So here's the thing

[dwenius]

The Governer-elect says he will "find the fat" in the state budget.

Hasn't he been paying attention? Thanks to our gee-golly wowsers, "vote yourself more bread and extra circuses", proposition based, power to the people legislative process, more than half of the budget must be spent. You can't trim those parts; the people voted it that way last year or the year before, or the decade before. the law is on the books and in the electoral record, and tough cookies, all you fiscal weenies. On the other hand, boy, won't we for sure have shiny new bridges/ballparks/caps on property taxes!

Waugh.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

...

Just to vent for a moment...I fucking hate California.

Don't get me wrong -- I love my friends there, and I know that SF and Berkeley and Marin voted my way but I can't help wanting to go down and hit people with crow bars until they bleed.

[kernelpanic.livejournal.com]

Well... Arnold did write the Bible of Bodybuilding (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684857219/qid=1065703927/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-9289195-3560127?v=glance&s=books&n=507846).


One would think that Arnold knows a thing or two about getting the fat out.

<Ducks and covers>

For those of us not living in California...

[deeptape.livejournal.com]

Which bread and circus propositions were passed?

Mad Props

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

Well, in this election, no props were passed. My comments were in reference the the historical record, and at the top of the list is Prop 13, from 1978. Prop 13 requires a 2/3 vote to increase local property taxes; so essentially, property taxes are frozen until a house is sold. Naturally, people were all over it and it passed by a large margin. The unintended consequences have included:

* A very strange age/class war. Own your house for 30 years? You pay 1978 tax rates. Buying new at age 25? You pay current market rate, probably 5x the old rate.

* Ca. schools have plummeted in quality, from public schools all the way up to UC-Berkeley. Scores down, infrastructure falling apart, and eventually, this year, mass school closings and teacher firings.

* More strip mall development-- local governments needed the sales tax to make up for the loss of other tax revenue (but not even Wal-Mart and Home Depot can make up 38 billion).

There have been other bad props in recent memory. It seems like we vote on affirmative action or medical mj every other election, and sometimes we flip flop. The demolition of the central freeway in SF was passed, resubmitted, failed, resubmitted, passed again between 96-2002, and they finally got around to tearing it down a couple months ago. Arnold is in the political scene at all becuase of his successful fundraising effort for a prop in the last election to improve the schools...tragically, that proposition mandated fixes without identifying any source of funds, and even though it passed nothing has changed. The city of Oakland will be in hock to the Raiders for decades thanks to a criminally bad stadium referendum. It goes on and on.

The thing with props is, they almost guarantee that whoever is better funded will win. Better advertising, marketing, and spin? Hey, it's a simple majority vote.

Re: Mad Props

[waider.livejournal.com]

* More strip mall development-- local governments needed the sales tax to make up for the loss of other tax revenue (but not even Wal-Mart and Home Depot can make up 38 billion).

Cool! I've been waiting for the loglo to appear ever since I read Snow Crash!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Check out the Save The Pretty Horsies proposition.

Re: For those of us not living in California...

[ex-askesis860.livejournal.com]

We tend to view referenda as Good Things, but California has proven that there's a lot to be said for a representative democracy that's administered by actual professionals, as opposed to, say, you or me. In addition to capping property taxes, Californians have also, by direct popular vote, mandated that the state budget must be passed by a 2/3 majority in the state congress (which makes budgets very hard to pass), and funded a great number of programs that the legislature has no control over. Currently, somewhere between 60 and 80% of the state's expenditures are required by law, leaving even the most conscientious congress and governor very little room to make budget-balancing decisions. At the same time, any move to increase the state's already high taxes is met with career-ending resentment. And as of last year they'd voted themselves about $38 billion worth of stuff they weren't willing to pay for. But Arnold must provide it, because the people voted for it, right?

In conclusion: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!