Comments on: Stephen Levy: Puncturing old myths about California’s budget woes

By: kelly

kelly — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:45:50 +0000

The unions are not causing the budget deficit. I am so tired of hearing Republicans repeat that propaganda ad nauseum.

Arnold blew a 6 billion dollar a year hole in the budget when he cut the car tax and then again when he borrowed 15 billion dollars. Now he’s using the crisis he created as an excuse to make deep cuts in education that he knows Californians do not support. He hates education because education reduces inequality. He was raised by people who loved the fuhrer, do don’t expect him to care about education.

The morons who voted for this imbecile are the ones who should lose their jobs over this. Not those of us were are smart enough to know that you don’t turn over one of the biggest economies in the world to an uneducated, inexperienced boob who made all of his money saying “I’ll be back.”

Furthermore, CA sends more money to Washington DC in taxes than we get in services. CA is a donor state. We need our money back so that we can balance our budget.

I am very angry at Obama for not helping CA. He’s the weakest President I have ever seen, and I wish the Dems would run somebody else in 2012.

By: James Katt

James Katt — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:24:19 +0000

As long as the state is not paying into an employee’s retirement fund AFTER the employee has retired, I’m OK with that - even if that cop has 100 K a year in retirement. Then that cop earned his retirement.

BUT, a huge problem is that the state IS PAYING into the retired person’s retirement. THIS DESTROYS the budget. THIS IS LIKE HAVING A LIFETIME JOB BUT DOING NOTHING FOR IT.

Once an employee has retired, the state should NOT give any further funds to that employee’s retirement fund. Period. This is what everyone else has. Thus the retired employee just has to join the rest of the people.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:16:01 +0000

California’s problem is they don’t want to budget. We have two state Congressional groups “DEMOCRATS” and “REPUBLICANS” but both can not agree to make cuts. The democrats want to raise taxes, whether its (Raise Sales Taxes, Property Taxes, Vehicle License Fees, etc) but that will allow State Assembly people and State Senators to just continue raising the taxes on the common workers without making any cuts. BACK IN the 1990’s and 1980’s WE HAD A MUCH SMALLER STATE BUDGET AND PEOPLE WERE RELATIVELY HAPPY THEN. We didn’t have draining programs like class size reduction for K-3rd grade, which costs the state an excessive amount of money. The state actually want’s us to believe that kids can only learn if the class size is under 20 kids per class. MY MOTHER WENT TO A SAN FRANCISCO SHCOOL AND SHE HAD 50 KIDS IN HER CLASS FOR A FEW YEARS, AND SHE HAS A BACHELORS DEGREE TODAY. The Problem is we have such an extreme amount of kids that can not speak English, at an appropriate level for school. Thus, the state adds costly programs to support illegal immigrant’s families like (Class Size Reduction, Medi-Cal costs, Food Stamp Fees, Section 8 reduced rent fees, WIC , TANF Fees.) YES, I DO KNOW THERE ARE ALSO U.S. CITIZENS IN CALIFORNIA THAT UTILIZE THESE PROGRAMS, BUT NOT NEARLY AT THE AMOUNT THE ILLEGALS USE THE PROGRAM. And I do realize that illegals come from country’s that do not give them as much opportunity. But, the state needs to close its border, to restabilize itself, before allowing more immigrants to come in down the road, OR ELSE CALIFORNIA WILL ALWAYS HAVE A SLUGGISHLY DRAINED ECOMONY INTO THE FUTURE.
Now California’s problem are not just immigrants. State retirees (PERS and STRS retirees) now outnumber active state workers 2 to 1. THAT”S NOT GOOD. Thus, for California to get things straigtened out they need to budget and make cuts. THE ONLY THING THAT IS SAVING THE COMMON PERSON, IS WE HAVE A REQUIRED 2/3 MAJORITY VOTE. IF THE STATE’S CONGRESS PEOPLE HAD IT THEIR WAY, THEY WOULD HAVE CHANGED IT TO 50.1% MAJORITY, AND THEN THEY WOULD HAVE RAISED MORE TAXES UPON US EASILY. THUS, THE 2/3 MAJORITY VOTE MAY ACTUALLY SAVE THE COMMON WORKER BY ACTUALLY FORCING THE STATE CONGRESS TO BUDGET. If the state congress can not agree to a budget then all the state Democrats and Republicans need to be voted out! Everyone of them. We all have to budget in every day of our lives. Therefore, they need to budget just as we do.
Its about time that they do the right thing.

By: Semore

Semore — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:56:38 +0000

Who ever heard of a temporary tax? That’s a joke. We are funding failure everywhere and until we stop it will never end. If you reward failure you will get more of it, punish success you will get less. Example: We keep throwing money at schools and they keep getting worse. You give more money to politicians and they waste it. Extravagant pensions, health care and overpaid state workers are going to break the bank when the baby boomers start cashing in. The rest of us in the private sector will work forever to try and pay for it. Privatize everything you can and let the free market work. Also if we cut off funds to the people who aren’t suppose to be here and it would just about balance the budget. Oh, I forgot we can’t talk like in California.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:34:39 +0000

RIGHT, LEGALIZE MARIJUANA. TAX IT, DON’T SEND THE USERS AND DEALERS TO PRISION. THE STATE WOULD MAKE LOTS OF MONEY. WHILE THEY ARE AT IT, THEY SHOULD ALSO LEGALIZE PROSTITUTION, ALL THOUGH, THAT WOULD HAVE TO BE MORE COTROLLED, MAKE SURE THE GIRLS ARE CLEAN, NOT SPREADING ANYTHING AROUND. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:58:24 +0000

I have to laugh at this quote, “Addressing long-term budget balance will pose very difficult challenges.” The reason the budget is a problem is because the quality of government management practices in California is the worst in North America.

Bad Management Practices for forty years created this mess and poor public funds uses has made the problems into a 30 billion plus hole in the balance sheet.

The only choice now is slash the budget then fire every elected official!

By: Yoshi

Yoshi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:39:20 +0000

One thing that can be taxed is marijuana. Legalization of marijuana, and the corresponding taxes on it, as well as the money saved by police not spending their time chasing those who grow and consume it, would bring in billions to the state’s coffers. Legalization of marijuana is the salvation of California, the Nation and the World!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:51:53 +0000

What takes CA off of this course?..An economic catastrophe so disastrous that the productive sector’s survival is at stake. But CA is still too rich to have to grow up, and the unionists are much too entrenched.

This “privileged” sector will continue to grow and may ultimately take to the streets themselves demanding the “state” do more. If we reach the “tipping point” of a majority entitlement class like France it will be too late. Let’s roll back union/govt power now.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:47:13 +0000

It is absurd to think that an influx of federal dollars will stave off the problems facing California and some other states. The first question to be asked is: How do we pay for it at the federal level? Deficit spending is disastrous and should not be considered a viable option. California has many programs that need to be evaluated before cutting any school and civil service funding. It is one thing to advocate costly programs, but quite another to find a way to pay for them. A second stimulus should not be given serious consideration, it would burden future generations with an insurmountable debt. Get over the pet projects and the do-good benefits and we will all be amazed at how much can be cut from the budget.

By: Conor

Conor — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:40:52 +0000

Mr. Levy’s analysis of the state’s fiscal situation is both enlightening and interesting. I found his statement from Tom Campbell particularly on mark. There are many options to address the budget crisis but borrowing money and turning to gimmicks shouldn’t be considered. Accounting gimmicks such as the proposed three percent withholding on independent contractors are not the solution. That proposal is back in the Democrats’ plan even after it was abandoned this past fall because it will leave the statement in even worse shape down the road. If it wasn’t a good idea then, why is it a good idea now?