Posted on 01/27/2009 10:11:58 AM PST by NormsRevenge
As California grapples with a fiscal crisis, state lawmakers are facing painful choices about where to cut spending and how to increase revenues this year.
California is one of only three states that require a "supermajority" vote to pass a budget, a constraint that results in deadlock and chronically late budgets.
The economic downturn has contributed to a massive budget shortfall now estimated at more than $40 billion -- roughly $15 billion for the rest of the current fiscal year and $25 billion in 2009-10.
Even in good times, California's outdated tax system does not bring in enough revenue to support the schools, universities, programs and services that Californians want and expect.
In the midst of these complex challenges, Republican lawmakers are proposing replacing the current state spending limit with what's called a hard spending cap.
They consider it a cure-all for the state's budgetary woes.
The specifics of this cap surfaced last year as a proposed state constitutional amendment -- ACA 19 -- by Assembly member Mike Villines (R-Clovis).
The California Budget Project analyzed the effect of the proposal, looking at what would have happened to the state had Villines' cap been enacted in three earlier fiscal years.
What we discovered was that far from being a cure-all, a hard spending cap would place an arbitrary stranglehold on the state's ability to improve its schools, rebuild its infrastructure, care for its senior population and respond nimbly to future challenges. ..
What would the hard spending cap do? It would choose a recent fiscal year as a "base" and tie increases in state spending beyond that cap to population growth, as well as the change in the consumer price index or the change in per capita personal income, whichever is lower.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Yes, by all means. When we have less money, we should be able to spend more. I’ll never understand why anyone buys into this Keynesian garbage.
Who’s on the board at the California Budget Project, you ask? Recycled leftists and unions, teacher and SEIU, PTA ..
California Budget Project Board of Directors
http://www.cbp.org/about/about_board.html
nuff said.
The L.A. Times is the epitome of fiscal responsibility. Bwahahahahahahahahaha. They would not know how to budget if their life depended on it and they are telling the state how it is done. Hahahahahahahaha.
1. Remove 2/3 vote requirement.
2. No spending cap.
3. No spending cuts.
4. Make up entire budget shortfall with tax increases.
5. Accuse Republicans of holding up budget when they don’t agree to items 1 thru 4.
Nice tactic Arnold.
The problem is, it doesn’t seem to matter who’s on the board. Ever since the New Deal, it has become perfectly acceptable (for those own both sides of the aisle, apparently) to beggar future generations for one’s own short-term relief. Thank you FDR!
fwiw - This is an editorial from CBP. Jean Ross is the executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonprofit public policy research group.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Jean Ross says we need MORE pork. Trouble is, they are putting the pig farmers out of business!
“1. Remove 2/3 vote requirement.”
Only if they replace it with an 80% supermajority.
California now seems to be at the point where potential bond-buyers realize that, real soon now, California's state government will have to choose between paying interest on outstanding debt, and paying for the welfare state, and the bondholders will lose.
Yeah, and what’s worse, that pesky 11th Amendment means you’d have to sue California in a California court if you want to collect.
California already has the lowest bond rating of any state other than Louisiana, and I don’t remember California being utterly destroyed by a natural disaster in recent memory. Their Treasurer has been trying to lobby Moody’s and the rest to give them a AAA rating, rather than the A1 they currently have.
His argument is that their Constitution mandates repayment of the debt. Given the political environment in Sacramento, that’s just laughable. Frankly, if this keeps up, Moody’s ought to downgrade them into the Bs.
Nothing but lies. California’s tax system brings in boat-loads of money, but the liberal socialist Democrat legislature always spends far more.
We in California do NOT have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. A MASSIVE spending problem. We need a hard cap on spending.
I assume this will never happen, as all of the state’s free-spending socialist apologists from the legislature to the employee unions and teachers unions are all aligning to prevent this. I will be flaberghasted if a spending cap is wisely put in place.
The first thing they should do is cut state senate and congressional staff budget in half and cap them till the states debt is paid off. Same with salaries for all state workers. No more raises, no more hires until the budget is balanced and the states debt paid off.
That would give them incentive to start cutting the fat elsewhere.
As pathetic as the CBP board members are, don’t forget their biggest donor is Barbra Streisand.
Odds are, sometime within the next two years, the 2/3rd majority requirement will be replaced with a simple majority standard. At that point, the lunatics will be in comlete control of the asylum.
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