You seem to have already fallen prey to the mentality that the solution is in raising taxes and more income. The reality is that raising taxes makes California even less competitive with other states, driving away more jobs and causing even more problems. Reducing government spending -- all government spending, not just "waste" -- has to be part of the solution.
You seem to have already fallen prey to the mentality that the solution is in raising taxes and more income. The reality is that raising taxes makes California even less competitive with other states, driving away more jobs and causing even more problems. Reducing government spending -- all government spending, not just "waste" -- has to be part of the solution.
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
- 66,694
- 15,096
- 146
To a certain point, I don't disagree with you. The state's spending IS out of control. (refer to my earlier post about unfunded mandates by propositions)
Where do you cut?
Do you start with the Highway Patrol, one of the highest paid police forces in the state? How about the prison guards? (Their union contract makes all others pale by comparison)
How about highway and bridge maintenance?
Next, let's slash pay for all those overpaid state office workers...engineers, accountants, all the "degreed" jobs...
Next, let's cut costs at the courts level. They're all way overpaid, judges, clerks, bailiffs, etc.
How about we cut legislator's pay and their cushy "per diem" payments? (that actually makes sense...so it'll never happen)
Gawd knows we should slash Oldsmoboat's pay...he's greatly overpaid and underworked...
It's easy to say, "Cut spending," but much more difficult to decide where to make the cuts.
Originally posted by: BoomerD
To a certain point, I don't disagree with you. The state's spending IS out of control. (refer to my earlier post about unfunded mandates by propositions)
Where do you cut?
Do you start with the Highway Patrol, one of the highest paid police forces in the state? How about the prison guards? (Their union contract makes all others pale by comparison)
How about highway and bridge maintenance?
Next, let's slash pay for all those overpaid state office workers...engineers, accountants, all the "degreed" jobs...
Next, let's cut costs at the courts level. They're all way overpaid, judges, clerks, bailiffs, etc.
How about we cut legislator's pay and their cushy "per diem" payments? (that actually makes sense...so it'll never happen)
Gawd knows we should slash Oldsmoboat's pay...he's greatly overpaid and underworked...
It's easy to say, "Cut spending," but much more difficult to decide where to make the cuts.
Yep, spending cuts are always painful, a lot more painful than tax increases, fee increases and other means of getting more income. That's why politicians always go for that option first. Heck, we the voters are responsible for that, we punish politicians that don't dole out the money, we get rid of them and vote in new ones that promise to spend more.
If you look across the country at all the states now running into huge deficits and budget shortfalls. When times were good and the economy is humming, do they keep their spending in check and put money away? No, they spend everything they have, like a drunk sailor in port. Then when times are tough, they have nothing to fall back on. Funny how an ancient document like the Bible (whether you believe it to be some holy book or just some book of fables) has a lesson it in about feast and famine, and here we are thousands of years later and we still haven't learned that lesson.......
That's true as far as it goes, but the politicians are merely a reflection of a stupid, short-sighted, selfish populace which can't stand to face the truth. Voters want fantasies - low taxes but high services, big houses with small payments, diets without exercise, etc. - and will elect liars who promise those things. Californians have the gov't they elected and deserve, and I'm watching their state collapse with glee.
Washington state is on the same track but the governor is no GOP! Could it be this is what you get for being "Blue"?
You forgot to mention the single biggest reason CA is screwed. Prop 13 aka screw the new comer law.
halik
Lifer
- Oct 10, 2000
- 25,696
- 1
- 81
Kali propositions are analogous to Digg running the state - you get mean regression when it comes to intelligence and populist garbage get instated as law. Case point that new chicken proposition thing that will virtually wipe out all chicken farms from the state (something about cages having to be x feet wide or something).
In related news California muni CDSs are trading on par with Mexico's treasuries...
Marijuana is the state's biggest cash crop, the Federal Gov't(BUSH) robbed california of $100 Million this year from state sales tax of Medical MJ.
Please list the parts of the world, other than the Netherlands (where it is getting tighter and tighter) where Marijuana is legal and openly distributed.
That may be one of the more ignorant comments I have ever seen.
I agree with the legalize + tax idea. However, the amount of tax revenue would not be as much as it seems. The price would drop like a rock once it was legal to cultivate. Also, because of the ease of production, it would be almost impossible to regulate/tax.
This has nothing to do with "open and legal."
California is an Amsterdam of sorts of Medica Marijuana Patients. 13 other states have similar laws for those with a doctor's 'script.
Cannabis is already taxed and is a legal commodity for patients. This is completely seperate from legalizing. This was 100 mil that was sitting in our treasury fund that was yanked over-night due to an individual's exploitation of "Federal Powers"
>.>
California is an Amsterdam of sorts of Medica Marijuana Patients. 13 other states have similar laws for those with a doctor's 'script.
Cannabis is already taxed and is a legal commodity for patients. This is completely seperate from legalizing. This was 100 mil that was sitting in our treasury fund that was yanked over-night due to an individual's exploitation of "Federal Powers"
>.>
I'm apathetic towards legalization, but for argument's sake..
The tax would be on the quanities possessed, those that don't report their cannabis consumption accurately would be open to tax evasion. Tax evasion is not worth the few $$ someone might save by being unscrupulous.
Zebo
Elite Member
- Jul 29, 2001
- 39,398
- 19
- 81
Born and raised and educated in California but she can't survive with their current spending schema but it will get worse before it gets better. Productive people leave leaving more people with a 'give me' attitude. And that includes prison guards and contractors to traditional non-revenue generators like drug addicts, homeless and welfare queens. Sad to see really such a beautiful state and hard working people held hostage.
Zebo
Elite Member
- Jul 29, 2001
- 39,398
- 19
- 81
Without it it was screw over the old couple on a fixed income or pension law who were tossed out of their homes by sheriffs due to their rising home values. And you have to be naive to believe 41B could be made up from getting those very few (most are dead) who are still under 1970s property values up to current values.
You're not getting it. Prop 13 was a huge handout to business, when a corporation sells property they structure it in such a way that the ownership is the same on paper, so no step up in value and more taxes.
When a private home is sold, there are no corporations involved, and the taxes are increased, usually by a lot.
So over time, the tax burden is shifted to homeowners, away from business.
This is why prop 13 is BS.
Latest news: Arnold critcizes legislature-and Republicans
Text
California now faces an unprecedented $41.8-billion budget gap by July 2010, with the cascading economic crisis forcing state economists to increase the already dismal projections they made just a few weeks ago, according to documents obtained by The Times.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faulted legislators -- particularly Republicans -- for continued inaction in addressing the situation.
"When you have a crisis, the most important thing is to make a decision," Schwarzenegger told reporters at a Capitol news conference Wednesday. "The worst thing is not to make a decision. The most costly thing we can do is not to take any action."
Over the last month, Democrats have reluctantly agreed to make some cuts in social service programs to deal with the deficit, which is now expected to reach $14.8 billion by June 30, the end of the current fiscal year -- one-third higher than forecast in November. But the Republicans, who control enough votes to block any budget plan, have refused Schwarzenegger's and the Democrats' insistence that spending cuts be matched by new taxes.
Republicans said they were planning to lay out their own plan to deal with the deficit next week. So far, none of the ideas that they have suggested publicly, including increased calls to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse" in state government, would come anywhere near erasing the budget hole, independent fiscal experts say.At his news conference, Schwarzenegger displayed a clock that he said showed the cost of lawmakers' failure to act on the budget. It was ticking at a rate of $1.7 million an hour. The governor said he would place the clock -- which also includes a tally of how many days legislators have gone without action since he first called them into special session, 35 days ago as of Wednesday -- outside his Capitol office.
"They met, they debated, they postured and they did nothing," Schwarzenegger said. " . . . And that was after being three months late already with the budget this year. If that isn't a shameful performance, I don't know what is."
The latest fiscal projections did not appear to have any immediate effect on the impasse.
In a statement released by his office, Assembly minority leader Michael Villines (R-Clovis) disputed charges that Republicans were not negotiating.
"Just this week, we urged lawmakers to review fast-growing areas of state government for savings," he said.
But the Republicans did not recommend specific cuts in those programs, which include in-home supportive services for the ill and disabled, healthcare for those in poverty, the courts and programs for the developmentally disabled.
Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg said in his own statement: "We need partners, not partisans, at the negotiating table."
"Democrats have already shown," he also said, "that we are more than ready to meet Republicans halfway by voting for a fiscal plan of half cuts and half revenue increases in November."
Text
California now faces an unprecedented $41.8-billion budget gap by July 2010, with the cascading economic crisis forcing state economists to increase the already dismal projections they made just a few weeks ago, according to documents obtained by The Times.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faulted legislators -- particularly Republicans -- for continued inaction in addressing the situation.
"When you have a crisis, the most important thing is to make a decision," Schwarzenegger told reporters at a Capitol news conference Wednesday. "The worst thing is not to make a decision. The most costly thing we can do is not to take any action."
Over the last month, Democrats have reluctantly agreed to make some cuts in social service programs to deal with the deficit, which is now expected to reach $14.8 billion by June 30, the end of the current fiscal year -- one-third higher than forecast in November. But the Republicans, who control enough votes to block any budget plan, have refused Schwarzenegger's and the Democrats' insistence that spending cuts be matched by new taxes.
Republicans said they were planning to lay out their own plan to deal with the deficit next week. So far, none of the ideas that they have suggested publicly, including increased calls to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse" in state government, would come anywhere near erasing the budget hole, independent fiscal experts say.At his news conference, Schwarzenegger displayed a clock that he said showed the cost of lawmakers' failure to act on the budget. It was ticking at a rate of $1.7 million an hour. The governor said he would place the clock -- which also includes a tally of how many days legislators have gone without action since he first called them into special session, 35 days ago as of Wednesday -- outside his Capitol office.
"They met, they debated, they postured and they did nothing," Schwarzenegger said. " . . . And that was after being three months late already with the budget this year. If that isn't a shameful performance, I don't know what is."
The latest fiscal projections did not appear to have any immediate effect on the impasse.
In a statement released by his office, Assembly minority leader Michael Villines (R-Clovis) disputed charges that Republicans were not negotiating.
"Just this week, we urged lawmakers to review fast-growing areas of state government for savings," he said.
But the Republicans did not recommend specific cuts in those programs, which include in-home supportive services for the ill and disabled, healthcare for those in poverty, the courts and programs for the developmentally disabled.
Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg said in his own statement: "We need partners, not partisans, at the negotiating table."
"Democrats have already shown," he also said, "that we are more than ready to meet Republicans halfway by voting for a fiscal plan of half cuts and half revenue increases in November."
Why would California starve to death? We are one of the largest food producing areas in the world. Don't be jealous because you don't live here... it really is every bit as awesome as TV and the movies make it look.
Oh and if you can't find a great burrito in Southern California, that's an issue with you, not with the area.
venkman
Diamond Member
- Apr 19, 2007
- 4,950
- 11
- 81
...Until that giant state credit card bill gets called. Oh wait, that's what this thread is about. Well, I'll give you one thing, you do live in a progressive state. I love the fact that I could get married there if I were gay.....oh, wait.
I suppose I can get a good burrito from some of those people in those massive foreclosure camps/parking lots.
The difference between Michigan and California is sunshine, size, and weather. Both states are rotting to death from the stupidity of their leaders.
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