Posted on 05/08/2007 9:34:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
San Diegans will think this sounds awfully familiar: Eager to avoid making politically difficult decisions and happy to saddle future generations with debt, the state of California has been grossly and systematically underfunding promised benefits for retired employees for years.
That's the core truth to emerge from an audit of promised health insurance coverage for state retirees released yesterday by Controller John Chiang. It put total unfunded liabilities at $47.88 billion. State leaders will pretend they had no idea the problem was this severe and will thank Chiang for enlightening them. But it has been an open secret for years that the tab would be severe.
Skipping the recriminations for now, the question becomes what is Sacramento going to do about this underfunding. Under a pay-as-you-go option, the report says, the state could gradually erase the liability by putting aside an extra $2.23 billion each year – starting with the very next budget.
So prudence will come to the fore, and spending will be restrained and priorities rearranged? Of course – if Sacramento were a rational place. Instead, however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has deployed a delaying tactic: He has appointed a commission to study the problem, and maybe in 2009 or so the Legislature can take up its suggestions for remedies. This is why in responding yesterday to the audit, his finance director said nothing about prefunding while touting the governor's commission.
Of course the state should start prefunding – now. This can be done even as the commission continues its work. But this can't happen until Schwarzenegger starts tending to the most basic task of governance – producing a responsible budget – and stops spending so much time on showier topics.
We saved the worst news for last. Chiang's audit looks designed to minimize the fiscal consequences. It presumes that premium increases will steadily drop in coming years, from 10 percent in 2008 to 4.5 percent in 2017. Given that U.S. premiums went up 78 percent from 2000 to 2006, and that the underlying causes of health care inflation remain strong, this is hardly realistic.
So the pay-as-you-go tab might be $4 billion a year, not $2.23 billion. Perhaps the governor can appoint a commission to scrutinize these data and report back in a few years. That would solve everything.
A State Gubamint runamuck and offering up more hype and debt and lots of both!!
I voted for McClintock.
good choice.
mcclintock understands the state budget.
This tactic is identical to the anti toll road PAC in Texas. If it works for California, I'm sure it will serve Texas well.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Hey, guys and girls — Arnie Baby is YOUR governor.
You elected him — so this empty suited political hack is what you got.
Live with it — or better yet — haul a** !!
From my perch on the parkway in Bullhead City to the superb poker room at the Ramada Express for my morning play is an easy 12 minutes — with minimal traffic. (It takes that long to drive a mile in Coronado most days, when I visit my old homestead.) *S*
Gee...What makes you think that there will ever again be a recession? Kalifornia can continue to grow its economy by pursuing hydrogen fuel technology and selling carbon credits for doing so.
We're all gonna' be rich! Why, in just a few years we probably won't even have to pay income or sales taxes. That's just how good things are going to be. Real soon now.
Talk about a housing bubble, the country is in a health care bubble. The gov. is wating to come to the rescue.
First, the Austrian was elected by Republicans, not conservatives.
Second, and much more significant, the Austrian is a calculating, practicing neo-fascist. The threat that he represents to the US political system is far greater than a little stain on a blue dress.
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