It's in Voters' Hands: California Voters Must Approve New Budget Plan
By Susie Madrak Saturday Feb 21, 2009 6:45amNow, voters get their say:
Reporting from Sacramento -- State lawmakers Thursday finally ended the three-month stalemate that brought California to the brink of financial collapse -- but now it is up to voters to keep the budget package from unraveling.
The spending plan, which wipes out a nearly $42-billion projected deficit with tax hikes, deep program cuts and borrowing, hinges on $5.8 billion contained in several ballot measures that voters must approve in a special election May 19. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the package today.
There are any number of reasons voters may not cooperate. The four temporary tax hikes in the budget are substantial and the ballot proposals would prolong them. Polls show that voter disgust with the Legislature has reached all-time highs. Some well-funded special interest groups are already plotting campaigns against the measures.
"Given how disaffected voters are and how really disgusted they are, you might find all the ballot measures could get swept away," said Democratic strategist Darry Sragow.
Voters will be asked to wrest money from mental health services, children's programs and future lottery receipts. They will be offered the opportunity to constrain future state spending -- but only if the tax hikes just passed stay in place for four years instead of two. The failure of one or more of these measures could reopen a deficit.
Lawmakers and the governor are already looking nervously toward the campaign for the measures, even as they breathed a sigh of relief Thursday when the Legislature, in lockdown for a third straight day, finally passed a budget. The plan's approval halts the state's slide toward insolvency and allows officials to once again begin paying tax refunds, vendors and public assistance recipients, though those checks could be delayed several more weeks.
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As long as their garbage gets collected, the police are driving around, and the fireman put out fires, most Californians will vote down any tax increase.
The voters will beggar road repair, health service, the prisons, infrastructure maintenance and pretty much everything else that they can't see out of their own front doors.
They'll save themselves money in the short term, but create massive problems for their own children to solve.
Penny wise and pound foolish.
If Ahnode were truly savvy, he'd furlough enormous chunks of the police and fire departments should these budget items be defeated at the ballot box.
I think voters might get the point. Maybe not.
Just announced today, like the rest of the world there is a problem with food supply. The state doesn't have the funds now to do anything about it. Farms will be deprived of water, meaning farmers will have to cut back all those lovely fresh fruits and vegetables. Then they're all going to sit up and take notice. With 25% of our food supplies to disappear by 2050, it's not going to be easy cutting back on those water supplies and the state acqueduct transport of it to, say, L.A.
see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2009/02/stock...
3 year below average rainfall. Actually, it's a drought. We're supposed to get a good down pour tonight thru thursday. Probably won't happen though. We'll be lucky to get half of that. But we're forecast to get a few inches .
This won't hurt the farmers. They've been getting subsidized for years. But they will gash the consumers.
I wonder if their seeding the clouds again?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnol...
The LA Times is reporting a rift in the GOP.
Aren't Californians now the children of parents who left them massive problems to solve?
California 2009 - Ronnie's legacy of stupid lives on!
Taxes, folks. That's what built the roads you drive on out there. It's what helped clean the air.
If we can get the imbeciles out there to accept new taxes, maybe we can get others to understand that we need to pay money to get nationalized health care.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, will spur economic growth faster than a national health care policy.
I really miss Gray Davis. This yahoo was elected because he promised to balance the budget, something Davis couldn't do because Enron had stolen CA's money. Now the Governator finds out that this whole governing thing isn't as easy as it looks, and maybe Davis wasn't as incompetent as he thought.
It was short-sightedness and poor judgement that got Schwartzenegger elected. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, I don't see that CA has a choice. Pass the package and pay your bills.
to pay out pretend 'tax refunds' when you are bankrupt and borrowing money and digging a deeper hole for your state finances.
Tax refunds are designed for when theres a budget surplus, not as a voter sweetner to bribe the electorate.
CA is setting itself up for a huge fall here. I mean really. Who would vote themselves a huge tax increase? That would be like a politician voting against their own pay increase (or for a pay decrease).
I think we need a bill that cuts politicians pay.
And will continually cut their pay every year until they have a balanced budget. It's their job to manage the state. They're failing.
I wonder how the voters would respond to a bill like that?
That's a totally useless and inept sound-bite slogan to repeat. All that will do is ensure that politicians will be multi-millionaires who have no fear of paycheck reductions or withholdings.
When Arnold suggests that state legislators forego their paychecks until the budget is passed, then who wins and who loses?
The winners are the multi-millionaire legislators who live on their riches while campaigning for their next job, the losers are the average Joe legislator who needs his paycheck to pay his mortgage.
The big losers are the rest of the state's citizens who are held hostage to multi-millionaire's dreams and designs.
Stop repeating republican sound-bites.
Just tell me what the Republicans want so I can vote against it.
Wow!! I am SO impressed!
Let's take money away from the mentally ill and children!! - the two groups in society without any ability to defend themselves!!
What a bunch of Asshat cowards.
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The one that changes the budget rules from 2/3 to simple majority.
I truly believe, that the cacophony of noise during the recent budget impasse about a special election to rid the state of the 2/3rds rule was part of the solution. Republicans are deathly afraid of this rule coming to and end. Californians must seize their state back from the minority thugs that rule it.
California 2009 - Ronnie's legacy of stupid lives on!
Taxes, folks. That's what built the roads you drive on out there. It's what helped clean the air.
If we can get the imbeciles out there to accept new taxes, maybe we can get others to understand that we need to pay money to get nationalized health care.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, will spur economic growth faster than a national health care policy.
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Taxes are what are now higher in California, than any state in the country, except for property taxes. California is 6th highest overall. So we are not under taxed in California. The government overspends.
We are not imbiciles. The legislators, who think we are a cash cow, are the imbiciles.
A national health care policy is not going to spur economic growth.
The one that changes the budget rules from 2/3 to simple majority.
I truly believe, that the cacophony of noise during the recent budget impasse about a special election to rid the state of the 2/3rds rule was part of the solution. Republicans are deathly afraid of this rule coming to and end. Californians must seize their state back from the minority thugs that rule it.
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I think the California tax payers are afraid of it. I happen to be one of them and i am not anywhere near being rich. The increased taxes i will have to pay, will mean cutting back on other things, which may cost other people their jobs. None of this happens in a vaccuum. As it is, the tax cuts by the Obama administration, will mostly be eaten up by the California state government, which means none of the 95% in California will see any appreciable tax cut.
Apparently the Repubs allowed this to go through in exchange for changing California's primary elections to an open primary system. Do California voters get to decide on that or is it a done deal?
Californians can end the budget maddness once and for all through several public policies now in play. Prop. 11, which creates an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw the horribly gerrymandered district, should reduce the number of ideological zealots in the state Legislature. Two other pending ballot initiatives would end the two-thirds vote mandate for a budget and establish open primaries, which also would cramp the zealots style. But will Californians support these changes, or is budget insanity just too ingrained? Read Could California finally end its budget madness?
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