Posted on 07/24/2007 7:04:29 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected on a promise to clean up the fiscal mess but so far has failed. His first act as governor was to reinstate a $4-plus billion a year car tax cut that widened the deficit, and since then, he has spent every nickel the state has taken in and then some, even though a vigorous economy pushed revenue to record levels.
While the deficit narrowed a bit in the last couple of years, it's projected to grow again for the remainder of this decade -- and the remainder of Schwarzenegger's governorship -- unless he and lawmakers do what's necessary to close it.
(snip)
That brings us to the current impasse. The Assembly ginned up a bipartisan "solution" late last week that purports to reduce the operating deficit to under $1 billion, decorated it with a $500-plus million bag of tax breaks for various interests ranging from high-tech companies to movie producers, then left town for a monthlong vacation.
It's another irresponsible mess. The tax legislation contains a huge drafting error, and even without the miscue is just shameful -- giving hundreds of millions of dollars to a select few while the state is running big deficits, eliminating tax breaks for teachers and reducing benefits to the poor, aged and disabled.
The hastily reconfigured budget is no better. It lowballs millions of dollars in major spending and grabs more than $1 billion that otherwise would have gone to mass transit agencies on the premise that they could turn, instead, to the transportation bonds that voters approved last year. It is, in brief, another dishonest budget with more backdoor borrowing to cover operating deficits.
...It's time for everyone to put up or shut up -- and if it takes a prolonged stalemate to get there, so be it.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Sac Bee Editorial - EXCERPT
Budget crunch: Senate GOP should put up or...
July 24, 2007It would be easy to generalize and blame all Senate Republicans for the ongoing state budget impasse, but that would be unfair.
There appear to be two types of GOP holdouts on the budget: Those who are truly interested in cutting spending to hold down deficits, and those who are grandstanding just to enhance their personal stature or to extract favors for special interests.
By all indications, Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine wants to be in the first category but has been dragged into the second. Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, is one of the legislators dragging him there. McClintock has used his savvy Internet skills to fire up the GOP's hard-line wing and deluge Senate Republicans with phone calls. Over the weekend, those calls urged legislators to defy Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a majority of lawmakers and reject the budget largely for symbolic reasons.
(snip)
The fact is: Neither McClintock nor other Republicans have provided an answer -- yet. They've just produced rhetoric and enough votes to block a budget under California's two-thirds vote rule. ...
Behind the scenes, Senate Republicans are reportedly making demands that have nothing to do with fiscal prudence. Some want extra spending for local law enforcement -- pork that can help them win votes back home. They also want to block lawsuits the attorney general and environmental groups are filing against developments in San Bernardino County under the state's global warming law.
At this point, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata appears to be the most principled leader in the Capitol. Perata rightly has stood up to Senate Republican shenanigans ...
Ackerman says Republicans will propose their own spending plan on Wednesday. ... If Republicans can finally be honest about their priorities, their plan will be worth waiting for.
McClintock Ping List.
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"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
Budget must be balanced
Editorial - North County Times
July 23, 2007Your state senators spent much of the weekend locked up in the Capitol, but emerged without a budget nonetheless. The impasse perfectly reflects a California electorate unwilling to make the essential tough choices -- cut spending, raise taxes, or both -- necessary to stop our habitual borrowing and dumping responsibility onto the shoulders of our children.
The governor and Democrats have drawn the line on further budget cuts, saying they would come out of our schools. But today's students will learn the hard lesson of inherited debt should today's elected leaders fail to rein in state spending.
One of Gov. Schwarzenegger's first acts upon being elected in 2003 was to place an initiative on the ballot that allowed the state to issue a $15 billion bond to cover its deficit. That measure was originally supposed to be accompanied by a spending cap to control future spending. Sure enough, the Legislature scrapped the spending cap.
Three years on, the operating deficit -- or the built-in deficit we refuse to pay down and instead roll over each year -- is down from a projected $14 billion in 2003 to a projected $5 billion for the 2008-09 fiscal year. But hold the celebration: Surging tax revenues, not sound fiscal policy, trimmed the deficit. Even in boom times, our elected leaders couldn't balance the budget. We didn't force them to.
Now, the state's economy is slowing: Job growth is flat, new home construction has slowed and sales of single-family homes are down 25 percent from a year ago. As a result, state revenues this spring were $800 million less than expected.
The budget showdown in the state Senate pits Republicans, who want to cut the deficit to zero, against Democrats and the governor, who are unwilling to do so because they say it would mean cutting education spending. Neither Republicans nor Democrats, for different reasons, are even contemplating raising taxes. On balance, that's probably a good thing, as they misspend the enormous taxes we pay now.
We value our schools as much as anyone, but we believe that more money isn't a panacea for failing schools. We'd be more sympathetic to cries of poverty from the education establishment if we could get accountability, through such things as merit pay and the ability to fire bad teachers, in return. Until then, not a dollar more for schools, especially with budgets awash in red ink.
State Sen. Don Perata, the Democratic leader, gave Senate Republicans until Wednesday morning to come up with their own spending plan. They should meet Perata's challenge and show true political courage by offering the kind of controlled spending plan we can rally around. Until then, neither side is serving the public interest.
Until then, we're stuck with the government we deserve -- one that tells us that we can have it all, ever bigger government and relatively stable taxes, while leaving our children with the bill.
You don’t have to read past this sentence to know where this one is going however, the writer lied. He did not “reinstate” he rescinded the davis tax. It has btw almost been put back in. Every two years you have to get a smog check for around $80.00 and on the off years they have a tax for not doing the test at $12.00, depends on year of make. I think the author missed another thing. The people elected Arnold - he had a good script, but he is not running anything. The Kennedy clan is.
They just have a much different definition of "means" than you or I do. Their definition includes borrowing up the ying-yang, selling off state assets to fund more socialist programs, entering into shady deals with anyone willing to put up cash, using "infrastructure" bonds to fund ongoing state government, etc., etc., etc.
A shameless bunch, for sure.
I figured Amerigomag would be the first to point out that little "mistruth." LOL.
No one at the Sac Bee seems interested in reducing spending, as was promised by Schwarzenegger in the Recall election.
A rascally bunch for sure.
"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
"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
Thanks for keeping the ping list going. Always good stuff.
BTTT
I’ll suggest again that if they do just one thing, they can erase most of their debt. That is, to make a first DUI offense into a “DUI tax” instead of a criminal act, *if* the offender can pay the BIG fine in cash.
Say $20,000. First time offenders only. Cash has to be paid in one lump sum, up front. No appeal, because it’s a tax, not a fine. If you can’t pay the fine with cash, or take out a bank loan, you go to jail.
This is not unreasonable if you look at all that can happen to you when convicted of DUI. Months in jail, lose your car, good possibility of losing your job, and with the loss in income, you could lose your apartment or house.
Now here’s the zinger: in California, every year, there are about 200,000 DUI arrests.
Now even if a fraction of those individuals are able and willing to pay $20,000 to “get over” on DUI on their first offense only, it will still represent a HUGE amount of money going into the State coffers.
NOT money spent on courts and jails, but income for the State.
Of course, if the DUI is involved in an accident, the offer would not apply to them. But if a blood test shows more than .08, which is the California legal limit for alcohol, then they can pay that whopping tax, and all is forgiven.
ONCE.
This is truly the Ameriquest Administration. ;-)
Yes, but your solution assumes there is a revenue problem. There isn’t (IMO).
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial
Cleaning up the budget mess
Tuesday, July 24, 2007(snip)
The villains of the hour in the budget mess are Senate Republicans. Only two of their votes are needed to reach the two-thirds vote requirement. So far, not one is ready to support a budget bill that all other major players, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seem willing to approve.
The Assembly's actions may have made it difficult to resolve the impasse by abruptly leaving town, and dumping the budget in the Senate's lap. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has issued a challenge to Republicans to come up with their own budget by Wednesday. If they do so -- or if they seek any changes in the budget approved in the Assembly -- it becomes a brand new bill, which must go back to the Assembly for approval.
But that is a nonstarter because the Assembly has already left town -- and Speaker Fabian Núñez has no intention of bringing his members back until after summer recess is over on Aug. 20. That raises the possibility that the stalemate could drag on for several more weeks, with only negative consequences for the state.
Understandably, passions are running high. "We don't negotiate with terrorists," Núñez's spokesman Steve Maviglio told us, referring to Senate Republicans.
No way, IMHO unless the monies go to charities. Just vision every cop outside every bar sending most to a 20 grand price for two beers. Have you forgotten the quota use?
The tax “break” he gave out so generously was entirely on the back of local governments. Counties and cities can tax personal property. Under Davis and a revenue surplus, the Counties and cities did not collect their full property tax on vehicles but the state backfilled them for the revenue loss. When the surplus went away, the full property tax was reinstated.
The Governor came in and reduced the County and City revenue back to the lower amount, but failed to backfill. It affected local government budgets so dramatically that eventually after a year or two, the state went back to backfilling the revenues. Many local governments had to borrow on the promised future retrospective backfill.
"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
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