Posted on 06/25/2009 9:49:45 PM PDT by thecodont
Afew [sic] hours after California voters approved his Proposition 13 tax-cut measure on June 6, 1978, a bibulous and exultant Howard Jarvis dropped his pants for the benefit of a few reporters gathered in his suite at the L.A. Biltmore Hotel.
A reporter had asked Jarvis why he was limping, so his ostensible reason was to show a large, ugly bruise, which he'd suffered in a fall a few days before, on his ample, boxer-clad behind. The surprise gesture, however, also afforded the earthy and profane Jarvis a chance to display his contempt for the press and, by extension, the political class that had mocked him and opposed his cherished measure.
Thirty years later, the ghost of Jarvis and his legacy initiative still aim antipathy, scorn and disdain at California's government and its leaders. Proposition 13 was the first, and most far-reaching, in a cascade of political decisions over the last three decades that have shaped the dysfunctional structure of governance in the state.
Simply put, California today is ungovernable.
As state and local officials struggle to weather the state's fiscal crisis, they wield power with the damaged machinery of a patchwork government system that lacks accountability, encourages stalemate and drifts but cannot be steered.
In this system, elected leaders carry responsibility, but not authority, for far-reaching policies about public revenues and resources. That's not governance -- it's reactive management of a deeply flawed status quo.
Here is a look at six key factors that have made California impossible to govern.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
* Proposition 13
* Budget initiatives
* Gerrymandering
* Term limits
* Boom-and-bust taxation
* The two-thirds vote
Its the socialist Democrats and the unions that have trashed this state.
Only the leftwing LA Times could make a list of the top six reasons California’s budget is out of control.
And not mention even once, the word “unions”.
Unbelievable. The LA times is worse even than the NYT, as far as a raving leftwing agenda.
They’re just lost.
In reality....they won.
Just this time.
They’re already fishwrappers.
Just like the network nightly news shows, buggywhips, and typewriters.
They just don’t know it yet.
Uh, what do you expect when you let your state be overrun by parasitic foreigners, who chase out the middle class and leave only the parasites and the very wealthy? California is taxing its middle class out of existence. Proposition 13 indeed. No wonder that paper is circling the drain.
> Only the leftwing LA Times could make a list of the top six reasons California’s budget is out of control.
And not mention even once, the word “unions”.<
BINGO! That’s why I never take that liberal rag seriously. The only publication worth reading here is the LA Downtown News and IBD, and unfortunately they’re both weeklies. The rest are commie/leftie papers. The LAT Business section is more than average though.
“Proposition 13: The fiscal effect of Proposition 13 itself is only part of the damage the initiative did to California. Even worse have been the methods Capitol politicians devised to try to lessen the measure’s financial impact.”
It’s all in the second sentence: the pols try and ignore the wishes of the electorate. The rest is fluff.
The OC Register is pretty good.
Sort of the print version of Fox News Channel, on a small scale.
Once heard it derided by a socialist whiner as a “fascist rag”, which I figured coming from that person was a pretty strong endorsement. :)
2/3rds reqt has been around for about a 100 years. That’s not it. Prop 13 has been around for 30 years. Problems in the last 10 or so, so its not it. Term limits - not a problem. Maybe we’d be better off like NV with a part time legislature so they couldn’t pass so many job killing laws. Boom and bust? Not a problem, spend less than you take in and save it to smooth the downturns. Families do this all the time. Budget initiatives? Somewhat, but in general they’re not the big culprit.
Real problems? Political class enthralled to unions. In general CA is a high tax state. Revenue is not the problem. Spending is. Real solutions? Throw out the illegals. Cut welfare rates (CA has about 3 percent on it, most states about 1 percent). Cut state worker wages and pensions, and hey, we can get by. No pol wants to come up with those answers because they don;t buy any votes.
This deserved a barf alert!!
What he fails to mention is that california has become ungovernable ever since the dems took over. (And don’t bring up Arnold as a republican).
They want to get rid of the 2/3 vote for new taxes - hell no! What they need to do is have a 2/3 vote for new spending as well!!
That together with a part time legislature would fix a lot of problems - the last thing we want is a hard working legislature!
Prop 13 isn’t the problem, but killing the 2/3 majority to raise taxes will finish CA off.
The communists at the L.A. Times haaaaaaaate the idea of less taxation.
My three heroes are Ronald Reagan, Al Bundy and Howard Jarvis.
The cumulative effect on the state, over the last 40 years, has been devastating.
“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a “warm body” democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction….
Once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader — the barbarians enter Rome.”
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Robert A.Heinlein
The state has been diversified by third world immigration into becoming a third world country over the past 30 years.
No indigenous white majority—> no consensus, no common cause = no manageability
Prop 13 helped hold off the slavery of too high property taxes, anyone who thinks it is bad, isn’t thinking straight.
I had an interesting exchange with someone this afternoon. Regarding the impending state budget crisis (and the issuance of “IOU” slips in lieu of regular checks) he began chanting “If only the Republicans weren’t in deadlock over this, we need to get some revenue-generating legislation enacted.” I asked him, “When was the last time the state was solvent? What were the conditions that made that possible?” He had no answer for me. I almost felt like getting up and grabbing him by the lapels, yelling “And where do you think the money is going to come from?” but I did not. I think he—and many others like him—have not given these matters a great deal of thought.
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