Posted on 03/07/2010 9:08:11 AM PST by SmithL
If you find yourself in a hole, the old adage advises, the first thing you should do is stop digging.
California is buried in a deep economic and fiscal hole, but our politicians seem bent on burrowing even deeper.
The state has tens of billions of dollars in unsold bonds, and Treasurer Bill Lockyer has warned that with the state's lowest-in-the-nation credit rating he may market new debt only sporadically.
Lockyer warned against a big water bond issue last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ignored him. They approved an $11.2 billion bond issue, loaded with pork, that will tap the deficit-ridden budget for more than $20 billion in principal and interest.
Why should taxpayers spend $250 million to finance removal of dams on the Klamath River by PacifiCorp, a utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.? Or $20 million for "economic development" in Siskiyou County? The Klamath flows through Siskiyou en route to the sea, but contributes nothing to our water supply.
Nearly $10 billion in unsold bonds would finance a fraction of the proposed bullet train linking Northern and Southern California. But the project's "business plan" is ludicrously inadequate, with cost, ridership and fare projections that defy reality, and full financing is so far an illusion.
...The state's budget has multibillion-dollar deficits, and politicians have resorted to outlandish gimmicks to postpone the day of fiscal reckoning. But that hasn't stopped legislators from massaging interest groups with dozens of new spending or tax-break bills that would worsen the crisis.
Schwarzenegger, while claiming he's focused on "jobs, jobs, jobs," is nevertheless championing the massively expensive imposition of new costs on employers in the name of reducing the state's carbon footprint, even though the scientific premises of global warming become shakier by the day.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
As the libs continue to destroy Taxifornia....
California voters approved $3 billion in stem cell research just to spite George Bush. They also send Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein to Washington with a credit card and no limits. Next we will also elect Brown as Govenor. It will never end.
California bonds...I’d sooner lend money to a meth addict.
as soon as Abel gets sworn, I expect aRnie to boogie.. he’s pretty serving the function of a door jam , abel can do that, I hope. ;-)
It is already happening. Look at Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Washington state to see that in effect. If Idaho, Montana and Utah aren't careful they will go the same way. States like the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia are suffering the same thing thanks to the "bleuneck" diaspora from the very bleu New England states and the rust belt. Texas is in danger of it happening due to the flood of bleu state refugees that has come here over the last year.
Too bad states can’t make a residency requirement for people incoming from California. Maybe you have to live in the new state, say Arizona, for five or ten years before you can vote in a state election! People leave a place because political decision have created a mess. Then they go to a wiser state and directly proceed to put into place the same bad thing they ran away from. They are a menace. By “they” I don’t mean Californians in general, I mean the people who vote for leftist ideas.
just a note, the Supremes thankfully overturned that ridiculous handgun ban.
“The major worry right now is California refugees massively migrating to bordering states and a domino effect happening.”
Yes! We will soon have more welfare recipients than taxpayers.
ROFL
That;s the problem. It is a case of crying wolf! Everyone predicts doom and it never happens so the libs pull more of their stupid stunts - they never have to pay the price. Log on to the State websites and see if you can find help on getting money from somebody who owes it to you. Not a chance - just help on how to avoid paying money you owe. It's a mindset - money grows on (taxpayers') trees and never has to be repaid!
It seems that Walters has backed away from blaming Prop 13 for the overspending of our left wing legislature. Even if Prop 13 was overturned, we can not provide the money the left wingers want to spend for illegals, green wet dreams and left energy wet dreams like those listed below by Walters:
“Lockyer warned against a big water bond issue last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ignored him. They approved an $11.2 billion bond issue, loaded with pork, that will tap the deficit-ridden budget for more than $20 billion in principal and interest.
Why should taxpayers spend $250 million to finance removal of dams on the Klamath River by PacifiCorp, a utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.? Or $20 million for “economic development” in Siskiyou County? The Klamath flows through Siskiyou en route to the sea, but contributes nothing to our water supply.
Nearly $10 billion in unsold bonds would finance a fraction of the proposed bullet train linking Northern and Southern California. But the project’s “business plan” is ludicrously inadequate, with cost, ridership and fare projections that defy reality, and full financing is so far an illusion.”
You forgot Oregon. Forty years ago I spent some time near Klamath Falls. “Don’t Californicate Oregon” bumper stickers were ubiquitous. It happened anyway.
“Yes! We will soon have more welfare recipients than taxpayers.”
Too true, I think that California has already reached the tipping point where over 50% of the voters get more from the State than they give. Once that happens stick a fork in the State because it’s done.
Part time Legislature
Reinstate Prop 187
(courtesy Freeper Regulator)Eliminate cars and expenses for legislators; what they spend in their duties is up to them. No more mugging the taxpayers!
Withold entire year's salary of Legislators for nonperformance; no loopholes.
Because that's the way GANG-GREEN wants things to happen. I strongly suspect the $20 million for the county's "economic development" will certainly not be left up the the local Board of Supervisors to invest without strings to those same GANG-GREEN wet dreams.
And if not, then it's just supposed to be a pacifier and hush money to keep the natives happy with welfare instead of a timber industry that they've already destroyed without cause!!!
Environmentalists and tribes want the dams out because they think that commercial chinook salmon can then establish above the dams. The Upper Basin farmers wanted better electrical rates and more secure water so they stabbed the mid-Klamath in the back to make the deal with the tribes and environmentalists.
PacifiCorp, the owner of the dams, had its re licensing process almost done and were going to put in a ladder, but the anti-dam folks piled so many conditions in costs and held up a water quality permit, so that PacifiCorp had no other option but to remove the dams.
The $20 million is to offset the loss in revenue that the County will experience from loss of taxes on the dams and surrounding property values. (More than a $million a year.) There is also a loss in tourism - white water rafting and fishing and in the small communities that depend on the reservoirs. In addition, the federal and state governments have refused to include coverage for liability, clean-up and restoration, mitigation of road and other damage to their agreement. There is also the loss of energy and the need to replace clean hydropower with other forms of alternative energy - such as biomass. The $20 million will provide a small buffer to protect the County from the costs of cleaning up the mess and trying to start a replacement biomass energy industry. It is a drop in the bucket in comparison to potential costs.
They think the total cost of dam removal will be $450 million. (We think it will be more than a billion when they find they have to haul the sediment to a toxic landfill.)The $250 million from the state of California is part of the settlement agreement. There are only around 38,000 Pacific Power customers who reside in California. The rest reside in Oregon, Utah and other western states. All but one of the dams lie in California. The Oregon legislature capped their customer's liability for dam removal at $180 million. $20 million will come from the California customers. That is about a 1.5% rate increase for each. If the bond passes, then they have to look elsewhere for the money.
Currently the California rate payers are looking at a 14% regular increase in rates and Oregon is looking at about 20%. This does not include the cost of dams or for clean energy replacement - which will be added on in the following months.
I for one, do not want the dams taken out. I hope that if the bond does not pass, that the settlement deal falls completely apart. The California portion of the rate payers is one of the poorest in the state. There is no way these people could carry additional burdens for a dam removal project that also does great harm to them.
The $20 million will provide a small buffer to protect the County from the costs of cleaning up the mess and trying to start a replacement biomass energy industry.
___________________________________________________________
Biomass is not happening because it is a direct threat to the natural gas industry....all this talk about biomass is platitudes to fool people....if this State or any State ...was serious about alternative energy, there would be statutory exemptions from envirnmental regulations.
If it is such a damn emergency to save the planet from fossil fuels, then alternative energy plants should be exempt from NEPA, CEQA, ESA, CWA and all the other obstacles that this State and the Feds have erected to strangle projects to death with red tape. It has gotten so convoluted it has become difficult to describe the permit process to the average citizen...once they understand they stand in disbelief.
There is no doubt in my mind the $20 million will be pissed away on studies while the affected people receive nothing but empty promises...the fact that the republicans refuse to take a stand on this is infuriating...one of the many reasons I and many other conservatives no longer support them...
Thankfully, the progressives in both parties are finally running out of money, and the system will be forced to change...whether the powers that be want it or not. Look at this article: Dan “I like big gov’t” Walters is complaining about the cost of an enviro project after the State has wasted how many billions over the last forty years?!? Why is this? Does the fact that the teachers, prison guards and SEIU members are looking at lay offs factor into this?
The pigs got along well when there was plenty of food in the trough...the story changes when the amount of food gets cut back doesn’t it? Public pensions vs. WIC payments - prison gurd contracts vs. teachers pay and on and on. The tough choices are becoming inescapable...the tax base has been decimated by gov’t intervention...Obama may bail out California this year, but at what point do the rest of the States say enough?
I don't remember who said it, but somebody said something to the effect that, Americans are the most tolerant people on Earth. But even they have their limits!
I too just wonder and wonder where, oh where are those limits and when, oh when will they be reached???
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.