This afternoon, in what we are told is a very rare occasion, the 120 members of the State Legislature will convene in a special join session to get an in-depth briefing on the state of California’s finances. What will they be told? Undoubtedly these presentations being made by various officials ranging from Democrat State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Democrat State Controller John Chiang, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, and the Governor’s Finance Director Mike Genest will paint a dire picture of California’s financial condition. Look for a lot of extreme statements about how the failure of the legislature to take action to deal with the current fiscal year’s deficit of at least $12 billion (or is it $15 billion?) will result in dire consequences. Wee will hear about massive lay-offs and an insolvency in state government finance that come the Spring will bring state government spending to a halt. We’ll hear about the state having to issue IOU’s, and no doubt we will hear about how this situation will drastically and negatively impact some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
What else will we hear? We will hear from the majority party about how they have already made more cuts in state spending, as of now, than is tenable. Of course, they will not mention that in actual terms, they haven’t cut state spending AT ALL. That’s right, despite the valiant and noble stand that Republican lawmakers made last summer to stave off increasing existing taxes and the creation of new taxes, state spending actually went up by about a half-percent. How can that be? Remember, we are talking about Sacramento, where zero-based budgeting doesn’t exist. Only in the world of government do you project what a budget could be if things would expand and grow at their normal clip, and then call any spending short of that a “cut” – um, that makes no sense.
If you take a look at the history of state spending going back just over the past four or five years, you will see that the state budget increased in size by over 40%! Yes, that is in actual – not theoretical – numbers. Liberals in Sacramento are screaming because they do not want to see state government spending decrease at all, let alone by less than half of its growth over the past few years. But that is what is needed – a severe belt tightening.
Here’s a question for you. Can you take out a pen and make a list of the state agencies and departments that have been eliminated as a part of a process of re-evaluating the scope and role of California government going into this era of austerity? Don’t get too panicked if you can’t, and don’t think that you, an spectator of California government and politics are missing something. In so far as I can tell, at this point, no one is proposing the kind of significant reductions in state government that are needed to resolve our crisis. The only time we hear about deep, programmatic cuts like that are when Democrats articulate what they call “nightmare scenarios” to excite and agitate their base, and try to put more pressure to bear on legislative Republicans, and keep the fires burning under the feet of Democrats like Senator Lou Correa who were elected in swing districts by making pledges not to raise taxes.
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December 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am
The socialists searched the sandbox in vain….no silver dollars and nary a penny…the unions whined….the chubby gov. workers bleated….why is to be done…..our goose appears cooked….Lock the guardian of big bucks just cut off infrasture spendin, the modern NEW DEAL mantra of the Commissars…what is to be done….soup kitchens are being opened in Sacramento and their names are not Soup Plantation…my my….and the little people, the citizens, the patriots wait patiently in hopes of taking their futures back from this ilk in the legislature….
December 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am
There you go again Jon. Soooo… what exactly do you propose to cut? Other than a vague “…a lot of the areas of life that Democrats have had state government encroach upon for the past four decades…” What exactly are those “areas of life” that you think – you personally think – should be cut or eliminated?
December 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I think that when you adjust for inflation, there is a decline in spending compared to last year. However, it is not nearly enough and it doesn’t come close to making up for the massive increase in government spending since Schwarzenegger was elected to blow up boxes.
There is an old saying:”Never waste a good crisis.” We have one now and it is our opportunity to make the kinds of cuts that should have been made all along.
I think the GOP Caucuses should start assigning jobs: look for opportunities in labor contracts, pensions, overtime, various branches, section, divisions and units. NO SACRED COWS!!!
Give everyone an objective such as “Find 10% cuts in the Department of Education without reducing the quality of education”.
If you ask the bureaucracy to do this, they will instinctively cut something like English classes. They would never suggest some duplicative bureaucratic program because they understand that cutting English will invoke outrage. Cutting bureaucracy will invoke applause.
So it can’t be done with the bureaucracy. Let’s face facts: The Governor is not equipped to do something like this. The Democrats won’t do it when something as easy as a tax increase is in front of them. There is no one to do this except the Republican Caucuses. However, if they do it well, I bet there will be an increase in membership in about 2 years.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I wonder if the members got threatened that Martial Law may have to be enforced if tax increases aren’t passed ASAP. This seems to be the modus operandi lately of big government shills like Hank Paulson when he spoke to our Congressman about the need to pass a huge bailout lest people not be able to get money out of ATMs, etc.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Don’t you love bureaucrats….challenging taxpayers to find ways to cuts 15% in the educational budget…and some of the other stuff….whew!!!
Give me 10 accomplished business and gov. policy people outside of government and three weeks….I guarantee cuts taxpayers can live with….but oh no….we can’t cut the layers and layers of idiots who shuffle papers and read their pension spiking manuals while we bleed dollars for this pathetic ruling class.