This November California voters will be faced with a wide array of ballot measures, mostly looking for ways to raise taxes or borrow money. What does this tell you? It tells you that the appetite for state government SPENDING is voracious. These measures all come at voters during a time when an unprecedented amount of taxpayer funds are already being sent to Sacramento. The current state budget is well over a HUNDRED BILLION dollars, and this represents sharp increases of funds in the state budget over recent years.
It is important for every FlashReport reader to join together in sending an important message to liberal politicians in Sacramento, and to all of the special interest groups that would try to get you to vote to raise your own taxes or vote to put your children in debt — NO. The cold, hard reality is that California already has the financial resources to more that adequate invest in our state’s infrastructure. All of the Governor’s visions for a California that builds new facilities, roads, and infrastructure can already take place. The reality is that the liberal Democrats in Sacramento don’t want to face the idea that in order to pay-as-you-go for infrastructure, they would actually have to significantly reduce the amount of money they are devoting to their social engineering programs – the modern welfare state.
In addition, in a shout-out to our friend Mike Der Manouel, Jr., what are politicians doing asking the voters to authorize all of this borrowing when they don’t even have the fortitude to balance the state budget? Borrowing more money when you can’t control the spending on the funds you already have is just a no-brainer.
There are a couple of articles on the main page today — one of which highlights that the bonds measures are in trouble (thank God). Californians rejected the Library Bonds that were on the June ballot — and perhaps that is a harbinger of things to come this November. Hopefully the Governor and the State Legislature will have to grapple with a new challenge come January — making due with what they already have (which is vast). The other article highlights how hard it will be, with all of the other measures sharing space on the ballot, for the pro-bond forces to spend what they need to in order to be heard above the competing rhetoric. Of course the bond measures will have plenty of funding. You’ll never guess who funds bond measures? All of the people that stand to make money off of the process. All of the builders, all of the bond underwriters, and the cornucopia of special interests. We raise our glasses to toast the various taxpayer protection groups that are standing up to this voraciously hungry group of self-serving folks — and hope you will spread the word — vote NO on the bonds.
Have a great Saturday!
September 16th, 2006 at 12:00 am
What about the levee bonds (Prop 1E)?
I understand the levees are in bad need of repair. I agree on the rest of the bonds.
September 16th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Of course the levees are in need of repair. Let’s challenge the Democrats in the legislature to divert some of California’s bloated budget over to levee repair.
If you argue that urgent needs should be met with bonding, you will never get the legislature to reprioritize. They will always know that eventually, by NOT funding infrastructure, when the need is ‘bad enough’ then there will be bonds.
September 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
What if the legislature won’t spend the money for an urgent need and the levee’s break? Sure people die and billions of dollars are lost but we make a political point.
Or another scenario, they do pass the money to fix the levees but take away local decision making about land use as the price. We will have made our political point while losing ground.
One last option pass the levy bond and pay it back using money the legislature would have spent on education and welfare (about 80 percent of the budget).
September 19th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Russell:
Do you really believe that our levees will get fixed with this bond?
First, even if it was enough money, I wouldn’t trust that it all would go where it needs to go. Instead, it would be wasted on tons of bureaucracy.
Second, it is going to take billions and billions just to rehab the levees and there is no guarantee that they will even be strong enough when all is said and done to handle significant seismic activity.
The Jones Tract was widely considered one of the better kept levees…poof, $100 million or so tax dollars up in smoke when the land could have been bought for $20 million.
Instead, our government would rather pay 5-10x’s the cost to fix a broken levy in the delta instead of simply buying significant tracts of land from the owners.
It is insane.
We would be better off buying the land at 100% of current value, reinforcing the most significant/important levees and building the Delta Preservation Bypass.
Undoubtedly, the same masterminds that are bringing us the “rebuilding” of New Orleans think the levees can be fixed.
My message to the legislature as a taxpayer would be…get your freaking hand out of my pocket and learn to spend the money you have already stolen from me wisely.
I am so sick and tired of our pathetic, incompetent government always wanting to raid my wallet with some fee or tax because they have failed to efficiently allocate the resources it has already confiscated.
The only way to get limited government is to starve it. Unfortunately, in California and in D.C., we give it twinkies and ho-ho’s.
That is why we are the “biggest loser”.