Good article on the state of California...

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-01-11 06:27pm

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/ ... cappun.asp

Wanted: Dems with guts
It’s time for politicos to take responsibility for the deficit
and start cutting to close the $35 billion “Grayhole"

The awful truth about the California Budget Debacle is that the politicos fixing it also caused it, and they now could inspire our most precious commodity--educated working people--to hit the U-Haul trail’s deepening, one-way ruts heading out of California.

Leading the ship of fools is, of course, Governor Perfect Hair, the man who declared that no Californian would pay higher electricity rates on his watch and who dithered in fantasyland while events and rates blew past him like a tsunami.

Davis was striving to protect his political ass at the time, and now, in an eerie similarity to those days, he is boasting about how he is going to save us from the $34.8 billion Grayhole.

Davis absurdly claims the budget crisis will be over “within a year.” Worse, he’s grandly been telling a nasty whopper to shirk blame. At his December press conference, he insisted that he approved the remarkable overspending by the Legislature because he trusted Wall Street firms who said the stock market would snap back and help pour tax money into California’s coffers.

This is not true. As outgoing state Controller Kathleen Connell said, “Gray was well aware the stock market was dead, but he spent and spent anyway, to assure his re-election.” When the budget was belatedly approved last fall, all the rosy analysts long had been proven wrong. Even Democratic-leaning economist Steven Levy, of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, told me, “Nobody was surprised by what happened in the stock market.”

I’m not too thrilled with a governor who comes with a $35 billion price tag. Pat Caddell, former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter and now a commentator on MSNBC, fears that with Davis living in la-la land, California may be headed for receivership.

“We haven’t seen the bottom yet, and after all Davis’ budget plans sink in, I don’t think you’ll have to fund a Davis recall effort. It could happen by itself,” said Caddell. “He lied about getting stuck with a massive deficit. It was clearly planned so Davis could hand billions in raises and pensions to public employees, who then delivered thousands of votes to Davis and gave him the edge over Bill Simon. It’s incredible, incredible, outrageous corruption.”

Many in the media do not fully grasp the import of all this.

On January 3, the Los Angeles Times editorial page urged President Bush to release to California and other states $75 billion in economic help “with no restrictions on how the funding might be used.”

Are the editorial writers at the Times high on crack?

Davis and many legislators are untrustworthy souls who knowingly do very naughty things and then lie to avoid getting the paddle. They cannot be trusted with our money and must be closely monitored, like felons. Wisely, Bush said on January 2 that he would give many billions of dollars in federal aid to California--if Davis and the Legislature adopted a budget package in the coming weeks that was shown to create real, economy-building jobs.

You cannot imagine the Shakespearean drama that is about to unfold. We citizens are represented by the most anti- job-creating, inept, unschooled, hard-left/hard-right, ideological Legislature ever to sit in the Capitol.

I watched in horrified fascination at the Capitol in December as the Assembly Budget Committee was told during special budget hearings that there’s little money to be squeezed from Californians, the third-highest taxed in the United States, who are suffering a recession in Silicon Valley unlike anything in the country.

Elizabeth Hill, the state legislative analyst, who strives not to side with Democrats or Republicans, pointedly explained that corporations comprise only a small part of the roughly $70 billion tax revenue--roughly $6 billion.

That was a shock to some Assembly members. Hill noted, again rather pointedly, that “the top 5 percent of Californians pay 42 percent of the income taxes” and that just 10 percent pay 80 percent of income taxes. Furthermore, large numbers of millionaires and those making $100,000 or more have vanished. Some went broke, but others left for states that don’t make them carry as big of a load, like tax-free (and booming) Nevada.

The packed audience at the special hearing appeared stunned. The message was clear: There aren’t enough corporations and rich around to pour huge new tax dollars into state coffers and save us.

So what was the first act announced by the obviously bewildered Jenny Oropeza, a Long Beach Democrat who clearly is in over her head as chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee? I thought that perhaps Oropeza should announce the creation of a job-stimulus subcommittee or a budget-cutbacks task force.

Instead, she formed the Working Group on Revenue--a crew of Democrats now meeting in secret to figure out ways to tax corporations, the rich, the middle class, Internet sales, retail sales, wine sales, small-service businesses and anything else the group can think of.

I’m a Democrat who has had a snootful of stupidity from Democrats in recent years. Thinking that maybe I was being too judgmental, I called some leading Democratic thinkers to get their read on the message coming out of the Legislature.

Al Checchi, who ran against Davis five years ago and has been watching the debacle, told me, “They have thrown the money away, completely distorted the expenditures on public-sector things like huge employee pensions they cannot afford, and they will run deficits of $10 billion or more next year as well. They should stop worrying about finding new taxes that are barely going to address this and deal with the true cause: their incredible overspending.”

Not likely, considering a key member of the Working Group on Revenue is one of the most anti-middle-class, capitalist- loathing big spenders in higher public office in California, Jackie Goldberg of Los Angeles, who one legislative aide told me “has already taken control of the working group” even though she is not its chairperson. Goldberg is, officially, the Stupidest Well-Spoken Person I Know. She hatched policies that left a wake of misery in her Hollywood City Council district. My nickname for her--the Dominatrix of the Los Angeles City Council--should travel well now that she is pushing people around in Sacramento. This feminist used to corner the men in Los Angeles City Hall and cry like a baby to get her way.

That’s right, she blubbers to win. And now she’s scheming to tax us. It’s enough to make you toss and turn at night.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-01-11 06:35pm

a quote from AR15.com, I didn't know this until it was mentioned....

Starting this year, California will also lose 40 percent of the total
amount of water they have been taking from the Colorado river.
This brings them back in line with the water allocation agreement
concerning use of Colorado river water.

California (southern) has enough reserves to go for about a
couple of years.

After that they are screwed.

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2003-01-11 06:38pm

Note to self: Don't move to California.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-11 06:52pm

The budget crisis is big news here. $35 billion deficit is staggering.
As for the water crisis well, Southern California has always been extremely wasteful with their water. They tend to think green lawns and pools are a right in an arid, desert climate.

Of course, the bulk of water actually gets used in agriculture. Time for them to start adopting some conservation measures like industry and home owners have.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-11 07:06pm

Heh, heh, heh

I live next to one of the few state resiviors

Actually, I have been doing my part for years, in voting against every one of those (Pass the buck to the next generation) bond issues. We been spending our selves into debt since the 1970's.

Now if we could only ceed from southern california.....

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-01-11 07:17pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:Heh, heh, heh

I live next to one of the few state resiviors

Actually, I have been doing my part for years, in voting against every one of those (Pass the buck to the next generation) bond issues. We been spending our selves into debt since the 1970's.

Now if we could only ceed from southern california.....

SUPERIOR California statehood now!

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2003-01-11 10:18pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:Of course, the bulk of water actually gets used in agriculture. Time for them to start adopting some conservation measures like industry and home owners have.

It's far more likely that agribusiness will pay the political process to cut off water to urban areas rather than adopt conservation measures. Look up how much money argibusiness pumps into the political process and you'll see why it's utterly impossible to force them to do anything they don't want to do.

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2003-01-11 11:36pm

Hmmmm...California off my list of places to move after graduation......

Poor liberal California, see where electing pretty sounding closet Socialists gets you. $35 Billion in the hole , my god, you could buy South America for that kind of money.......
Sounds like Gov. Grey Davis should start praying for that monster Earthquake so he can write it all off as part of 'disaster relief'

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-01-12 02:10pm

This warms my heart. I had for years thought the New Jersey state government was the stupidest in the entire country. I'm glad to know that thanks to Grey Davis and a pack of LA Marxtards, we're number 49.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-01-12 02:48pm

You realize that there have been several initives in the last 30 years to devide the state, and everyone of them was defeated by a massive influx of votes from Southern Calif. (Or to put it midly any thing North of Yosemite want's nothing to do with the south)

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2003-01-12 10:57pm

Its interesting that a persistent feature of many a cyberpunk world is a divided California. In the Cyberpunk 2020 world the two even have a fortified border to keep the SoCal punkers, poser gangs and such from entering the far more pristine State of NorCal

Maybe it will actually happen , I know I would want to seperate from such a mountaing of fucktard liberals form LA.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-12 11:06pm

They also lowered the money for education, which means I'll have to pay extra for college

No one in the Californian authority seems to do anything right these days.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-01-12 11:07pm

Yeah, well, unfortunately, the Constitution expressly forbids states being divided up without that state's approval, meaning that in California, the very retarded fuckmonkeys you're trying to get away from have the final say over whether or not you can leave. Of course, I guess if they got fed up enough, the northern counties could declare their own state, order the governor and legislature out of Sacramento, and dare the feds to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Of course, that didn't work too well for Jeff Davis and his band of merry men, but maybe you'll have better luck.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-01-12 11:24pm

Shinova wrote:They also lowered the money for education, which means I'll have to pay extra for college

Oh be quiet. I'm tired of the teacher's unions bitching about them having
no money for education, when we're throwing loadz of money at them.

In CA, the % of state budget that goes to education is about 50% (!)

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-01-12 11:28pm

RedImperator wrote:Yeah, well, unfortunately, the Constitution expressly forbids states being divided up without that state's approval, meaning that in California, the very retarded fuckmonkeys you're trying to get away from have the final say over whether or not you can leave. Of course, I guess if they got fed up enough, the northern counties could declare their own state, order the governor and legislature out of Sacramento, and dare the feds to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Of course, that didn't work too well for Jeff Davis and his band of merry men, but maybe you'll have better luck.

Though this section of the Constitution has been overriden before.

West Virginia.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-12 11:33pm

MKSheppard wrote:
Shinova wrote:They also lowered the money for education, which means I'll have to pay extra for college
Oh be quiet. I'm tired of the teacher's unions bitching about them having
no money for education, when we're throwing loadz of money at them.

In CA, the % of state budget that goes to education is about 50% (!)

They suck at spending that money, which makes it even worse when they lower the budget since there'll be less money overall while the administration would still keep the money for themselves, meaning less for actually running the schools, hence everything goes down another level.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-12 11:54pm

Shinova wrote:They also lowered the money for education, which means I'll have to pay extra for college

No one in the Californian authority seems to do anything right these days.

It sucks to get your fee's raised but they are still cheaper than schools in other states. When I went to SJSU I got hit with the fee raises after the 1991 recession.

Problem with the UC and CSU system is the number of schools has not kept pace with population growth.

I remember when it was $3.50 per unit at the junior college level. Now thats cheap!!!!! I think when my parents generation went to the system it was free for UC/CSU.

Anyway, California has some big problems and we are gonna get screwed. Not only by govt but by the corporations here. They raised my ATT cable rates the second month in a row.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-01-12 11:57pm

SirNitram wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Yeah, well, unfortunately, the Constitution expressly forbids states being divided up without that state's approval, meaning that in California, the very retarded fuckmonkeys you're trying to get away from have the final say over whether or not you can leave. Of course, I guess if they got fed up enough, the northern counties could declare their own state, order the governor and legislature out of Sacramento, and dare the feds to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Of course, that didn't work too well for Jeff Davis and his band of merry men, but maybe you'll have better luck.
Though this section of the Constitution has been overriden before.

West Virginia.

One small complicating factor: the Civil War was on, and Virginia was in no position to take it back.