California Budget Doomsday?

[jhc68]

The Governator now actually seems to be serious about draconian cuts of $20 billion bucks for the next fiscal year (that means July!). In my biased, narrow, privileged paradigm I'm immediately most concerned with stuff like this:

The press and the rumor buzz has all of our local state beach parks closing down -- hugely popular, always sold-out months in advance summer camping spots. Loss of tourism will have devastating impact on some small beach towns like the one where I taught for 30 years.

Cuts of tens of thousands of public school instructors. In my area the last two county "Teacher of the Year" honorees have already gotten lay-off notices. Emergency situations could mean cutting a lot more school staff in August just as the school year begins.

And major cuts in major sports along with the decimation of minor sports at the junior college level, probably with major spill over to high schools (middle school sports disappeared years ago!) with possible elimination of PE classes altogether. Lots of ADs regard T&F as a minor sport...

What to other Californios think, has the day really time to pay the piper or is this just more bluster?

[tandfman]

Problem is (as I think we've discussed here elsewhere) that too many Californians have voted as if they thought that the music would go on forever and they'd never have to pay the piper. There will be pain in the Golden State until its citizens decide to pay enough in taxes to cover the services that they want and should reasonably expect from their government.

[gh]

San Francisco's assessor says that a huge problem with Prop. 13 is corporate loopholes:

<<...For example, 30 years ago in San Francisco, commercial property owners contributed 59 percent of property tax revenues and residential property owners contributed 41 percent. Today, we see a virtual flip: commercial property owners contributed just 43 percent of property taxes in 2008 while residential property owners contributed 57 percent.....>>

full piece:

http://sanfranciscochronicle.info/cgi-b ... 17O16A.DTL

[bad hammy]

Simple equation: raise taxes or cut expenditures. I am of the opinion that we are not swimming in state-supplied services as it is so at some point the tax rates should rise.

[Marlow]

Joel Stein lays the blame where it belongs

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 86,00.html

[Cooter Brown]

If they'd get rid of Prop 13 that'd fix a huge part of the problem and bring real estate prices down to reality. In the early 00's, my wife's grandparents paid about $1100/yr on a $1.2M house they bought in the 70s for in the $70s. In Austin, a $1.2M house would run you $40K in taxes the first year and you can pretty much guarantee an increase of 10% in taxes each year. That's what keeps housing in check in TX.

I read an article several years ago that argued for this and stated that compensating the homeowner for the inevitable crash in prices would be significantly cheaper, quicker, and less painless than any other proposed method to fixing CA's budget problems. The example was if a CA owes $750,000 on a house and the post-Prop 13 value crashed to $250,000, then the state would pay off $500K of the loan and pay refinancing costs for the remaining $250K which would drop the payment and potential term for the owner.

[richxx87]

As a true 6th-generation Californian, I've long advocated for a radical departure from the current status-quo system. I've lived away from CA for over 10 years and don't intend to return unless some things get sorted out.
1. No more taxes
2. No more credit
3. Radically pared down, bare-bones administration/civil service (only volunteers who want to help their community, their county, their state.)
4. Steady-state economy (no more obsession/addiction to GNP growth rates)

All schools, for instance, should be private. If you're not paying taxes any longer, then you'll have extra money to pool with neighbor families to set up a school.

Sounds simplistic (some might even say crazy or impossible) but just hearken back to a time before you ever started running/training.

I remember nearly dying during a 600-yard run in P.E. class in elementary school. The teacher, also the volunteer track/xc coach, said: "Now imagine running twice as fast as you just did and doing it for nearly 3 straight hours without a break..." In my brain right then, I *knew* how crazy or impossible it would be to run a marathon. Well, about 9 years later, I ran a 2:49 marathon.

It's all about working toward that "impossibly crazy" end. Once you start doing it (Paulo Freire's praxis) it all seems more and more feasible.

The problem is that most of CA's population consists of newcomers (within the last 50 years, mostly from other parts of the U.S.) with no sense of connectivity or responsibility or care for the greater good of that once-beautiful Golden State.

[bad hammy]

As a true 6th-generation Californian, I've long advocated for a radical departure from the current status-quo system. I've lived away from CA for over 10 years and don't intend to return unless some things get sorted out.
1. No more taxes
2. No more credit
3. Radically pared down, bare-bones administration/civil service (only volunteers who want to help their community, their county, their state.)
4. Steady-state economy (no more obsession/addiction to GNP growth rates)

All schools, for instance, should be private.

Rich,

You're a funny guy. Wherever you are, have a great time . . .

[jhc68]

A major element of the traditions developed by rich's 6 generations of Californians included the right to a free public education all the way up through the University of California. And that progressive educational promise pre-dates the influx of newcomers during the past 50 years. It goes back to the 19th Century.

[bad hammy]

A major element of the traditions developed by rich's 6 generations of Californians included the right to a free public education all the way up through the University of California.

No time to do my dissertation on the subject as to what is screwed up about the state of California's finances just now, but public education at the college level, whether a community college, state college or state university is far, far from free these days.

[TrackDaddy]

As a true 6th-generation Californian, I've long advocated for a radical departure from the current status-quo system. I've lived away from CA for over 10 years and don't intend to return unless some things get sorted out.
1. No more taxes
2. No more credit
3. Radically pared down, bare-bones administration/civil service (only volunteers who want to help their community, their county, their state.)
4. Steady-state economy (no more obsession/addiction to GNP growth rates)

All schools, for instance, should be private.

Rich,

You're a funny guy. Wherever you are, have a great time . . .

No problem.

He's at Disney World.

[richxx87]

I'm actually in another hemisphere, it's Friday morning at 11:30 am where I am (you can confirm that with the site admins about my IP address) and I'm on my way to the beach with my daughter ( a student at a CA private school -- Laurel Springs) ... there's a nice swell from the southern Indian ocean and it's blowing off-shore.

[TrackDaddy]

Australia?

Dont they have taxes and public schools there?

[jhc68]

Hammy, I was meaning to say that quality, free public education was the tradition in California. I'm well aware of the current costs!!! My son is 9 years out of UCSB and still paying off student loans .

My point was that rich was writing about how great California used to be, and yet he favored a libertarian private school philosophy that is completely at odds with the good old times when the Golden State was most Golden.

[richxx87]

It says where I am on my "location" deal. And no, I don't pay any official gov't taxes as such. We get what we pay for, no more, no less.