Only YOU can Fix California!

Government is expected to perform certain functions. I’ve never seen someone go to the store and buy concrete, mix it up and fill in a pot hole in the street. Fire departments, police departments, military defense, snow removal, disaster relief and schools. Most of us expect that those things will be there when they are needed and even though the idea of public school is fairly new (first public school in US was Boston Latin founded in 1635, but it wasn’t until the middle of the 1800's that it even reached all of Massachusetts) it may be the government function we feel the most strongly about. It effects our children, and any changes that are viewed as negative bring a strong response from one end of the spectrum or the other. Which brings us to the recent meeting between the state of California and reality. It’s not something that happens often, but in true California fashion, when met with reality ... the Californians have decided to protest ... and be violent. “If I smash the windshield of a random stranger’s vehicle then the government will listen to me and do what I want!” Or, you might go to jail.

BASIC CIVICS LESSON: States and municipal governments are not able to print currency ergo, cannot operate beyond their means and must balance their budget every year. The federal government, on the other hand, sees a couple a trillion dollar budget shortfall as mere details to ignore.

So, in California they are about to go bankrupt. Tax revenue has declined tremendously and the demand for the state’s resources has not waned ... and so after two years of the “recession” they’re broke. California operated budget projections off of the notion that revenue would continue to climb for eternity and so that they could pass spending increases to their hearts content. Projected 2010 revenue was $113 billion, and when 2010 rolled around their actual revenue was $75 billion. Oops. The trend will continue into the rest of this year and they’ll end up $60 billion in the hole ... which they can’t actually do, so the Goven-ator suggested some ideas to save money and the ballot referendum to enact them was defeated. Basically California voted to destroy itself. Here we are, 4 months later and tough choices are being made ... and the Californians are protesting. I get it, I mean I don’t want my kids to go to a school with no resources and no teachers either, but if you pass a law saying that 40% of the state’s revenue has to go to schools (prop 98), where do you think the cuts are going to come from .... maybe 40% from schools? Crazy, right!

So, I’d like to hear from you on this. Where do you think that the money should come from? Cuts (what would you cut?”) or extra taxes (what would you tax?). I’ll use your comments to fix California in the Monday post. Stay tuned ... oh, and happy Friday.