Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - California Government to Suddenly Shrink

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California Government to Suddenly Shrink

Quote:

This week, voters said they no longer want the Legislature to balance budgets with higher taxes, complicated transfer schemes or borrowing that pushes California's financial problems off into the distant future. In light of that, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it clear he intends to close the gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts.

The governor's cutbacks could include ending the state's main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, shortening the school year by seven days, laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, slashing money for state parks and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished.

http://"http://www.washingtonpost.co...202870_2.html"

Once upon a time, California was a mecca for high-income earners. We're still relatively rich, but when the state was really raking it in, the state government instituted a ton of social programs. Since the state doesn't have the cash flow it became accustomed to, we need to make cuts in spending and increase taxes. Unfortunately, after the election yesterday, California collectively decided to give itself a tax break. Why? Because most voters are dangerously naive.

We have wasteful spending here—we spend over $10 billion a year on our stupid (private, and thus even more expensive) prison system instead of investing in prevention which has been proven to be substantially cheaper—but it's not as simple as cutting spending because we're in too deep. Cutting health care and school money is only going to make poverty here worse and will eventually lead to even less tax revenue.

I'm not going to give up on my home state. I love California. I'm just very frustrated by the situation we've gotten ourselves into.

Who got a tax break? All that happened is that people said no to business as usual, one more round of mortgaging our future. It will be painful for a while, but this would have happened eventually. At least it's not the end of the world; people will suvive and hopefully learn that the inefficiencies in the way we've been funding the state and deciding what to spend money on will eventually lead to fiscal crisis.

Something to think about:

One in four people in the CA prison system are illegal aliens.
One in five children born in CA are to illegal aliens.

If you are a Californian, that ought to give you a moment of pause.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polar (Post 2640171)

One in four people in the CA prison system are illegal aliens.
One in five children born in CA are to illegal aliens.

Cite these, please.

Not to worry. Obama has decided that he won't be busy enough running the auto industry, or destroying our health care system. Now he's going to run California, or at least overturn any of our laws or budgets he doesn't agree with:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...4592200..story

Quote:

U.S. threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts

The Obama administration threatens to rescind billions in stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers.
By Evan Halper
May 8, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento -- The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.

The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state's contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

The cut was highly contentious during last winter's budget talks. Republican lawmakers insisted that the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar state program, In Home Supportive Services, be scaled back significantly.

Democrats fought major reductions in the program, which they say is a cost-effective alternative to nursing-home care, but ultimately compromised.

Reversing the wage cut would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, meaning Republican support would be needed.

Schwarzenegger on Wednesday sent U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius a letter urging the federal government to reconsider.

"Neither the Legislature nor I make decisions to reduce wages or benefits lightly, but only as a last resort in response to an unprecedented fiscal crisis," Schwarzenegger wrote.

evan.halper@latimes.com

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.

Unlike Bush's bailout money, Obama's wasn't unconditional.

Jesus, California is screwed. I'm trying to think of a worse way to set up a state government than California's, within reason, and simply failing. All those ballots and initiatives and the 2/3 requirement to pass any budget and...wow. How did anyone ever set up a state that way? Five minutes in a high school civics class would illuminate how stupid that setup is.

It's rare that I get to say this, but in comparison, I feel lucky to have been governed by the politicians in Illinois.

We're not in trouble because of those. The problem is that we didn't save when we were getting money from the tech boom, we continued spending as if we were always going to have huge tech money going to Sacramento.

Also, our prison system is massive and incredibly expensive. We spend about $10b a year (the GDP of Cambodia) on the Department of Corrections alone. $0.07 of every dollar spent in California goes to the prison system.

And our education system is oddly inefficient. We spend a lot on education, $45b, or about $0.32 of every dollar spent in California, but we're always seeming to be out of money. I wish we could adopt whatever it is that Arkansas does. Those people can really stretch a dollar.

Wow, this is gonna hurt.

Quote:

Faced with a ballooning deficit and a clear signal that voters won't pay more to fix it, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a budget plan Tuesday that would eliminate welfare, drop 1 million poor children from health insurance, cut off new grants for college students and shut down 80 percent of state parks.

# The budget proposal would eliminate vast swaths of programs, including CalWORKs — the welfare program serving more than 521,000 families who now receive $526 average monthly grants — and Healthy Families, which subsidizes health care for low-income children whose families don't qualify for Medi-Cal. Those cuts would also cost the state billions in federal matching funds.

# Medi-Cal coverage for dialysis and for breast and cervical cancer treatment for those over age 65 would be cut. Undocumented immigrants would lose nonemergency health care.

# In the prisons, rehabilitation, education and vocational programs would be hacked. So would the sentences of nonviolent, non-serious offenders, who would go free a year early.

# More than 200,000 college-bound students would lose some or all of their tuition assistance under the Cal Grant program. New grants for students to attend college would be eliminated, and existing grants would be reduced. All of that would come on top of $335 million in cuts for the University of California and California State University systems — which already have seen $415 million in cuts this year, forcing student fee increases.

# Surprisingly spared the ax — so far, anyway — were the state's battered K-12 schools. Though they represent California's single biggest budget
expense, the governor proposed no new cuts Tuesday.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12454979?nclick_check=1

oh boy, what a list of terrible things to cut. Half a million people getting their welfare cut? That won't end well...

Small government in California. It's a libertarian's dream come true.

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuasiMondo (Post 2641454)

Small government in California. It's a libertarian's dream come true.

more like a nightmare

I doubt the problems they will cause by having to find jobs will be more expensive than the handouts they are getting as it is.

and I am crying crocodile tears that illegals will lose 'non emergency' health care.

---------- Post added at 10:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 PM ----------

Universal health care, welfare, etc. is great....when it is a small expense in a balanced budget and the state has a large bank account to spare. Otherwise it is flat out fiscally irresponsible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuasiMondo (Post 2641454)

Small government in California. It's a libertarian's dream come true.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derwood (Post 2641455)

more like a nightmare

so this is all the libertarians fault?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dksuddeth (Post 2641640)

so this is all the libertarians fault?

no, I didn't mean that.