If you want to know how that National Socialists took over Germany while the "good germans" stood by and watched, you have a perfect example right in front of you.
Somehow these teflon guys always slide their way to the top.
"DEA raids California medical marijuana farm just before harvest"
Whoa, dude! Reality is gonna suck!
He forgot to mention that the "so on" includes CalPERS.
Does the Cal constitution require a balanced budget to operate ?
Absolutely. Gray Davis will postpone some budget cuts until after the November elections, according to A Budget Update from the University of California President Richard Atkinson, dated Sept. 2002.
...
On September 5, Gov. Gray Davis signed the 2002-03 California State budget. However, unlike in most years, the signing of the budget has not brought the budget process to a close.
The spending plan adopted by the legislature authorizes the governor to make up to $750 million in further reductions to State operations, at his discretion. The budgets of individual State agencies may be cut up to 5 percent in order to achieve this level of savings. ... the budget gives the governor until January 2003 to make these spending reductions.
...
Moreover, there are estimates of annual State budget deficits in the range of $10 billion to $12 billion for the next several years. As a result, the Department of Finance has asked all State agencies to consider scenarios for accommodating a possible budget cut of up to 20 percent in the 2003-04 fiscal year.
It's about time that Governor Davis has recognized that California is in the midst of an unprecedented fiscal crisis. Republicans warned of this "post-election surprise" last summer. The Governor now says he will invoke his emergency powers to freeze spending as much as possible - why didn't he take this step sooner?
The Governor is proposing $5 billion in "savings," not all of which he says are cuts. He will make the details of this proposal available in the days before his December 9th Special Session of the Legislature.
Republicans are cautious about his proposal absent the details - until we see them it is too soon to offer specific comment.
However, we are concerned that Democrats may propose majority-vote tax increases to solve this problem - they are rumored to be reconsidering their efforts to raise the car tax again. This is a step that would likely be challenged in court.
Republicans hope that budget negotiations during this Special Session will address the earlier unfulfilled commitments Democrats made last summer. So far, promises to make 5% across-the-board reductions in state spending - which would save nearly $300 million, and the "golden handshake" early retirement option for state employees, which would save $285 million - have not been enacted.
As we have said before, the Governor has gotten the budgets he wanted for the last three years. Those budgets overspent - we now have a deficit of huge proportions. However, one thing is absolutely clear:
Republicans believe the solution to this problem is not to raise taxes. We don't see any reason to punish taxpayers because the Governor and the liberal Democrats majority have recklessly overspent state tax dollars.
Quite simply, we must restore fiscal discipline and responsibility to our state government.
Republicans are concerned about reductions to education if those cuts will harm frontline classrooms. We don't believe that our children should have to shoulder the burden of Democrats' overspending - until we all agree that all other excessive spending has been trimmed.
We agree that the problem is much larger than projected. Last year at this time, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst projected a $10-$12 billion deficit. It turned out to be almost $24 billion. Next year's $21 billion deficit now projected by the Leg Analyst may be higher.
The enormous deficit, much larger than earlier projections, is due in large part to reckless government spending by liberal Democrats who have become arrogant with power. They have controlled both houses of the Legislature as well as the Governor's Office for four years, and in that time have repeatedly expanded state spending with no regard to the impact on the bottom line. Quite simply, it is time to restore fiscal discipline and responsibility to our state government.
We are ready to work with our colleagues in a bipartisan manner, but we must also address opportunities to consider proposals that will improve California's economy. We must work to create jobs, spur investment, improve working families' incomes, and generate more revenue - without raising taxes.