Posted on 12/23/2009 8:25:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
California got $7 billion in state grants from Porkulus, and an opportunity to catch their breath while they attacked a monstrous state budget that desperately needs pruning. Congress has now begun to consider Porkulus II, with even more block grants for states, enabling them to paper over serious budget gaps. But that’s not enough for Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants an additional $8 billion from the feds in order to bail out a state that seems incapable of governing itself:
Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials and lobbyists familiar with the plan.
If Washington does not provide roughly $8 billion in new aid for the state, the governor threatens to severely cut back — if not eliminate — CalWORKS, the state’s main welfare program; the In-Home Health Care Services program for the disabled and elderly poor, and two tax breaks for large corporations recently approved by the Legislature, the officials said.
Schwarzenegger also will propose extending a cut in the state payroll that is scheduled to expire this summer. That cut has translated into 200,000 state workers being furloughed three days a month, the equivalent of a 14% pay cut. Lawmakers would have the option of extending the furloughs, imposing layoffs or some combination of the two.
The governor is scheduled to unveil his plan publicly early next month. Administration spokesman Matt David declined to comment on the details.
We can look at this from two perspectives. Taken at face value, a bailout request is an insult to the federalist model of state sovereignty. The basic act of governance at any level is creating a budget and determining which functions to fund and at what level. California has failed at this for the last few years, and only stayed out of bankruptcy in 2009 because of the Porkulus cash. Coming to Washington, hat in hand, should carry a big penalty for California and any other state demanding that citizens of other states subsidize their incompetence — say, the loss of voting rights in Congress until the money gets repaid. After all, if they’re asking to be a federal protectorate, why should California have any more privileges in Congress than Puerto Rico or other federal protectorates?
On the other hand, one could see this as a political ploy better known as a Briar Patch Strategy. The likelihood of getting $8 billion from Washington for a bailout approaches the same odds as Barack Obama attending the ribbon-cutting at a coal-fired power plant, for two reasons. One, Washington doesn’t have the money, and two, giving California a bailout would mean having to do the same with most of the rest of the 50 states looking at a sea of red ink. The Governator understands this, but knows that he has to ask before demanding the kind of deep cuts necessary to get California back in the black. In a replay of Br’er Rabbit, Schwarzenegger wants Obama to throw him into the budget-cut briar patch rather than going there himself.
Whether by design or desperation, California’s political class is not likely to get another reprieve from doing its job properly. Schwarzenegger can blame that on Obama or Congress, but either way, he’s going to have to make big cuts in the budget and quit using accounting tricks to hide the red ink.
Update: Don’t expect the briar-patch strategy explanation to impress anyone, either. As HA commenter Cubachi put it on Twitter, “The Governator transformed into a girly-man.”
The goobernator has been purchased by obama... just like nelson and the other wh0res.
LLS
F off.
This explains his “A” grade for Obama earlier in the week. What a moron!
CA needs to get series first...stop making hand outs for solar panels and other ganggreen money wasters.
8B would be just a down payment on what CA is going to need to stay afloat. There is a 20B hole this year and another 20B coming up next year.
Don't give them more. Starve this beast. Legally avoid anything with an attached tax. Be creative. Make it a life style choice.
We can survive without their money, but they can't survive without ours.
FUAS
RE: FUAS
Is that now a popular internet acronym like IMHO, OTOH, LOL, LMAO and others ?
Stop being a girly-man and start cutting, dork!
They are truly insane...Pleas Obama loan me your printing press.
Wonder how much he wasted on his global warming trip to Coppenhagen?
Ahhhnold! Pay your own bills!
You can’t marry into the Kennedys without being a raging RINO!
How much $$$$ are criminaliens costing the State?
Snip....
Fascinating. Twenty Billion in the RED and all of a sudden the watermelons are ok with offshore oil drilling and production.
Dang near magic...
Pound sand, Arnold.
Get your own house in order.
Ahem.
The Taxinator was the GOP's hand-picked candidate instead of the true conservative, Tom McClintock.
Many here backed the Taxinator, calling Tom McClintock "unelectable" because he wasn't photogenic enough to be Governor.
McClintock outlined his economic plan before the election and had the GOP and their lickspittles backed McClintock, California would not be in the state it's in, nor would we be looking at an $8 billion deficit.
Of course, all of this will fall on deaf ears come election time when the GOP will, once again, back the 'pretty boy' who is 'electable' instead of the true conservative who will do what's good for the state and its people.
And then there is nonsense like this....giving big tax dollars to senior illegal aliens:
booklet funded 'with a generous grant from the Calif. Bar Foundation', titled, "Seniors & the Law" A Guide for Maturing Californians. They pointed out many programs, such as property tax deferment for seniors in financial trouble, that have been eliminated because of budget cuts...but they didn't cut this one!
Pg. 3
Highlights: "California's cash Assistance Program is for Seniors.... turned down because of their immigration status....such seniors may be able to get almost the same amount of cash as they would have through SSI"
2) State up front that if (1) is disallowed by the courts, that it will trigger an automatic cut in welfare benefits, plus layoffs of social workers, to make expenses come into line with revenue.
Just fire $10 billion worth of state employees!!!!
Hell, make it $20 billion worth!!!!
Ahnold did lie about everything when he ran though.
LLS
small business bankruptcies in CA have jumped more than 80%. Appointed regulatory boards and staff continue to expand as they “eat out the substance” of our state. Get rid of climate change, diesel, water and other economy-killing envioronmental bureaucracies and regulations. Focus on legislative relief that will actually support entrepreneurism and growth of small business. Then tax revenues will increase.
NOW this is a good cause for secession.
FU California. Solve your own problems.
Exactly. shut down DMV and install kiosks at 7-11. The kiosks can take your picture, print your drivers license and registration, and even give you a driving test and eye-sight test. We don’t need a single DMV office... automation!
Same with the welfare office. Shut them down. Mail out ATM cards, and fill them up every 2 weeks.
Sell all the public schools, and use the resources to fund the teachers pensions. Then let private schools compete for students. The state just sends out vouchers and lets the schools manage their own affairs. The market will dictate that only good schools will survive.
We can manage almost all the services we offer, on way less than half the manpower, using automation.
But as everyone who works in government knows, government is not a business it is mainly a works program and secondarily a vote-generating machine for politicians. Give people jobs and they vote for you. Until that changes, there will be no change.
The truth is that the commies got out commied.
LLS
What is true is that the GOP and many of their lickspittles here, backed a Hollyweird actor/newcomer with no stated economic plan for the state instead of a true conservative who'd been in the trenches for years and also freely discussed his economic plan.
Can any state that cannot survive without federal money and the influence that goes with it be considered "sovereign"?
If not, then the rest of the states have a right to question the legitimacy of their representation in Congress as a member of the republic.
LLS
I agree 100% but there will be no one with “standing” able to bring suit.
LLS
Three quarters of the States should be able to revoke the statehood of any other State that refuses to live up to it’s end of the bargain.
If hussein and the dims continue... there may well come a time when the Union will split.
LLS
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