of utilities regulation. The wild fire fighters are probably not members of the wealthy elite, so they should refuse to fight fires that threaten the 2nd or 3rd homes of California's wealthiest people. If California is to be destroyed, let Malibu be the first community put on its ash heap.
No plan by the governor?
Schwarzenegger submitted a detailed plan to balance the budget to the Legislature. The cuts were, all agree, extreme, but so is the state's deficit. The Democrats rejected the governor's plan, and he's since offered other ideas, but the notion that the R's are just sitting around doing nothing does not square with the facts.
Hansen sez break the law?!
John Hansen,
Across the board cuts are simply not legal in CA. Are you suggesting they break the law?! I know the GOP is the party of simple-sounding answers but I never expected them to suggest breaking the law.
Shoot, if you want to open that door I suggest CA become the Amsterdam of North America and tax the hell out of pot tourism. A lot fewer people would get hurt doing that.
Tripp
Starving the Beast
This is about as close as it gets to starve the beast becoming a reality. As a Californian and a Dem, I am horrified. As a political observer, I am fascinated.
Do we have to watch yet another Republican-made crisis?
Kevin, despite your gloom I thank you for writing these posts. Without them I wouldn't know what's happening out there on the Left coast. The housing crisis crept up on us from out there and now this. It is tragic.
I think Casey is right. THIS is the Republican strategy in the flesh. This is what they insanely wish on all of America.
Apparently the Republicans have decided politics is NOT the art of compromise, but the blunt weapon of "No".
And so another nanny state
And so another nanny state has budget problems. Go figure. New York and New Jersey, two other states with quite large entitlement programs, are also in trouble.
Sigh.
When will they learn? You can't promise government goodies to everyone, especially in an economic recession. Some say "raise taxes," but do you really want to raise taxes and watch more people suffer, or worse, businesses shutter or leave?
Maryland tried to raise taxes on the wealthy and it just decreased revenue. The rich left the state.
Instead of raising taxes or handing out IOUs, maybe these liberal state governments should use their noggins and start cutting the budget.
California Budget
The current mess simply reinforces the notion that most Republicans subscribe to the Grover Nordquist philosophy of starving the beast. The Governor and his Republican lackies are doing a very good job of starving the beast and, given their lack of work to resolve the budget crisis, we Californians are in for a very bad number of years.
education
I got to community college in california and its very scary because so many classes are being cut. Another thing which is impossible to ignor is that teachers are not allowed to make photocopies for our classes (at all: math exams must be given on one sheet of paper, chemistry professors are not allowe to give any hand outs, quizes are taken from the board. which is all good saving paper, but scary because we cant afford to buy paper.) Also, a lot of student workers are being laid off. Many california colleges and universities have closed for the summer. I go to a more well off community college but we will be closing down for the next winter intercession. I was a memember of a group of students which approached our schools board of trustees to request that no core classes be cut. But it is impossible because the state has delayed giving us the funding we depend on over the past four months. We were supposed to get money in june or july, now we are supposed to get money in october. Our school has never used loans and we must now in order to pay faculty. Can the governor be fired? is that possible? Is it beneficial? What can a citizen do to improve this szituation?
education
I go to community college in california and its very scary because so many classes are being cut. It is impossible to ignor that teachers are not allowed to make photocopies for our classes (at all: math exams must be given on one sheet of paper, chemistry professors are not allowed to give any hand outs, quizes are taken from the board. good to save paper, but scary if we cant afford to buy paper.) Also, a lot of student workers are being let go. Many california colleges and universities have closed for the summer. I go to a well-off community college but we will be closed for the next winter intercession. I was a member of a group of students which approached our schools' board of trustees to request that no core classes be cut. But oru request is impossible to meet because the state has delayed giving us the funding we depend on over the past four months. We were supposed to get money in june or july, now we are supposed to get money in october. Our school has never used loans and we must now in order to pay faculty and staff. Can the governor be fired? is that possible? Is it beneficial? What can a citizen do to improve this situation?
California needs more
California needs more immigrants. That's what gives a state vitality. Immigrants are hard workers.
We had our chance to at least partially fix things in March. . .
. . . not a perfect solution by any means but it was something.
The anti-tax folks had their way, however, and now those of us who work directly or indirectly for the State of California (disclosure: I work for the University of California but obviously don't speak for it) will probably have our pay cut by 8 percent for at least the next year. And what is that but a backward tax on a selected group of people?
When you can't pay your mortgage, thank a conservative.