You have to wonder what they are sprinkling in the Wheaties over at the Sacramento Bee. The editorial board there never ceases to amaze me. In the Bee’s lead editorial today, they have the moxie to start it by saying, "With one vote, California Senate Republicans on Thursday added $3.4 billion to the state’s $15.2 billion deficit for 2008-09…"
Right.
Read on and what you really have is yet another liberal editorial whining because Republicans have refused to sign on with the issuance of yet another $6.9 BILLION (yes, with a "B") of bonds.
What kind of screwy math do they use over there at the Bee? By their convoluted logic, the state’s entire overspending problem could just be solved by passing one big, fat bond measure, and shoving the burden for our state’s irresponsible overspending to our children and theirs.
The main premise of the editorial is that if the legislature doesn’t borrow billions for building more prisons (didn’t we already do that?) then some judge will simply order those billions straight out of the state’s coffers and order that more prisons be built.
Well, note to the Bee editorial board:
1) It was wrong for the legislature to pass the last prison bonds without a vote of the people.
2) We are not going to solve our state’s chronic overspending woes by driving the state further into debt.
Look no further than the liberal priorities of a left-wing legislature over DECADES to see why we have a prison overcrowding crisis. A modest percentage of the state budget applied to capital improvements (such as prison construction) over the years would have left us in great shape. Incurring more debt, at this point, rewards the overspenders, and punishes working Californians.
Guess what, state government is big enough to tighten that belt one more notch. How about you guys go through the Governor’s proposed cuts in the California Performance Review and endorse those as a means to finance new prison construction?