Posted on 12/15/2009 7:45:10 AM PST by SmithL
Capitol politicians bemoaning the size and cost of the state's bonded debt is something like drunkards arguing over hangover remedies.
Members of the Assembly Budget Committee, most of whom voted for tens of billions of dollars in new bonds, including $11-plus billion in new water bonds, convened Monday to worry publicly about how the debts will be repaid from a state budget awash in red ink.
"We need to figure out how much borrowing we can realistically and sustainably afford," committee chair Noreen Evans said, terming bond costs "the Pac-Man eating up the general fund." Evans was one of the few Assembly members to vote against the water bonds.
Servicing outstanding general obligation bonds now costs the state more than $6 billion a year – almost exactly the size of the current fiscal year's deficit – and costs are expected to balloon as more authorized, but unissued, bonds hit the market.
Treasurer Bill Lockyer and the Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, told legislators that they expect bond service to hit 10 percent of state spending in a few years, twice the level that most authorities deem prudent. And Lockyer noted that California, which has the nation's lowest credit rating because of its persistent budget deficits, pays higher interest rates than many Third World countries.
That's not only a fiscal problem but a political one. It's dawned on groups dependent on the state budget – especially government worker unions – that a dollar spent on bond service is a dollar that's not available to them. Thus, liberal lawmakers who support more debt to finance more spending are running afoul of liberal groups who want to spend very limited state dollars elsewhere – which is why some unions may oppose the water bonds.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
The California Assembly is the largest collection of schmucks and morons in the country outside of the US Congress. The state is going down the toilet and Arnold is acting like the ass he is in Copenhagen and the California Assembly is worrying about what kind of TV sets we use. The California Assembly is a national disgrace of epoch proportion. I pray the CA voters flush the toilet bowl of feces that is the CA Assembly.
11 Billion worth of water bonds. Who could have been stupid enough to by California bonds? 11 Billion.
Should read buy. Sorry.
I join you in the prayer for all of the U.S., but we have too many people that don’t think in this country and we are all just going to swirl down the drain with them. I truly believe that there will have to be great suffering before many people will pay attention. Of course by then, it’s too late.
Yep, they are.
What I find deeply, deeply funny is how liberals are all on their talking points in every one of these news stories:
1. They have to repeal that evil, nasty Prop 13.
2. They have to repeal the 2/3rds supermajority requirement to raise taxes.
3. They want to increase sales & use taxes.
Tax, tax, tax. That will be the way out of their financial quagmire.
Ah, but let’s look at states which don’t have a Prop 13, nor a supermajority requirement to raise taxes. Let’s consider New York state, or New Jersey. How are they doing?
Oh yea... NY is about to run out of cash THIS MONTH. New Jersey is on the skids.
These idiot liberals need to be put in their place. Sadly, we never seem to elect a Republican with the testicular fortitude to actually go in and SLASH budgets. I mean cut the actual size of the budget, year-on-year, and make bureaucrats howl and liberals throw themselves out of second story windows. The Republicans keep wants to be “liked” in the press, so they turn into pussies of the highest order.
As far as I’m concerned, I want to see these high tax states go down in flames.
I've tried to discuss this with my neighbors (supposedly smart, educated people) and they don't even relate the spending crisis to the legislature and the unions. They simply don't know or care how government works! If anything they blame Ahnuld and the Republicans.
Yes, they never fail to bemoan their difficulty in raising taxes. If only they could easily raise tax rates, all would be well.
They never seem to recognize that California is already at the highest, or very near the highest tax rates in every category. That proves that the problem is spending, it isn't their inability to raise taxes.
Contrary to popular belief, the cost of living must be very low in California. Democrats always claim to only want to tax the wealthy and the highest California state income tax rate starts at about $47,000 a year. I don't think that $47,000 a year is wealthy anywhere else in America, but the Democrats in California have made it so there.
“I pray the CA voters flush the toilet bowl of feces that is the CA Assembly.”
I flush EVERY election, but can’t seem to get my way. We must have one of those low-flush toilets.
It is not a money problem, it is a spending problem.
There is a disconnect in Sacramento between what they spent and how much money they can raise in taxes and fees.
They have just about reached the limit (if they have not already done so).
Unions and a dishonest media have run circles around the average voter. If you are not told the truth, it is hard to make the correct choice.
They can tax the producers in this state 100% and it would not be enough.
It is not about how much money they have coming in, it is the fact they ALWAYS spend more.
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