Posted on 12/25/2004 8:32:09 AM PST by NormsRevenge
If the state of California, like many of its citizens, sent Christmas letters with its greeting cards, here's what they might say this year:
Dear Friends,
What a glorious, hopeful feeling there was under the Capitol dome as this year began!
Gray Davis was gone. Enough said about that.
We were just getting to know our new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Far from an empty-headed bodybuilder and actor, he was turning out to be a savvy politician with a quick grasp of issues. On top of that, the "action governor" had a style as swashbuckling as his movie characters.
That's why Arnold made us feel so much better about our money problems. I know we shouldn't talk about such things at this time of year.
And I didn't want to say any more about Gray Davis, but I have to point out that he and the Legislature left Arnold with an $11 billion budget deficit! That's "b" as in billion!
That worried a lot of us, but Arnold was wonderful.
"Everything is going to be all right," he told us again and again. "We're going to balance the budget without raising taxes."
It felt like he could make it so by just snapping his fingers. Indeed, without hardly trying, he convinced voters in March to let him float a $15 billion loan to make sure the deficit was more than covered.
That wowed even the Wall Street bankers. Until then, they had been telling rich people that California's bonds weren't a good investment because the state was broke.
Unfortunately, $15 billion wasn't quite enough, it turned out.
Somehow, by the time Arnold and the Legislature had used up $11.5 billion of the loan, called deficit reduction bonds, the budget was still billions of dollars out whack.
It's hard to say whose fault it was, but when Arnold realized what was happening, he swung into action. He got teachers unions and school officials to agree to $2 billion in cuts in education spending. He sweet-talked local government officials out of $1.3 billion of their property taxes this fiscal year AND next year.
To show what a good guy he is, he promised -- kindergarten cop's honor -- that he wouldn't raid education and local government funding ever again. Unless it's really, really, really necessary.
When the budget finally passed in August, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. The budget was balanced. Taxes didn't go up. Whew!
Just like Arnold told us, it felt like everything was going to be all right.
But wouldn't you know it, there were some nasty nay-sayers who nay-said that the budget wasn't really balanced. It was a house of accounting gimmicks, horrendous debt and smoke and mirrors that would come crashing down on us soon, they nay-said.
Most of us just ignored them.
As if to prove that Arnold was right, September and October passed uneventfully. If you don't count the war in Iraq.
California voted for Kerry for president. Everyone knew we would. Bush won, but the whole country can't always agree with us.
I know we're supposed to be upbeat this holiday season, but the nay-sayers make it hard.
Even Elizabeth Hill, the extremely nice lady who's the nonpartisan budget analyst for the Legislature, is down in the dumps.
She said the other day that even if the governor and the Legislature use the $3.5 billion left over in deficit bonds and the economy keeps perking along nicely like it is, there'll be a $6.7 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year and it'll grow to $10 billion the year after that.
The negative vibes are even affecting Arnold's budget people. They're now saying the deficit next year is not going to be $6.7 billion. It's more like $8.1 billion.
It looks doubtful that we can afford to float any more deficit reduction bonds.
I'd really like to hear how Arnold himself feels about it. I'm sure he thinks it's going to be all right.
But he and Maria and the kids are out of state on vacation for the holidays. His office won't say where, but they're probably skiing in Sun Valley.
I guess we'll find out when he issues his budget proposal in a couple of weeks.
I just don't know what we should do.
Do you?
Happy holidays!
Come up to Washington State.....we don't even have a governor who is legit!! If you count and count and count long enough...you can always win....just like in Florida. If a recount happens, it should happen all over the state, not just KING COUNTY!! The whole country knows what the DNC did up there...shame shame...and California should look hard at what happened.
I'm thinking Arnold will have to play political brinkmanship with the leftislature of CA before any real budget cuts will happen.
California will have to declare bankruptcy. Arnold is a fool who thinks he is in a movie where a happy ending is assured.
I live in California. There is no way out but bankruptcy. The fraud, waste, incomptence in the state, local, county governments rival anything the soviets had.
John
Merry Christmas, Norm!
Merry Christmas to you and your'n!
you know, i'm startin to think you're right.
i voted for arnold, but what was the alternative? more davis. ick.
arnold's ego isn't going to help matters. and matters are dire.
the middle classes have increasingly voted with their feet, and moved to idaho, oregon, utah, arizona, colorado etc. evangelicals who abandoned orange county were a dominant force in dubya's re-election in colorado
Just before my wife and I escaped, San Jose got a $1 million grant from the state to build a bike trail. There's a set of governments with their priorities straight, eh?
My wife and I both voted for Tom McClintock.
Um....charge admission fees to illegal aliens?
"That'll be $5000, senor. Muchas gracias.
Cut spending you pompous poof.
"charge admission fees to illegal aliens?"
Better yet get rid of them and the state, county, and city government will save 9 billion for starters.
When citizens take the jobs that they are doing they will increase the tax income and that could solve the problem except for one little issue. Arnold is a socialist and eco nut and would probably spending to increase and destroy any savings.
Thanks! (It's my birthday, too!)
Getting rid of Grayout was a good first step, but, ideally, we would have ditched the whole legislature and replaced them with good conservatives.
It's a real shame that California has been in the grip of liberal politicians for so long. Let liberals run things, and soon, they destroy everything that is good and successful, and then blame eeeeeevil conservatives for the resulting problems.
Yes, I moved out of CA... but now live in MD (frying pan... fire). I'm still voting in CA, so will still be doing my little bit to try to improve the state. We'll see if it ever becomes worth moving back to.
They could do a chapter 11 and maybe in a couple years they could buy Oregon and Washington, like K-Mart did Sears.
California homeowners, get ready to pay a wealth tax to balance the budget. After all, you profited unfairly from the recent run-up in home prices and the compassionate Califorina Legislature just wants to make sure that the truly needy are cared for. Say 1% a year? 3% on homes over $1 million? It's for the children. ;)
The legislature went absolutely berserk with spending and creating new programs in 2000 and 2001 - they were just drunk with all the money pouring in from the .com economy. They were warned that the amount of tax revenue they were seeing was temporary, but did they care? Nooooooo. So, they created new programs and increased spending on existing programs. The tech bubble burst, tax revenues fell, and programs remained in place. Result? Huge, massive budget deficits. The legislature is just itching to raise taxes - they can't conceive of eliminating programs, commissions, boards, etc. and cutting spending.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.