First off, everyone in California knows that the California Legislature can't get it together to save their lives.
I was recently at a leadership training for mental health directors in Sacramento and one of the Budget Coordinators for the State was talking about effective budgeting in tough economic times. I took the opportunity to ask a question that was off topic, yet, essential to the discussion.
Question: "How come year after year, the California Legislature can't seem to get it together and pass a budget on time?"
Answer: "Good Question. essentially with term limits and special interest, the legislature is primarily focused on getting re-elected, so there is a lot of gridlock seeing as individuals are only focused on there own needs rather than the overall needs of the state. Of course, they've gone for quick fixes in the past to be able to fund all of the "special" projects and the needs of the state. As they've pushed problems further into the future, they've made it increasingly difficult to manage the primary problems of managing the state. And now, that there's a serious, global economic crisis..." (blah, blah, blah).
so, in case you don't understand the answer, basically, the legislature is at a point of total roman-senate dysfunction. For the last 5 years of more, the state has not been able to deliver a balanced budget or a budget on time. They've fought, watched government shut down and have not addressed the core problem of spending more than they have. Even in flush years, there has been a deficit. Instead of setting aside funds, they've spent them, with even rosier predictions for the future from which to pay for the increases.
So essentially, in terms of these propositions, if you read them, they are all of the "rob Peter to pay Paul" variety. and when you really, really look at it, they are essentially taking all of the tough issues they are supposed to solve and passing the responsibility on the taxpayers to institute even more unsound practices and push the problems even further into the future. The only question is, how many dead bodies can the legislature shove into the hideaway before things get, well, ridiculous? the problem is, we passed ridiculous a long time ago... AND, the election hasn't even happened.
Here's a suggestion.
1. The California State Colleges and Universities.
All those positions that don't actually "teach" students or directly support the teachers... GET RID OF 'EM. all we need is educators and janitors. the rest of them, can go to pasture. Now, this is the basic assumption we have to have in order to decrease the glut. Teachers can teach. Students can learn. and if we aren't teaching our students to take leadership roles within the colleges and universities, then we have failed. The college and university administrators have failed miserably. They would have us believe we have to pay these exorbinant salaries because the talent doesn't exist elsewhere. Y'know what? if these guys are so valuabe, then let them go get their money somewhere else. LEAVE! don't let cali get in your way. I'm pretty sure if teachers got to choose their own classes, there would be a lot less discrimination in the racist schools at this point anyway.
California College and University budget $15 Billion
2. State Prisons, Prison Guards, etc.
Stop throwing folks in prison for nothing. close the prisons, take that money, give it to the schools and to pay for healthcare, food, organic farms (and jobs), books, scholarships, travel grants, art grants, small business micro-grants, childcare, beutification, etc, etc, etc, etc.
State Prison Budget $10.1 Billion PLUS $7.4 Billion to build new prisons, medical centers, etc. ($17.5 Billion total).
As of 2007, California spends more on Prisons than Colleges and Universities AND that's saying a lot, because California spends a ton of money on education... well, actually on administrative salaries and payoffs. there are so many foxes in the henhouse at this point that all we have to do is burn down the henhouse and we won't have a problem with foxes!
we spend about 4 times as much on education as Texas (per capita) and 3 times what they spend on prisons.. and Texas has a large, death death row death machine to boot. And don't let anyone tell you the University of Texas can't compete with Berkeley, because they can, despite the fact that intellectuals have a natural aversion to the south... (in fact, Mark Yudof who is the current Chancellor of California State University, JUST CAME FROM TEXAS).
Texas by comparison spends $4.5 billion on higher education and $2 billion on prisons
population of Texas: 24,326,974
population of California: 36,756,666.... uh....
There is however one measure that will pass. the provision to limit an increase in state legislature salaries in years where there is a deficit... well, of course this will pass. I'm sure they were thinking that even though all of the other propositions are total bullshorts, that if the taxpayers had an opportunity to limit legislature salaries, we would hold our noses and pass the other ballot measures... WRONG! that's not how it works, the people will overwhelmingly reject these propositions, and, as they should, force the legislature to resolve the core problems with the state budget that they have ignored for the last 5 years.
The propositions are a real joke. It would be like waking up one day and your kid left a note under your pillow saying, "Dad, I need your house, your car, your clothes and well, everything. I'm not sure when i'll get them back to you, but as soon as I "make it" i'll pay you back three times what it was worth..."
Yeah, that's about what it's like. Read on.
PROPOSITION 1A:
STATE BUDGET. CHANGES CALIFORNIA BUDGET PROCESS.
Rainy Day Fund.
the rainy day fund is really higher taxes which are intended to pay for more things that the government already doesn't money for.
my recommended vote: naww!
PROPOSITION 1B:
EDUCATION FUNDING. PAYMENT PLAN.
Essentially pays for education by creating billions of dollars of liabilities in future, under the guise of "education funding" Education should be funded by the state out of the regular budget, not out of an imaginary fund. Basically, the legislature is agreeing to underfund education because they are banking on the fact that if they put it as a special line item folks will say, "oh my! we must vote yes to save education!" it's the same as a crack head spending all the food and rent money on drugs and then crying in front of a gas station saying, "but my baby is hungry, cold and needs.... "
my recommended vote: uh.. NOPE
PROPOSITION 1C:
LOTTERY MODERNIZATION ACT.
They call it the modernization act, but really it's a loan to the state of $5 billion that makes it even more impossible to balance future budgets and endangers the ability of the lottery to make payments to education as mandated when voters approved state sanctioned gambling.
my recommended vote: NOPE!
PROPOSITION 1D:
PROTECTS CHILDREN’S SERVICES FUNDING.
This proposition steals money out of the tobacco fund to pay for children's programs that should be paid for out of the regular state budget. It also robs the health programs for the millions of folks who will die of tobacco related deaths, and it steals from the education fund to keep new smokers from lighting up!
my recommended vote: NO!
PROPOSITION 1E:
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FUNDING.
TEMPORARY REALLOCATION. HELPS BALANCE STATE BUDGET.
Steals $225 million from the mental health service act to pay for other programs that are the responsibility of the counties and state. Although there is a lot of money that has yet to be tapped by the MHSA, however, there is nothing wrong with money unspent (although it's easy to see why the legislature sees this as a problem). NO! the people JUST voted for the MHSA and, it deserves the opportunity to work as intended and not stolen from by crooked, inept, incompetent, self-serving legislators.
my recommended vote: NO!
PROPOSITION 1F:
ELECTED OFFICIALS’ SALARIES.
PREVENTS PAY INCREASES DURING BUDGET DEFICIT YEARS.
Prevents elected members of the legislature from receiving pay raises in years where the state is running a deficit.. The only thing wrong with this, is that it should be reworded that in the event a new budget isn't passed, the legislators shouldn't be paid strong>AT ALL... AND once they pass the budget they would start to be paid again, with NO OPPORTUNITY TO RECOUP THE MONEY THEY LOST when they couldn't get it together. . unfortunately the measure doesn't go that far, however, we can still pass it.
my recommended vote: YESSSSS!!
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