Sunday, May 10, 2009

California Bankruptcy

Los Angeles Times
California could be broke by July, state official warns

Despite the budget fix enacted in February, the state is on track to come up $23 billion short of what it needs to get through the year, the Legislature's chief budget analyst says.

Where is all the money being spent? Why aren't they cutting more spending instead of raising taxes? I saw an increase in my state taxes on my past paycheck and it's not because I got a raise. When our company needed to improve the bottom line, we cut millions out of the budget. Maybe this financial crisis is a good opportunity for California to file bankruptcy, restructure its debt, reset every department's budget to zero, and have them justify all future spending in light of the current tax revenue projections. Just because there was an entitlement during fat years should not result in perpetual spending. This will never happen of course since the Democrats are in charge. They need to keep paying off their "constituents" so they can stay in office.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

your tax dollars are going to unions as well as 3-kid families where the head-of-household is not paying his fair share of taxes.

this article was in the WSJ:

REVIEW & OUTLOOK MAY 11, 2009 Demoting California
Unions hold the state's stimulus hostage.

One of the biggest stories in politics earlier this year was about California's budget teetering on the edge of a $42-billion deficit abyss. It only staved off insolvency when its legislature ended three months of gridlock to pass a budget with steep tax hikes and spending cuts. Guess what the Obama Administration is doing? It is telling Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that it will revoke nearly $7 billion in federal stimulus money unless the state restores legislated wage cuts for unionized health-care workers.

Obama Administration to federalism: Drop dead.

In its budget deal, California agreed to $74 million in wage cuts for unionized home health-care workers. The Service Employees International Union huffed to the higher power in Washington, which duly agreed to hold California's stimulus hostage.

Governor Schwarzenegger has sent a letter asking the feds to reconsider, noting the cuts were taken in response to "an unprecedented fiscal crisis." Even now the state faces an estimated cash-flow problem of some $17 billion by July.

Restoring the union money will require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, a task in California somewhat akin to moving the Sierra Nevadas. Still, it's worth noting where the Obama team ranks the political authority of a legislative enactment by the state of California versus the political clout of a union.

totochi said...

I hate Obama like I hate the Chinese communists. He's just another left-wing Democrat politician and it's business as usual (e.g., Chrysler "bankruptcy" and this California union thing). The only thing is that he lied about being different and blind everyone with his "Hope'n'Change" campaign act.

What's changed since Bush left office other than a quadrupled deficit and higher taxes? There is still war in Iraq and Afganistan. North Korea and Iran are still developing nuclear weapons. Guantanimo Bay is still open. Genocide in Darfur is ongoing. He even speaks worse than Bush without his teleprompter. The only difference is my little bit of wealth is being "transferred" to pay for other people's 1st and 2nd mortgages. Pompous arrogant asshole. I think Hillary would have been a (slightly) better choice. :(

I need to find the old left-wing nutjob bumper sticker that say "Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy" (or something like that) and stick it on my car.