* 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.
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.
“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.
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 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.
-PJ
Get rid of prop 13 and California would be a little more like New York, no better off. If the state is compared to a state with similar demographics like Texas the solution is obvious.
1. Get rid of the full time legislature, make them get a job. The legislature just stands around thinking of ways to tax and kill business.
2. Stand up to the unions, which will never happen and why Cali will BK.
3. Get rid of the ridiculous pensions. Make them get a job.
Cali needs bankruptcy to break the unions and deal with the pension problem. Until then nothing will be solved.
They say as California goes so goes the nation. I hope not.
Propostions only came about due to the incompetence of the government of the State of California. Peole wouldn’t resort to the proposition option otherwise. I see the LA Times did not include the Civil Rights Initiative. Why not? They love race discrimination.
Prop. 13 did no damage to the State whatsoever. Not one bit! The damage was done by thirty years of politicians who have refused to admit that Prop. 13 passed. They have carried on for all these years as though the former revenue stream was still there; as though property owners would continue playing saps and pay through the nose for the privilege of being governed by the rabble in Sacramento.
The LA Times thinks California can’t be governed because of the inability to raise taxes faster.
They should be true to their thinking and increase the price of their paper to see how that helps their budget situation.
I love it. They list “six key factors” that make CA impossible to govern and yet CA had NO PROBLEM in during the 30 years of Prop13 to raise spending over and over and over again.
Only now, when the chickens have come home to roost and spending has to be reduced, does it become a “problem” due to lack of flexibility.
Strange, I see the main problem as overspending.
"The public is making a statement, loud and clear, that they expect action."
LMBO!!... As if normal, traditional American families in California will give a rat's behind if government shuts down... Right. Only the Democrat parasite class cares about government, because it is the Democrat parasites who depend on government to confiscate tax money from their neighbors and "redistribute" it to them. Sorry, parasites, the well is dry.