The Disintegration of the Golden Era in the Golden State

NY TIMES ^ | 2/9/03 | ANDRÉS MARTINEZ

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that looks like a very pleasant place to work and it is for the children, you know!

[Carry_Okie]

There will be no more school nurses and no more elementary school music programs.

Gasp! No more forced ritalin and prozac! How will the teachers cope?

There will be no more school nurses and no more elementary school music programs. High school classrooms will be crammed with up to 40 students.

Gasp! The teachers will have to work for a living! How will the teachers cope?

Well, they do have all that extra prozac. ;-)

[Robert357]

Yes, from a liberal democrat's perspective, it is the voters who are responsible for the problem. Those dumb voters didn't vote into office elected officials that would commit to raising taxes. As such it is not safe for career politicians to vote in tax increases. Also those dumb voters aren't working hard enough and earning enough so they can give ever increasing amounts to government to spend. (/sarcasm)

I am reminded of the joke that goes, this sales job would be OK if we didn't have to hassle with these customers all day. Some politicians (especially those in California, like Davis) are clueless.

[Carry_Okie]

If California was being run by and for the middle class...then your prescription might make sense. But the state is long past that point.

"The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes."
-Aristotle, The Politics

[philetus]

Examples of various (wasteful) pork projects proposed by Governor Gray Davis and/or the California state legislature that have contributed to our $23.6 billion budget deficit:



Turning Leaf Academy:
This program was originally designed to reform expelled children in public schools. The budget includes $3 million to continue its operation. However, the main shortfall of this program is that it has only rehabilitated 6 offenders at a cost of $15 million. Less than 30 cadets have fulfilled the program's requirements as California taxpayers are footing the bill at $500,000 per student.



Vacant Positions:
Governor Davis preserves tens of thousands of vacant positions in state government. It could save taxpayers millions of dollars if these positions were eliminated.



Electric Car Program:
The state is spending $6 million for incentive grants to promote the purchase of electric vehicles. The California Air Resources Board continues to be good at wasting money yet ineffective at producing results (i.e. its goal to have 10 percent of California's cars to be electric from the early 1990's. This program exemplifies how policymakers can have noble intentions, but offer nominal improvements, as well as damaging repercussions on fiscal policy.



Oracle Contract:
After a Governor's Action Request, the state spent an embarassing $95 million to contract with Oracle for software, leaving us with over $40 million in excess software. The Davis Administration contended that the inflated $95 million no-bid contract was an attempt to save $100 million in cost. All that effort to save $5 million resulted in a net loss of $35 million, not to mention some soon-to-be obsolete software. Another classic example of why government should not be in the business of negotiating such contracts.

[ErnBatavia]

a very pleasant place to work

Oh, I'm sure it is....and nary a trailer in sight, unlike the elementary skool that's less than a mile away. As in most public skools here, as we all know, the playgrounds and athletic fields are pretty much taken up with trailers.

[Robert357]

Thanks for the heads up, but you forgot to add the next few sentences. This is not the kind of spin I expected. I really didn't expect them to blame the voters.

Wall Street's skepticism is justified. Mired in a partisan stalemate, Sacramento doesn't seem capable of resolving its fiscal mess. Things are so bad you almost expect the International Monetary Fund to get involved. California's political leadership is in a state of denial...

[river rat]

Amen

Semper Fi

[McGavin999]

You are speaking of the blacks and latinos, of course. Immigrants from Asia and elsewhere have assimilated themselves and become productive members of American society.

Those who have assimilated are no longer immigrants, they are considered Americans, high praise indeed. They should be proud of the fact that they are not included in these lists because they have become "us".

[SierraWasp]

"California's political leadership is in a state of denial..."

STOP THE SPENDING & BORROWING STUPID!!!

Return to the 1999 budget and live within your means!!!

[.38sw]

Good lord! That's an administration building for a school district? What do the schools look like? Run down little modulars? I guess we can see where the money is going.

[.38sw]

When I was in school, we had classes with more than 30 children in them and probably nearly 40. I can hardly remember that far back. But, something was working. I ended up with at least a decent education, was in honors classes, and advanced classes when I reached college. I can spell, string a sentence together, do math, understand many scientific concepts, and read well. I know - I must be an anomaly!

[Brian Allen]

Hey R'Rat -- got your sixes!

Per Adua Ad Astra -- Brian

[Lancey Howard]

Only a liberal toilet paper like the Old Gray Whore could have come up with this slop. All that claptrap about Proposition 13 and nary a word about the huge surpluses of a few short years ago and how the liberal scumbag Democrats squandered it like drunken sailors on shore leave in their insatiable lust to buy the votes of their parasite constituencies.

This "Andres Martinez" is a fool, and a very sloppy "journalist".
Or, the scumbag has an agenda.

In the meantime, Republicans have vowed that they will not allow regular, traditional, working California families to be punished for the crazy, irresponsible spending that the Democrats engaged in over the past four years. And the Republicans better not cave, not one single dime, no matter how many DNC mouthpieces like this mouse "Andres Martinez" publish lying screeds about California's budget "crisis".

[Liz]

How this liberal dupe could write all of that crapola with a straight face is beyond me.

[Liz]

To err is human, but it takse a politician to really screw things up.

[Liz]

Fat chance........the pols are used to living high on the hog on the people's dime.

[Liz]

Demoncraps bigbuck campaign contributors being paid off, no doubt.

[DoughtyOne]

True. And they have!

[Robert357]

There was a interesting summary on Rough and Tumble regarding the budget. The spin is really interesting, "the rates are so low that it doesn't matter if the state is paying a penalty!" Hard to believe.

Borrowed billions -- The bad news is California must borrow billions to pay its bills this summer, and the state's shaky credit means we'll pay a premium for it. The good news is, with interest rates so low, even marginal credit is a relative bargain. The difference between what California -- downgraded by Wall Street analysts -- will have to pay and what a top-rated state must pay for credit is almost insignificant, experts say. Will Shuck in the Stockton Record -- 2/10/03