Posted on 11/11/2012 5:29:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind
On Tuesday voters in California went the wrong way on three propositions.
The main check on Sacramento excess has been a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority of both houses to raise taxes. Although Republicans have been in the minority for four decades, they could impose a modicum of spending restraint by blocking tax increases. If Democratic leads stick in two races where ballots are still being counted, liberals will pick up enough seats to secure a supermajority. Governor Jerry Brown then will be the only chaperone for the Liberals Gone Wild video that is Sacramento.
The high Democratic turnout in moderate and right-leaning districts helped the party pick up three seats in the senate and four in the assembly.
So now Californians will experience the joys of one-party, union-run progressive governance. Mr. Brown is urging lawmakers to demonstrate frugality and the "prudence of Joseph." As he said the other day, "we've got to make sure over the next few years that we pay our bills, we invest in the right programs, but we don't go on any spending binges." That's what all Governors say. Trouble is, merely paying the state's delinquent bills will require tens of billions in additional revenues if lawmakers don't undertake fiscal reforms.
With no GOP restraint, liberals can now raise taxes to pay for all this. [$200 billion in unfunded liabilities, the California State Teachers' Retirement System in need of $10 billion annually for the next 30 years to amortize its debt, $73 billion in outstanding bonds for capital projects and $33 billion in voter-authorized bonds, etc.]
They'll probably start by repealing Proposition 13's tax cap for commercial property. Democrats in the Assembly held hearings on the idea this spring. Then they'll try to make it easier for cities to raise taxes.
The greens want an oil severance tax. Other Democrats want to extend the sales tax to services, supposedly in return for a lower rate, but don't expect any "reform" to be revenue neutral. Look for huge union pay raises and higher pension benefits.
The silver lining here is that Americans will be able to see the modern liberal-union state in all its raw ambition. The Sacramento political class thinks it can tax and regulate the private economy endlessly without consequence. As a political experiment it all should be instructive, and at least Californians can still escape to Nevada or Idaho.
Law of the Funnel in Action
Big government and absurdly strong unions destroyed Greece and Spain. Expect no less for California.
Many large California corporations that can flee, will flee. Those stuck in California will see massive tax hikes (with many more to come) just so public unions and administrators can collect absurdly high salaries and benefits that most citizens can only dream about.
Please see the Law of the Funnel for a description as to what just happened.
Here is a headline news story that I found interesting for reasons I will explain following: Economists cut U.S. Q4 growth forecasts.
Economists expect the economy to grow at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the current quarter, down from the previous estimate of 2.2 percent growth, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's fourth-quarter survey of 39 forecasters.Given exports were recently revised up and imports revised lowered, I expected economists to think GDP would come in higher. It would have been interesting to see their reasons. Hurricane Sandy perhaps?
While that left estimates for gross domestic product for the year unchanged at 2.2 percent, growth in 2013 looked modestly weaker with economists forecasting 2 percent, down from 2.1 percent.
Over the next three quarters, growth was seen averaging 2.1 percent, down from earlier expectations of 2.2 percent.
The unemployment rate was forecast to come in lower than expected, averaging 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous estimate of 8.1 percent. The monthly unemployment rate released by the government was 7.9 percent in October.
Still, unemployment was seen stuck at 7.9 percent in the first quarter of next year, and holding at 7.8 percent in the second and third quarters.
Economists raised their forecasts for inflation this quarter with the headline consumer price index seen averaging 2.3 percent, up from earlier estimates for 2.0 percent. For the year, CPI was expected to average 1.9 percent, up from 1.8 percent.
If they could just find a way to get enough of our money, they could solve all our problems.
Now they can.
This is the sort of action that is needed to teach people. Pain, and more pain.
It’s the only way people learn.
If I were Texas and the like I would be on the lookout for this to occur. California is already business hostile as it is. They do this, and companies will be looking for other states to move to that treat businesses fairly with the thought of creating jobs and actually keeping them.
And don't think that this will be limited to commercial property. Prop 13 affected personal property, and they could make a bundle (in the DEM's minds) raising all property taxes to current property values. Of course, this will cripple those in retirement and fixed incomes and have owned their homes for quite some time.
Watch for calls of a bailout of the People’s Revolutionary Soviet of California.
Good, let ‘em go. The faster the better. Just don’t come begging for a bailout.
Prepare for the demise of America.
Beware Texas, the locusts will be looking for new green pastures to ravish.
RINOs in Washington DC are doing the same as CA Democrats.
RE: Just don’t come begging for a bailout.
That will be like GM NOT begging for a bailout.
You no longer have to wait for an earthquake to send California tumbling into the oceans, the Democrats will do just as well.
RE: Voters approved Proposition 30 “temporarily” increasing the state sales tax and income tax on individuals making over $250,000.
How many of us are willing to bet how long it will take before they decide to make “temporarily” permanent?
How long b4 silicon valley says enough and gets the hell out of Kalifornia..
Yep, the producers are leaving in droves. So the vultures will feed on the few remaining carcasses until those are picked dry then they'll scream for help.
The ones who are on fixed income and retirement savings have been voting Democrat for years. They are only getting what they wanted.
BULL CRAP!
They will see no such thing.... they'll just lap up the vomit spewed at them by the State Run Media: "boo-hoo, if only rich white people weren't so stingy and terrible!"
So long, California, it was (kinda) nice knowing you. Guess I'll buy most of my wine from Argentina now!
Been happening already. Both defense and tech are getting clobbered in California. If I needed to work another 10+ years in either industry, I would move to another business friendly state.
“Guess I’ll buy most of my wine from Argentina now!”
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While Carlo Rossi is quite plentiful here in the small towns of the Philippines, I stock up on Spanish and South American wines, at about half the cost, when I buy them in a city.
The best part is that they come in 1 ltr paper boxes, so it is quite easy to carry as much as 20 ltrs.
I am sipping Don Garcia (tinto) as I type this.
There are about four brands from SA and Spain.
A parable for dwellers of Californicate: A man was sitting in a chair and would strike himself in the head with a hammer several times and then stop. A moment later he would do the same thing all over. A Texan stopped and asked the man why he was hitting himself in the head with a hammer. The man answered, “I like the way it feels when I stop”.
Like the way people in Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago learned and rose up and voted out the Democrats.......
Sorry but if they haven't learned by now they will never learn. I guarantee, we will be hearing about how bad Arnold & Pete Wilson and even Reagan ruined California so bad it's going to take more than 4 years to undo all the damage they did.
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