Dan Walters: California politicos chant reform mantra in budget aftermath

The Capitol's political machinations have become increasingly convoluted as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened, with the latest deal, another mélange of gimmicks aimed at once again postponing the day of reckoning, typifying the trend.

In the aftermath of last week's dealmaking, confusion, conflict and angst, politicians are chanting the mantra of reform.

"We will be tackling tax reform, to rid our system of its volatility and reliance on capital gains," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "And we will take on pension reform to cut down on unfunded liabilities and save the state billions of dollars."

The president pro tem of the Senate, Darrell Steinberg, declared that "we will now pivot to a new chapter where we begin to fix what we know ails California and its system of public finance," echoing Schwarzenegger on taxes and adding "changing the relationship between state and local government, initiative reform (and) changing the two-thirds requirement (that) obviously isn't working."

There are, in the broadest sense, three aspects to the state's chronic fiscal dilemma – societal, financial and political.

The first stems from California's immense geographic, economic and cultural diversity. It's nearly impossible to find consensus on anything, not just on the budget-related issues of taxes and services, but on water, education, transportation and many other long-unresolved matters. Californians want high levels of services, at least the services they and others in their socioeconomic strata use, but are leery of taxes, especially those they would pay.

The second aspect is that California, due to interlocking political and socioeconomic factors, has a lopsided revenue system, dependent on personal income taxes for more than half its general fund revenue and just 1 percent of taxpayers, whose incomes are tied to the stock market, for half of those income taxes.

...lopsided revenue system, dependent on personal income taxes for more than half its general fund revenue and just 1 percent of taxpayers, whose incomes are tied to the stock market, for half of those income taxes

We obviously need to tax those 1% even more.

We obviously need to tax those 1% even more.

And give them special license plates so they can be identified and harassed by the general public into leaving the state. Or perhaps put them in special "areas"...you know, concentrate them somehow. Then everyone can feel good about their bigoted selves.

The bastards will be working day and night to ensure that they can tax Californians at any rate they choose with as few votes as possible.

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