April 30th 2009
California: What’s Wrong With This State?
T
he headline poses quite a question as May approaches and the passel of ballot measures designed to bail out Sacramento from its budgetary ineptitude appear poised for defeat. The more I think about it, the more I think what’s wrong with California is simple: Californians.
Check out this information from the latest Field Poll, a prominent if liberally biased CA poll:
- A large majority prefers resolving the state budget deficit mostly through spending cuts rather than through tax increases.
But:
- Majorities oppose cutbacks in ten of twelve major categories of state spending, including the three largest – public schools, health care and higher education. Only prisons and parks were cited as programs that could be cut.
However, a solution is evident:
- Three in four voters (74%) favor increasing taxes on millionaires.
Yes, let’s be sure to punish success!
The poll found that a slim majority of Dems (53%) favor spending cuts over tax increases, but 83% of GOP voters want cuts. It’s incredible, given the momentous evidence of over-spending and lack of discipline by the Dem-dominated state legislature, there’s still that many Dems who want to give them more of our money … or at least more of the millionaires’ money. I’m guessing this 53% is pretty much the same bunch that pays no taxes but still gets a tax cut under Obama’s budget.
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May 1st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Comments
May 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am
Laer,
Thank you for discussing taxes and government services in the same breath. We so often hear these issues discussed as though they’re not inextricably related.
Of course Californians are to blame for our current fiscal mess. They continue to demand government services without consideration of how to pay for those services, and it’s largely done through the initiative process.
I think allowing citizens to take direct action via initiatives is good but it has been abused by special interests. Take CIRM, for example, which committed the state to spend 3 billion on stem cell research. Did anyone that supported the measure consider how to pay for that investment? Did they ask how the state would recoup its considerable investment into research? Did they ask who would hold the patents for inventions the will be the result of such research? No, no and no again.
This is but one example. They are many more.
I would argue that it’s time to change the initiative process so Californians can’t vote for new government services without addressing how they will be funded. One way to do that is to change our laws to disqualify any unfunded initiatives from getting on the ballot.
My 2 cents.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I blame our mild climate. If we had freezing winters or killer heat spells like other parts of the country, the stupid people here would have all found stupid ways to die through their poor planning or lack of appreciation for reality. Instead they’re able to survive, thrive, and have children who they’ve raised to be stupid as well. Successive generations of this have produced today’s California voters, and the government they put in power.
My reply to Sacramento’s and local government’s incessant calls for yet more tax revenue is always the same: What did you do with the money I already gave you?
May 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Socratease,
You aren’t suggesting we change the mild climate, are you? It might be easier to change the California Constitution.
Just sayin’.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Francis – I thought Al Gore was going to change the climate for us … but hotter will just make it lazier, stupider, worse.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I was explaining, not prescribing. I suspect there’s not much can be done until the state is completely trashed to the point where even the residents who made it that way can’t stand it anymore, the smart and rich people having left long before. Maybe we’ll end up giving it back to Mexico the way we found it or something, I don’ know.