The Ungovernable State

[Kitschum]

I don't think the tax revenue will be significant. If the tax is too high people will still avoid it.

[Dinner]

The good news is the redistricting plan should ungerrymander the districts in 2010 and that should make all the districts more moderate thus removing lots of the extremists on both sides. The bad news is it won't effect elections until 2012 plus so far there is no movement to change the 2/3rds rule which we desperately need to change back to a simple majority system.

[Dinner]

I don't think the tax revenue will be significant. If the tax is too high people will still avoid it.

The high end estimate (pun intended) is only about $1 billion to $1.2 billion per year with the yearly deficit at about $21 billion on a total budget of $143 billion. The proposed budget compromise, which voters shot down, would have raised some taxes back up to the level of the 1990's and cut spending by about 8%. But, of course, voters always vote against spending cuts and/or tax increases and instead want to never pay taxes and always want more spending. :stupid:

[OzzyKP]

It won't solve the crisis, surely. But a billion still helps.

[Straybow]

CA expanded the state payroll by 50,000 people since Davis was booted. That's about $5B in pay and benefits right there.

[devilmunchkin]

I read the title and immediately knew this thread was about the state I live in. Yes.. we have some big issues.

[SlowwHand]

One solution that has been floated is legalizing weed. It'd bring in more tax revenue and save money being spent on prisons & cops.

About 40-50 years late, the dumbasses.

[Heraclitus]

I can't understand this, if the Swiss can manage a big dose of direct democracy (and actually thrive with it) why can't Californians?

[Dinner]

I read the title and immediately knew this thread was about the state I live in. Yes.. we have some big issues.

BTW there are to many people with your name on facebook. There are more then 200 people with your name.

[Thue]

:Popcorn:

[Kitschum]

The high end estimate (pun intended) is only about $1 billion to $1.2 billion per year

What? You can't intend my puns after I make them!

[Straybow]

I can't understand this, if the Swiss can manage a big dose of direct democracy (and actually thrive with it) why can't Californians?

They manage to stay focused on the practical aspects of government instead of inventing rights and entitlements. Once the cat is out of the bag it becomes difficult to stuff it back in.

[Dinner]

And exactly which rights and/or entitlements were "invented" using the proposition system. Please do have specifics or admit you're talking out of your ass.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And besides, every "right" in the history of mankind has been invented.

[Zkribbler]

I can't understand this, if the Swiss can manage a big dose of direct democracy (and actually thrive with it) why can't Californians?

Because Californians bought into the idea of Reaganomics: You can have something for nothing.

Governor Reagan promised to cut taxes and balance the state budget. He did -- but by transferring many of the expensive programs down to the county level, thus plunging the various counties into near bankruptcy. They responded by raising the only tax they had: property taxes. Californians responded by passing Prop. 13, which rolled back property taxes and requiring a 2/3 vote of the people to raise taxes + requiring a 2/3 vote of the legislature to pass a budget.

Thus began the downward spiral of California's economics. I've seen my now-ex-state go from No. 1 in education to No. 48. I've seen it plunge from having the best economy in the nation to now looking into the maw of bankruptcy.

Later, President Reagan would promise to cut federal taxes and balance the nation's budget. Instead, he ran up the largest deficits in U.S. history -- until Bush, who also cut taxes and increased spending. This financial flim-flam fixed in Californians' head the concept that you can mandate government programs and not have to pay for them.

Now, I see only two hopes for California. The first is that the California Supreme Court declares Prop. 13 unconstitutional because its wide scope means it was a revision of the Constitution, not a minor amendment, and thus could not be passed via a mere proposition. But Chief Justice George & the other Supremes are smart enough to know such a ruling is political suicide.

The remaining hope is a State Constitutional Convention to re-write California's fiscal laws and reform or do away with the propositions. The State Constitution provides for such convention but sets out no mechanism for having one. As the opening article says, a few months ago the idea of a convention was merely a whisper. Now, it's our only real hope.