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First Things First

...But not necessarily in that order.

Posts tagged with "California"

What's California's problem?

Friday, 10. July 2009, 18:15:46

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Why does California have such a terrible budget problem?
And from who, exactly, does California get its cash?

Governor Schwarzenegger, quoted in The Wall Street Journal: "California's budget is so volatile because the top 1 percent of taxpayers provide 50 percent of all our personal income tax revenues..."

Dan Logue, a Republican assemblyman from Northern California who is heading up a task force on taxes, tells me that the tax system is so "harmful to business" that states like Colorado are now advertising their low business taxes of less than 5% to get businesses to relocate. "Our tax system is killing our state," he complains.

Any questions?

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What California government workers think of you taxpayers

Thursday, 9. July 2009, 18:26:00

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I'm shamelessly swiping the post title from Lou Minatti's blog simply because I think it's perfect. These are a few comments posted on the Sacramento Bee site:

next_milenium
To all state employee haters:

Stop wasting time and go back to flipping burgers!

Class dismissed!

hamner75
State workers are the backbone of all Californians. No furloughs, no pay cuts, or layoffs. Give us all raises and we will all start putting are money back into the economy and everyone will be happy.

sealgaire
But, obviously you hate state workers, probably because you could not pass the entrance exam to get a job. Can I have a Big Mac, fries, and a medium coke please? Have a nice day.

In case you hadn't heard, the State of California is, for all practical purposes, bankrupt. They've spent like drunken sailors so hard, for so long, that they're broke. It's at the point that the state is issuing IOUs of questionable value to cover its bills.

To illustrate that point, Lou adds this very revealing graph of California budget growth over the past 10 years:

But then, being a state worker makes you somehow... better than the chumps who insist that they need raises. Raises, fer Chrissake! Are they truly that stupid, or is this mere bravado?

One of Lou's commenters has, I think, hit the nail on the head:

State workers are just terrified because they know their world is about to rock and rock hard.

I hope so. I truly do. Unions were once respected, even revered -- but that was a long, long time ago. Now, they're simply loathed.

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California declared a disaster area

Wednesday, 20. May 2009, 11:37:27

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California has a dysfunctional government. The state Legislature is so gerrymandered that I don't think there's one competitive seat in the state. This allows each legislator to vote however s/he likes, which is what leads to train wrecks like the state's $21 billion deficit. I don't have the figures at hand, but as I recall the state's spending has shot up like Topsy in recent years -- along with tax hikes which make the Golden State very unfriendly to anyone who has a job.

They just had a vote on a handful of budget initiatives designed, as usual, to disguise the fact that they want to spend and tax more. Californians, not being stupid, voted them down.

State leaders, naturally, are pissed. Do they plan to roll back any of the spending hikes they've lavished on their pet programs? Hell, no:

Schwarzenegger had warned that, without budget relief from voters, he would have to take severe steps.

The steps include shortening the school year by a week and a half, cutting tens of thousands of education jobs, eliminating health insurance for nearly 250,000 needy children, laying off 1,700 state firefighters, and withholding $2 billion from local governments, which could trigger cuts in law enforcement and other services.

Defeat of the provisions also could free 38,000 inmates and force the sale of the notorious San Quentin prison.



In the best tradition of hidebound politicians, they'll follow the usual script. They want spending cuts? Okay, suckers, you got it! They'll cut highly visible spending -- that is, outlays in areas designed to make taxpayers seethe. Next up, they'll close public beaches and parks. At some point they hope, the suckers will protest against those cuts. In response, the legislators will regretfully announce they have "no choice" but to impose more tax hikes.

Will they fall for it? Dunno. At some point, Californians will revolt. Not simply protest, but outright revolt.

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As goes California, so goes America...

Saturday, 21. February 2009, 02:48:49

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...right down the tubes:

If the future happens in California, we all should tremble at its ever-expanding debt, falling credit ratings, crushing pension obligations, suffocating regulation, and rising taxes — with environmentally preening, ill-considered restrictions on carbon emissions thrown on top.



If you happen to live in the Golden State, you already know the score: a budget deficit of $42 billion. How'd that happen? Your state government increasing spending by an average of $8 billion per year in each of the past five years. Possibly your best fate is that not all of you will be taxed to the point where you can't afford to live there any more.

But here's the part that scares the hell out of the rest of us:

California Democrats are only slightly ahead of national Democrats, so the country’s fiscal future may be in preview in Sacramento. ...

The new budget deal will cut about $15 billion in spending and raise roughly the same in taxes, including the car tax over which Schwarzenegger pounded Davis in 2003. The deal has its worthy provisions, but fundamentally it is more of the same. California will remain overtaxed, overregulated, and overburdened by a public sector that is the state’s sole boom industry.



May the gods have mercy. The Democrats who now rule Washington with an iron fist ("We won") won't... at least until a couple of months before the next election.

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