This year's California state budget could be bizarre exercise

Sacramento Bee ^ | 3/7/12 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

Political machinations over the state budget dominate every legislative session, but this year's version of the annual budget game may be particularly bizarre due to a confluence of unusual factors, to wit:

• Not only is it an election year, but incumbents and aspirants will be running in districts that have been altered, sometimes hugely, by the state's new redistricting commission.

• This is also the first year for a new election system in which the top two finishers in the June primary, regardless of party, will face each other in November.

• Legislators briefly lost their salaries last year when they failed to produce a balanced budget by the June 15 constitutional deadline, thanks to a 2010 ballot measure that also gave Democrats hegemony over the budget by eliminating the two-thirds budget vote requirement.

• The 2011-12 budget that Democrats eventually enacted was based on the miraculous assumption of an extra $4 billion in revenue. But most of the miracle money hasn't shown up, and spending is running billions of dollars over expectations, so the budget is already way out of balance.

• Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature's budget analyst are billions of dollars apart on revenue estimates for the rest of the 2011-12 fiscal year and all of 2012-13.

• Democrats are unwilling to deal with the deficit now,...

[SmithL]

Whatever budget the Legislature passes, will be all smoke and mirrors, again.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“Democrats are unwilling to deal with the deficit now?”...

And since when is that ever news?...

[SZonian]

“could be”???

There’s is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it will be like years past, ABSOLUTELY bizarre and a failure.

[kosciusko51]

• This is also the first year for a new election system in which the top two finishers in the June primary, regardless of party, will face each other in November.

What!?! I'm am glad I left CA when I did.

[blueunicorn6]

How is the state doing in paying its bills? The logical outcome would be that they pay late, forcing private companies to raise their prices. Is this happening?

[vette6387]

“How is the state doing in paying its bills? The logical outcome would be that they pay late, forcing private companies to raise their prices. Is this happening?”

In the recent past, the state issued warrants instead of paying their suppliers. Basically IOU’s. If I were one of these companies today, I’d be reconsidering the state’s business. This is only getting worse. How long can a state contractor wait for his money? Will he foot the bills to his subcontractors and/or material suppliers again? While the state sits on the precipice of bankruptcy, will it’s suppliers be willing to do the same? As a resident, I surely hope not. California needs to go under, and the sooner it does, the better for us all.

[blueunicorn6]

Companies can be blackmailed by the state to accept these warrants, but, eventually, the suppliers to the suppliers will raise their prices and then anybody being blackmailed goes out of business. Of course, this could be part of California’s plan.

[William Tell]

Kalifornia has one or two stages left in their slow-motion demise.

One-stage is playing out now with students protesting increases in tuition. We can expect to see other groups protesting when other entitlements are reduced.

When the finality of the reductions sets in, some small proportion of the dis-entitled will resent their exclusion to the point of supporting further reductions. It may require reducing them to the point of starvation, but at some point they will stop looking to the public sector for support and will pray for employers to return to Kalifornia.

Only when the number of such people rises sufficiently will fiscal sanity reign again in Kalifornia.

[Seaplaner]

Fixing this is all so easy!

First, raise taxes on the rich (meaning small businesses) and the rich corporations (those that remain, that is), and...

Second, spend billions on a really, really fast train from the Bay Area to San Diego, focusing initially on the wildly popular Madera to Fresno link, using out-of-state (and chinese) companies.

What could possibly go wrong?

.

[NathanR]

I don't think this applies to presidential primaries However it shows that CALGOP has a death wish.

[vette6387]

“Companies can be blackmailed by the state to accept these warrants, but, eventually, the suppliers to the suppliers will raise their prices and then anybody being blackmailed goes out of business. Of course, this could be part of California’s plan.”

But, at the end of the day the threat of personal or corporate bankruptcy trumps blackmail ( unless there are pictures ). California’s stupid voters need to see the rest of the states recovering while California continues to languish is the economic doldrums. Then maybe they will understand that the goose is really dead and not just on life support.