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California addiction to debt proves costly
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/6/11 | Editor

Posted on 03/06/2011 6:02:11 PM PST by SmithL

Schools, taxes, state workers' pensions, prisons - all of these topics get plenty of airtime in Sacramento when our elected leaders are wrestling with the state budget.

But there's one big line item that doesn't get much attention, even though it's eating California alive: the cost of our debt service.

In the next budget, the state will spend $6.6 billion on debt repayment. According to Moody's Investors Service, California's debt has tripled over the past decade.

We wouldn't have to talk about slashing children's medical insurance and older people's in-home care or closing state parks if we weren't paying off the debt we've accumulated. California is addicted to debt. Not only are we in denial, but we're also not even attempting to face the problem.

Legislators have already approved an $11 billion water bond for the 2012 ballot. A group of California mayors is floating the idea of a $1.7 billion bond issue to save redevelopment agencies, which Gov. Jerry Brown has targeted for elimination. Education lobbyists and stem cell officials are mulling a return to the ballot for more debt. Meanwhile, there's $42 billion in unused debt still hanging around from 2006, when voters approved an infrastructure package that was unaffordable then and even more unaffordable now.

For years, Californians have encouraged this debt binge because we wanted services, and we didn't want to feel the pain of paying for them. Bonds were sold as a tax-free way to get everything we wanted.

It turns out that there are costs to everything. . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: bigbangbonds; calbondage; debt; goldenstate; taxandspend; yourtaxdollarsatwork
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1 posted on 03/06/2011 6:02:14 PM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

The Golden Goose simply couldn’t take it anymore being ripped off continually by Ca. leeches. This bird has flown— bye, bye Kalifornicata!


2 posted on 03/06/2011 6:09:30 PM PST by tflabo
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To: SmithL

$36+ billion for education spending in 2011?

Words fail me.


3 posted on 03/06/2011 6:09:50 PM PST by umgud
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To: SmithL

A liberal business plan usually involves everyone not on the gravy train learns to survive on pennies while paying dollars into the tax system.

That doesn’t work.


4 posted on 03/06/2011 6:12:17 PM PST by Del Rapier
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To: SmithL
It turns out that there are costs to everything. . . .

Sadly for some people, this is truly a revelation.

5 posted on 03/06/2011 6:13:53 PM PST by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: SmithL
The better choice for California would be to spend our hard-earned tax dollars on future investments that will actually pay off - like education, for instance.

Dopes..they never will learn. Education is already overfunded and in the cesspool.

6 posted on 03/06/2011 6:14:11 PM PST by tflabo
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To: SmithL

In the next budget, the state will spend $6.6 billion on debt repayment.


I do not expect California to spend $6.6 billion on bonds that come due in the next budget cycle.

California will simply issue new bonds to payoff the existing bonds that are coming due.


7 posted on 03/06/2011 6:14:56 PM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: umgud

The one that surprised me was $9 BILLION in corrections...and I am confident to say that most of these scumbags are illegals.

and no actual figures on the illegals in mexifornia..


8 posted on 03/06/2011 6:15:16 PM PST by max americana
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To: SmithL

It would be fun to watch from here in the midwest.

Except I know in my heart I’m gonna wind up paying to bail them out.


9 posted on 03/06/2011 6:16:59 PM PST by nascarnation
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To: nascarnation

“Except I know in my heart I’m gonna wind up paying to bail them out.”

Yep, one way or another.


10 posted on 03/06/2011 6:22:51 PM PST by MichaelCorleone (Sarah Palin is America's Margaret Thatcher)
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To: SmithL
Mexifornia exists to pay State, Local and Federal government workers wages and perks..
Support of all the government contractors and sub-contractors..
Oh!...... and all the Illegal-Alien Loot-Net..
11 posted on 03/06/2011 6:23:10 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: MichaelCorleone

As the state debts of Cal, Ill, and NY degrade, eventually there will have to be federal guarantees for their paper.

If I was POTUS I would push for prohibiting any of their Senators / Reps from voting until the states were solvent again.


12 posted on 03/06/2011 6:27:01 PM PST by nascarnation
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To: max americana

Corrections officers have one of the strongest unions in the state. = 9 Billion. Nuf said.


13 posted on 03/06/2011 6:32:52 PM PST by Forrestfire (("To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." Theodore Roosevelt))
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To: SmithL
I have a modest proposal.
Start an initiative immediately to make elected officials financially responsible for any debt increase after the date they were seated.

If there is any deficit spending whatsoever, they must refund all of their salary at the end of each year, plus interest.

In case anyone worries that no one will run for office, fear not.
All legislators who voted against the deficit proposals are exempt.

As for the others? If they are so stupid as to believe that deficit spending has no costs, they are probably too stupid to realize that they are on the road to personal ruin first.

Word gets around fast, when they are answerable after the first year.

I call the Initiative, in plain English :

"The Legislator Accountability Act of 2011"

Ever see cockroaches scatter when you turn a light on?
It's hilarious!

I live in California. The cockroach capital of the USA. Including Boxer and Feinstein.

14 posted on 03/06/2011 6:32:55 PM PST by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: Presbyterian Reporter
California will simply issue new bonds to payoff the existing bonds that are coming due.

Cockroaches are slippery

I officially modify my modest proposal in post #14 to read, :

"If there is any deficit spending whatsoever, including rollovers of existing debt they must refund all of their salary at the end of each year, plus interest."

After all, it IS "public service," right?

15 posted on 03/06/2011 6:40:33 PM PST by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: SmithL

The same editorial page on which this article is printed, supported 90% of all the debt and waste that this editorial is bemoaning.


16 posted on 03/06/2011 6:46:06 PM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Public employee unions are the barbarian hordes of our time.)
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To: SmithL

I hope some Californian, someday, somewhere, asks me if I care....


17 posted on 03/06/2011 6:48:36 PM PST by bkopto ("I like being President. And it turns out I'm pretty good at it." Barack Obama, February 2009)
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To: SmithL

LOL! I stopped at the title.

Addiction to debt is costly?

Whodda thunkit?


18 posted on 03/06/2011 7:02:32 PM PST by MV=PY
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To: SmithL

For the reason I moved to Georgia after the recent elections.

BTW, nobody should believe the crocodile tears of SF Chronicle.

As all here know, they are the liberal rag that favors outrageous taxation.


19 posted on 03/06/2011 7:04:56 PM PST by indianrightwinger
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To: SmithL

I can save California $46Bn with one simple statement:
Cut all funding for ‘education.’


20 posted on 03/06/2011 7:43:10 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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