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California.................
What a Godforsaken snake pit of a state.
Oops I see trajan had already posted that. Do they honestly expect the rest of the country to bail them out when the bills come due? How does a state declare bankruptcy?
California is not worth bailing out. They spent it, let them repay it.
Californias Assorted Rocks and Hard Places
Posted By Victor Davis Hanson On November 11, 2010 @ 5:19 pm In Uncategorized | 19 Comments
News came out on Thursday that the California budget deficit is actually closer to $25 billion, twice what we are told. This follows from last years $42 billion shortfall, which was closed by all sorts of one-time tax increases and gimmicks. Here is our general dilemma in a nutshell.
Taxes
Fact one: California has among the highest taxes in the nation, over 10% on top incomes, and about 9.5% that hits earners when they get above $47,000.
Sales taxes, depending on the county, average close to 10%. The result is that thousands (the exact number is unclear, perhaps between 2,000 and 3,500) of more affluent Californians are leaving the state each week for low- or no-tax states. Raise income taxes or sales taxes or gas taxes higher, and there will be a stampede. Note that property tax rates are not singularly that high in comparison to other states. Yet that fact is of little help since our assessments are often astronomical (given that we like to live on the coast and then, once there, ensure others cannot).
The apparent solution for now is to slap one- or two-year higher taxes on vehicle registration (sky-high), or issue fees to use state facilities, or to hike tuition at public colleges and universities (still cheap in comparison to private counterparts).
State Employees
Fact two: we have among the highest compensated state employees and teachers in the United States, with singularly powerful public employee unions. (I was governed by one for 21 years: professors at the closed-shop CSU were forced to pay union dues even if we were not in the union, and objected to the unions efforts to end merit pay and accountability and to ensure near universal tenure).
...
Gut-check Time
So we do not have much wiggle room left, especially when we vote for more of the sources of the problem and you in the other 49 states do not like loaning us $40 million a day just for our quite generous unemployment insurance in a very high-unemployment state. There are only so many gimmicks left. Either our Governor-elect and veteran liberal Jerry Brown will have to do a Nixon to China, or the Republican House will have to let us go broke and cut off the cash. Either way, it should be an interesting ride perhaps a panic of 1893, Great Depression, 1970s stagflation, and 1992 state meltdown all in one surreal experience.
whitman never used browns past against him systemically.".....systemically."?????
You 'Baggers need to avoid using words you don't understand.
**
Ya' know WHY she never used his past, don't you??
'Cause, it would have ended HER campaign......IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!
"The longtime politician played to California's historic tendency to elect veteran officeholders and send first-timers to the sidelines."
Watch & LEARN, rookies!!
(...And, start preppin' for that NEW ECONOMY TSUNAMI, as a RESULT!!!)
buffoonery apparently abounds...
"Davis says the state government needs to focus on cutting what's unnecessary and bolstering California's core industries: knowledge-based businesses, entertainment and agriculture.
"We have to focus on what it is that sustains our economy, that employs most of the people, and make sure at the very least we're listening to them. We understand what it needs to keep them here in the state. ... This unemployment is not coming down until people feel good about staying in California and growing in California," Davis says.
The very first thing Jerry Brown should do, according to Davis, is listen.
"Just getting the budget done on time, just improving the credit rating will go a long way to tell investors around the country, 'Yeah, maybe we should invest in the eight largest economy in the world.' "
November 29, 2010
Calif Regulator Fines Insurers For Underpayment
"California's seven largest health insurers face nearly $5 million in fines for allegedly failing to pay hospitals and physicians fairly and on time.
California Department of Managed Health Care Director Cindy Ehnes says improper claim payments are burdening health providers as they struggle to stay afloat in a bad economy.
The regulator says audits found seven health plans weren't meeting a legal threshold of paying 95 percent of claims correctly."
"Republicans are relishing the coming of a new day on Capitol Hill. But across the country in California, the party of Nixon and Reagan is drifting toward obscurity.
The latest sign of imperiled health: In a year Republicans notched big victories in Congress, governor's offices and statehouses around the nation, California Democrats made a clean sweep of eight statewide contests on Nov. 2. Democrats padded their majority in the Legislature, where the party controls both chambers and no congressional seats changed parties.
It's been said the future happens first in California, and the state hit a little-noticed milestone this month that will have implications in voting booths for years to come. For the first time, Hispanics account for more than half the students in the state's public schools. They will be tomorrow's voters."
That doesn't look like Compton or Oakland.California.................
What a Godforsaken snake pit of a state.Yeah....I guess they've simply learned to suffer-in-silence, there.....
*
*
Whoops!
Works and Days California?s Assorted Rocks and Hard Places
Californias Assorted Rocks and Hard Places
Posted By Victor Davis Hanson On November 11, 2010 @ 5:19 pm In Uncategorized | 19 Comments
News came out on Thursday that the California budget deficit is actually closer to $25 billion, twice what we are told. This follows from last years $42 billion shortfall, which was closed by all sorts of one-time tax increases and gimmicks. Here is our general dilemma in a nutshell.
Taxes
Fact one: California has among the highest taxes in the nation, over 10% on top incomes, and about 9.5% that hits earners when they get above $47,000.
Sales taxes, depending on the county, average close to 10%. The result is that thousands (the exact number is unclear, perhaps between 2,000 and 3,500) of more affluent Californians are leaving the state each week for low- or no-tax states. Raise income taxes or sales taxes or gas taxes higher, and there will be a stampede. Note that property tax rates are not singularly that high in comparison to other states. Yet that fact is of little help since our assessments are often astronomical (given that we like to live on the coast and then, once there, ensure others cannot).
The apparent solution for now is to slap one- or two-year higher taxes on vehicle registration (sky-high), or issue fees to use state facilities, or to hike tuition at public colleges and universities (still cheap in comparison to private counterparts).
State Employees
Fact two: we have among the highest compensated state employees and teachers in the United States, with singularly powerful public employee unions. (I was governed by one for 21 years: professors at the closed-shop CSU were forced to pay union dues even if we were not in the union, and objected to the unions efforts to end merit pay and accountability and to ensure near universal tenure).
...
Gut-check Time
So we do not have much wiggle room left, especially when we vote for more of the sources of the problem and you in the other 49 states do not like loaning us $40 million a day just for our quite generous unemployment insurance in a very high-unemployment state. There are only so many gimmicks left. Either our Governor-elect and veteran liberal Jerry Brown will have to do a Nixon to China, or the Republican House will have to let us go broke and cut off the cash. Either way, it should be an interesting ride perhaps a panic of 1893, Great Depression, 1970s stagflation, and 1992 state meltdown all in one surreal experience.
California screwed
That doesn't look like Compton or Oakland.California.................
What a Godforsaken snake pit of a state.Yeah....I guess they've simply learned to suffer-in-silence, there.....
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*
Looks like rich white people and tourists from out of state.
Where are the pictures of parched Imperial Valley farmland which had it's irrigation cut off because of a minnow? You know, where unemployment was over 40% over summer because of the farms that were going bust?
That doesn't look like Compton or Oakland.California.................
What a Godforsaken snake pit of a state.Yeah....I guess they've simply learned to suffer-in-silence, there.....
*
*
Looks like rich white people and tourists from out of state.
Where are the pictures of parched Imperial Valley farmland which had it's irrigation cut off because of a minnow? You know, where unemployment was over 40% over summer because of the farms that were going bust?
Whitman was a horrible candidate and Fiorina refused to do what it took to win.
The Republican Party in Fornicalia is as big a joke as the CO GOP.
Except for Arny who will be sorely missed. Best governor since GAWD knows when.
they called it already for boxer and brown.....I gotta get a second job...
I am happy Brown made govenor. He knows how to balance a budget.
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That idiot Jerry Brown is partly responable for the defecit.. hes the one that signed the legislation to unionize state government workers there, and they are the one that are breaking the budget. No wonder these loosers are winning there
"Upon taking office, Brown gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative. The American Conservative later noted he was "...much more of a fiscal conservative than Governor Reagan."
pssssssp, hate to burst your bubble but women like that are a dime a dozen here. In fact, she'd be criticized for too much hip. it's really amazing how badly they're treated because there are so many. At least on 34th St Newport Beach....
Wait a minute, I just discovered the most ironic moment of the whole election.
The left wing basically campaigned on "Don't give the keys back to the people who got us into this mess!"
And then the most leftist of all leftist states, California, put Jerry Brown back into office. The very same man who got them into their current mess.
That doesn't look like Compton or Oakland.California.................
What a Godforsaken snake pit of a state.Yeah....I guess they've simply learned to suffer-in-silence, there.....
*
*
Looks like rich white people and tourists from out of state.
"Supporters believe the Central Valley is the most suitable location to begin construction; the region's flat terrain will let trains reach top speeds of 220 mph. The 800-mile system is ultimately envisioned to extend to San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.
"With additional investment, this initial segment will demonstrate the speed, convenience and economic development potential of high-speed train travel," the Federal Railroad Administration said in a statement."