Everyone knows California budget cuts needed, but no one wants to feel the ax

Contra Costa Times ^ | 2/6/12 | Tom Barnidge, Contra Costa Times columnist

[SmithL]

If the subject is the state budget, you know what follows: What will be cut this time?

This has been an annual discussion ever since California's economy imploded and tax revenues dried up.

It was the central topic of state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier's town hall meeting in Concord last week, where he gave a primer on the arcane process by which Sacramento balances income and outflow.

He talked about Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget for 2012-13, his planned cuts, projected revenues, assumed tax hikes, triggered cuts if the taxes do not pass, and the many meetings that will take place before anything is approved.

Numbers piled upon numbers until he acknowledged: "I see a few glassy eyes out there."

The 80 or so people in the City Council Chamber listened politely enough, but that wasn't the main reason many of them were there. They came to voice their concerns over what is at risk in the era of austerity.

Taking turns at the microphone for more than an hour, they expressed fears for everything from in-home support services to government-funded child care, mental health, education, libraries, medical coverage and animal control.

They could have been any group, in any locale, on any night, DeSaulnier said. He hosts town hall meetings throughout his district, and there is only one common denominator among constituents' pleas.

"Don't cut the thing that we like," he said. "If there's something people care about -- libraries, mental health, whatever -- they don't want you to cut that from the budget."

[Red Badger]

What purpose do libraries serve in this wired world today?.................I haven’t had to go to a ‘library’ since I was in college, and I’m 57.............

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Who couldn’t see this coming from a mile away? The Dems only know how to spend more and raise taxes. They can’t cut spending, period. Their constituents won’t accept it. In a normal democracy, that would mean that the voters would turn to the Republicans to make the cuts. But the CA voters are hooked on government spending and believe the fantasy that all they need to do is increase taxes on “the rich” to pay for the spending and all will be well. A number of them also believe Republicans are evil bigots so they won’t vote GOP no matter what. Its a recipe for decline and bankruptcy. Everyone knows the current system doesn’t work but no one wants to take the necessary medicine. Its too “harsh.” Its how a child reacts to a problem — don’t do what is necessary but pretend you can keep doing what you are doing. California is a state filled with adults who think like children and have no sense of responsibility. Or at least the remaining adults are in the minority. Its what happens when you have a massive Welfare State that pretends that it can take care of everyone. Its where the whole country is headed.

[Abathar]

Every cow is sacred when it’s the one you’re getting your milk from...

[Blood of Tyrants]

What will be cut this time?

Whatever they cut you can guarantee that it will NOT be the jobs of any of the thousands of useless mouth breathers in the useless state agencies.

[muleskinner]

What purpose do libraries serve in this wired world today?

The only positive purpose is to act as a repository of local historical documents and maps, but they have become a warm, dry shelter to the local population of cheapskates and bums.

[AMitchum]

Nobody ever wants to give up their cheese.

[Seaplaner]

I know some peeps in Calif eduction, and the level of featherbedding, insider promotions, fraud, deceitful "programs", and fake and unneeded job descriptions is astounding.

(Imagine your most wasteful and deceitful scenario; it's worse.)

.

[buwaya]

If I had the option I would live in a library - It would have to be a sufficiently well-stocked one of course !

The advantages a library still has over the internet -

- There are still very few BOOKS on the Internet, relatively speaking. This includes both the free and commercial works in Gutenberg, Google, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, etc. A good library almost certainly has more books available.

- Most books in the Internet that are not in the public domain are for sale. Granted, they tend to run cheaper than the versions in the bookstores, but they have to compete with free books in the library.

- The Internet is not suitable for browsing to the degree the library is, if the books are properly organized. I can look in a section and see a range of works clustered around the book I am searching for, and thus I can discover the odd, the unusual, the unthought-of. Browsing in a library is always an adventure.

Granted, there is no point in maintaining physical libraries merely for the sake of eccentrics like myself.

[buwaya]

“the local population of cheapskates and bums.”

I resemble that remark !

[TheOldLady]

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[Lancey Howard]

Only the parasites show up at these “town halls” to whine that their politicians just better keep confiscating from their neighbors and handing over the “free stuff”. Personally, I don’t care if government drops off the face of the freaking earth.

[NormsRevenge]

Funny how a state so full of brilliant minds is run by a bunch of nincompoops. a silly irony in ‘Natural Selection’ perhaps?

[baiamonte]

Who cares? As long as they are the ones who pay for their foolishness, let them be. They’ll be bankrupt soon enough.

[iacovatx]

“They can’t cut spending, period. Their constituents won’t accept it.”

Your comments are important. This is the impossible requirement for Keynesianism to function. Keynes recommended that gov’t spend in the down economic times and recover the overspending in the good economic times. Ask a leftist just how one cuts spending in good economic times. What mechanism would enable that cutting? As Californians have illustrated, there is tremendous pressure to spend when times are good and never support for cutting regardless of the economic situation. No politician ever gets rewarded for cutting. Until the system is structured so that politicians get rewarded for responsible economic management and are not rewarded for spending peoples’ money without also being rewarded for saving peoples’ money, the system tends toward unending overspending.

[Osage Orange]

I am a Californian by birth. My wife was also. My kids were born in that state. My sister and her husband, and their kids were also. My parents lived there from the late 40's....My mother continues to live there.

Neither were my parents or my family hooked on Government spending.

I took my family out of CA, in the late 90's. I saw the writing on the wall....

I could tell you stories...

[El Cid]

Privatize the K-12 Schools.
Save $30B/year.
While they are at it, rework their Pension system. They should abolish it and have their employees manage their own 401Ks (like the rest of the world), but they still need to deal with the over promises given by previous Democrat administrations (as bribes to get donations).

[Osage Orange]

The problem....is the rest of the country will be bailing them out.

We will be courted and told by Dims and Pubbies...that California is TOO BIG TO FAIL....And "they" will vote to bail them out...

Count on it..........

[fifedom]

DeSaulnier is, of course, a Democrat. Figure that these moochers with their hands out would be his constituents.

This article is one of a long line of propaganda from the lamestream media about how we need to pass Moonbeam's tax increas or all hell will break through. Get used to them since by the time the election gets close they will be all you see. Well these and the articles saying how we have to vote for the anointed one or we are racist pigs.

[hinckley buzzard]

I haven’t had to go to a ‘library’ since I was in college, and I’m 57.............

You must have been a business major.