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Who Ruined California?
Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge on a gorgeous afternoon, it's hard to imagine that California's economy - the world's tenth largest - is teetering on the brink of ruin. Nonetheless, California has a budget crisis that will drastically change the quality of life in the Golden State. Who's to blame?
Many observers fault Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Democrats and Republicans expected the "Governator" to bring legislators together on key issues, particularly the annual struggle to balance the state's budget. Sadly, the hulking movie star proved to be an untrustworthy negotiator, who often appeared to be looking out for his own interests rather than brokering a compromise beneficial to California. As a result of his ineffective leadership, the California budget crisis has deteriorated into a three-way battle, where neither Democratic nor Republican lawmakers respect Schwarzenegger.
On the other hand, many Californians blame the legislature. The latest California registration statistics show Democrats widening their lead over Republicans, 44.6 percent to 31.1 percent, with 20 percent "decline to state" and 4.4 percent scattered among other Parties. Republicans don't have a majority of registered voters in a single congressional or legislative district. As a result, Democrats have a commanding but not compelling majority in both the state Senate (25 to 15) and Assembly (51 to 29). In most states, this numerical superiority would permit Democrats to pass whatever legislation they desire, but California is one of only three states that require a 2/3rds vote to pass a state budget. Republicans have used this rule to block all attempts to pass budgets with tax increases. Typically they play a game of "chicken" with their Democratic colleagues and after days of a stalemate, Dems cave in and meet Republican demands.
Many political pundits believe California is ungovernable, noting that our coastline is 840 miles long and 37 million people are spread over the Golden State's 164,000 square miles. The coastal counties tend to be heavily Democratic, while those to the east favor Republicans. Voters in Berkeley view politics from a radically different perspective than do those in Palm Springs.
Nonetheless, while California's decline can be blamed on Governor Schwarzenegger, the legislature, and the size and complexity of the state, the primary responsibility falls on the voters.
Although Californians have historically been narcissistic, their self-centeredness didn't affect the state's finances until 1978 when Proposition 13 was passed. The "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation" capped property taxes at one percent of assessed value and mandated that increases would require a two-thirds majority at both the state and local level. The "taxpayer's revolt" signaled the beginning of "free beer" myopia, where residents of the Golden State believed they could continue to enjoy public services without paying for them.
The consequences of proposition 13 percolated throughout the state's economic and social systems. The California education system deteriorated to the point where it is now ranked 47th in the US. Pundits have characterized the consequences of proposition 13 as the "Mississippification" of California. For the past 30 years, governors and legislators have tried to keep California's financial house together by a series of tricks, most often borrowing in anticipation of future revenues. That worked as long as the California economy was strong, but the recession toppled the Golden State's house of cards.
Faced with a $28 billion budget deficit, California's Democratic legislators now have no choice but to dramatically reduce services. Given the necessity to have a two-thirds legislative majority to pass a budget, and raise taxes, Dems will be forced to make drastic cuts because it won't be possible to increase revenues. California's austerity budget will have draconian impacts on state services: school and park closings, suspension of road repairs, parole of thousands of inmates, cessation of medical and social support for the needy, and on and on.
While the budget crisis will eventually affect all Golden State residents, it will have the greatest impact on those who live in poorer communities. Residents of Beverly Hills will find money to repair their streets, pay their public-safety personnel, and retain reasonable class-sizes in their public schools. That's unlikely to happen in poor communities such as South Central Los Angeles. As a result, the differences between the rich and poor will be accentuated.
There's a way out of this mess, but it will take time. In 2010, Schwarzenegger will leave office and Californians will have an opportunity to elect someone who is actually a leader, as opposed to an actor who occasionally plays the part. In the same election there will be a ballot measure that changes the budget rules to allow passage with a simple majority. Those will be necessary but not sufficient conditions to halt California's descent into mediocrity.
Californians have to open our wallets and pay for schools, parks, roads, public safety, and all the other perks we've long associated with living in the Golden State. Our choice is to either to act like adults or resign ourselves to living in a third-world country. Albania here I come.
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I live in Minnesota. My property taxes are significantly lower than 1% of assessed value. What gives?
There isn’t only one solution.
One nearly never mentioned solution literally removes the hoard of backward and selfish taxpayers clamoring for cuts, cuts, cuts and Republicans from the equation. This involves splitting the state into a socialist West California (consisting of the strip of coastal land from L.A. to Marin County, bounded on the East by the crest of the coastal range) and a free East California consisting of Orange County, San Diego County, San Bernadino County, Riverside County, the Central Valley, the entire eastern section of the state and the northern counties – basically the red sections of California. This division also results in nice, contiguous states.
This is a win-win by any measure. It allows socialists to tax and spend to their hearts delight while relegating the selfish to their own hell of financial freedom, although, … I’m sure that you would soon hear the plaintive cries of “Please, oh please, don’t throw me into the briar bush of East California”.
Prop 13= Decline and Fall
California needs to amend prop13 to levy property taxes differently between resdients and businesses. That is the way to raise money for services. The people who argue this would cost jobs or send companies out of California ignore the fact that a sick uneducated population would not have a chance at those jobs. If companies don't want to contribute to the common good let 'em leave and leech off of other states.
What about making CUTS? What about bringing pensions for state employees back in line?
If you drive through neighborhoods in communities on western Contra Costa County, with boarded up houses, weeds growing up past the windows, and gang graffitti on the fences, it is not at all hard to imagine that California's economy is ruined.
The inhabited houses are still meticulously maintained, roses and fruit trees flourish, the neighbors are friendly, the children are laughing, the churches are full, and the roosters crow at dawn.
But creeping wreckage and ruin cast a shadow on the dreams of those who built these houses during the good times of the fifties, and who bought into the dream in recent decades.
The low tax and no tax folks are the same ones who supported the misadventure into Iraq which has sucked away billions. The oil lobby continues to covertly create hotspots so that the taxpayer can fund the protection of the oil pipelines and other related hardware that ultimately results in companies like Exxon Mobil raking up profits of 10 billion!!!
What do you mean "low tax and no tax"????????? CA is one of the HIGHEST taxed states. We don't want any MORE taxes. They need to use the money they have been given. Make CUTS!
What's left to be cut? Really, I'd like your list.
People and corporations who bought their property after prop 13 passed are highly taxed, but those who bought before are paying nothing into this state and passing the tax burden on to their neighbors. The tax rate is INHERITABLE too. So Prop 13 created a new class of landed gentry in California. That's what you should be outraged by. We were the crown jewel of the country before that insane prop was passed and it was the Reagan crowd that got it passed. It gutted this state and took a whole bunch of people who had benefited from this state and took them right off the hook. They went to our world-class public schools and got a free education all the way through college, and then decided that they didn't want to pay taxes. Their corporate buddies were happy too, because they didn't have to pay taxes in a state that had brought them such amazing success.
Read Prop 13, it is insane.
Yes, what's your list? Our libraries are closed 3 days a week, schools have no music or art, pay to play sports in high school, -these are not frills, these are essential for kids growing up The list goes on and on. Maybe you think a third world education is okay for our kids, but you and I will pay for it in the long run. State parks are undermanned, trolls are moving in and making it unsafe to visit the parks. The list is endless.
Bob,
I think that the Republicans are to blame. Every year the state legislature votes. Every year the Republican minority punishes everyone in the state by blocking tax increases necessary to balance the budget.
Republican politicians in the state are a kind of fifth column, sabotaging our state for their national political masters.
Voting these self serving Republicans out of office is the solution!
Regards,
From the Statement on Prop 13 from the LOS ANGELES COUNTY CITIZENS ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY COMMISSION April 5, 1978:
"If Jarvis-Gann passes, local governments will lose $6-$7 billion in property tax revenue. If the State Legislature does not act to replace these revenues or revise current law governing health, education and welfare, then vital services - including police, fire, and education - will have to be drastically cut. The result would be chaos. Thus, we will be fully dependent on the State Legislature to prevent local services from being emasculated. Decisions once made by local governments, where voter influence is more direct, will now be made by a State Legislature which has been notably unresponsive."
http://eec.co.la.ca.us/publications/html/legislat/7804-StatementonProp13.asp
The problem is that once the "Tax Cuts" chant starts to rise myopia sets in and comprehension of cause and effect evaporates as the brain's pleasure center is stimulated by the message "I gets to keep me more money for me to buy toys? Yea!"
Californians were warned about the ramifications of the Jarvis-Gann Initiative 30 years ago, and in light of the fact that the majority of those who benefited from Prop 13 are now dead or dying off, the remaining Californians are left to enjoy the benevolence of the dearly departed's selfishness.
Everyone wants the OTHER guy to pay.They're all for increasing fees and taxes...unless it applies to them, personally. They champion cutting spending...unless it's on things that they favor personally. although California is the home of the "NIMBY's" (not in my backyard!!) they don't have an exclusive on the name. It's become a yuppie tradition to shy away from anything that is benificial for the whole if it is detremental to the individual. Unfortunately, that kind of selfish thinking is what leads to political gridlock and is endemic of whats happening in California and will soon become the standard headache of major areas everywhere. Nobody wants new power lines running through THEIR area even though lack of them will cause blackouts to their homes soon. Nobody wants noisy hospitals or police stations on THEIR street or new light rail transportation creating crossings in THEIR areas. Why should I pay for schools, my kids are raised! Tax somebody else, Take away funds from the already disadvantaged, they don't live in my tidy subdivision or belong to MY bridge club. Why should I have to pay, make someone else pay instead of me. I feel I sacrafice enough. There in lies the problem and whining isn't an answer.
I don't want ANYONE to pay more. We need to make CUTS, CUTS, and more CUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
California's problem is the same as the Federal Government's problem. The difference being the Federal Government can run deficits. States are to balance their budgets.
So, the problem is the same---essentially, the demand by American citizens to have something for nothing. Though we all cry out that government is wasteful, we want the services that the state or federal government offer, but we want them for free. Please, no to taxes---yes, to the various and sundry services (in reality, most are vital--but, some are not) that offer lots of employment in the industrialized world we live in.
Californians should be ashamed of their government as all Americans should be ashamed of Washington. And, Californians should be ashamed of the way they vote on the ballot initiatives--there, again, voting directly in ways that results in something for nothing (or nothing for something). The American "dream world".
For California government to work again, the state's laws need to change which, of course, would require cooperation between the two opposing parties and their members--Republicans and Democrats. As always, that is difficult if not impossible.
And look at Washington. Pitiful! I guess this country has to totally implode before real change and cooperation will ever take place.
I think I'm shocked California's 47 in the National Scale, just not easy to believe!! I think we should try more homeschooling method, it has raised a lot of stated and the population has been seen well affected, just we need to seek the right professional to write our children k-12 customized digital textbooks I found a good website to do it, check it if U want! we need to fix a lot of stuffs http://www.completecurriculum.com
Starve the schools to make them fail, and when they fail recommend home schooling to cure the "problem" when all the time the problem was...drum roll...YOU. I bet you were one of those people who wanted to reduce government to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. What's your solution for the complete breakdown of public services? I can only assume Mr. Burnett is correct about the role of California voters in this disaster, and that you are one of them.
I'm confused...thought completecurriculum was being facetious and pretending to be shocked...(that info has been around a long time), and the poor punctuation, spelling etc.
As I third generation Californian, I agree with Bob Burnett's analysis. I have watched the decline of our state since Prop 13 passed. Californian's completely ignored the fact that the services that made us such a great state cost money.
To the poster who said it was narcissitic Boomers who voted in Prop 13--not true. The oldest Boomers were 32 in 1978. Prop 13 was the daring of the over 55 anti-government crowd. They sold it as free beer. The bar tab has now come due.
To the poster who said there are fewer students in the k-12 system now, a few facts:
1. 150,000 students drop out of California's high schools every year. 80% of these students
have passing grades. They cite boredom and their classes lack of relevance to their
futures. Career and technical classes have been decimated. The 10th largest economy
in the world needs highly skilled young adults, not dropouts.
2. Over half the country's immigrants settle in Calfornia. 200+ languages are spoken here.
Teaching non-English speaking students takes more resources.
3. In my county, $14,000 per year is spent on schooling a regular student. $40,000 per year is
spent educating special needs students. There are more special needs students now
than in 1978.
I agree that California's citizens share a great deal of responsibility for our state's decline. We've elected fools as governors and legislators for years. One does reap what one sews.
Prop. 13 brought ruin to the state. I know people who paid $100,000 for their homes and those homes are now worth $1 million and are still paying $1,000 in property taxes. Prop. 13 has to go and have people with all the big houses pay their fair share of property taxes. If you buy a house for $5 million, you can very well afford to pay higher taxes for it. That would close their budget issues real fast.
Stupid Reagan-Howard Jarvis populism ruined California. Populism was the triumph of the selfish, childish Boomer California narcissists who were too high to add. California basically invented the Counter-Culture whose mantra was "if it feels good, do it." Prop 13 "felt good," as "free lunches" always do, until you get the bill. The Boomers almost destroyed this country with their coked-out greed, from Orange County to Wall St. You reap what you sow, so Californians are now getting exactly what they deserve. In a way, the death of Michael Jackson, the ultimate California man-child, is the perfect symbol of the end of an era of Neverneverland begun by Disney and the Grateful Dead.
Correction - Prop 13 wasn't a "Free Lunch" it was an extremely expensive lunch put on the credit card of the children and grandchildren of the California voters who voted "Yes" in 1978.
The ironclad rule for "Tax Cuts" is that ultimately somebody pays for them.
The oldest boomers (birth years 1946-1964) were barely into their thirties in 1978 when Prop 13 passed, and they made up a small minority of the electorate. The proposition was passed by older generations.
The proposition was sold as a way to keep the older generations, who had made huge profits on their houses, from having to pay taxes on their gains.
Prop 13 had nothing to do with the baby boom generation or with the minority of that generation who created the counter-culture. Ronald Reagan was an enemy of the counter-culture, and sent state troopers to tear gas and shoot protesters. Howard Jarvis had no appeal to the counter-culture. Reagan and Jarvis were, in countercultural language, square, uptight, and stupid. No connection.
That's ridiculous. My home is worth $200K and my property tax is about $1300/year. And in Minnesota, that's not bad.
We do remodel work here in California, I cannot tell you how many jobs we have done where the owners don't want anyone to know they are remodeling their homes because it would take them out of prop 13. They have lived in the home for 30 years and are paying $1,200 a year in taxes when the house across the street is paying $670.00 a month. They think it's great and they don't want to pay more and these people were Doctors and Dentists that could well aford to pay.
In contemplating California, the high taxes do not seem to be the problem as much as the seeming spending them on early retirement for state employees. In Bridgewater, NJ, where I am my son's cohort completed algebra and geometry in 7th and 8th grade and plunged ahead with more advanced calculus courses etc. A wide range of languages were offered including Chinese. (My son took Italian). Our country has many shining jewels of successful schools comparing well against leading European and Asian schools. How places like California can regain their footing and more to the top tier would seem to require a massive reform movement or something.
I live in cali and did not vote for Arnold during the Davis Recall; why oh why did anyone expect that he would be an effective executive administrator? Arnold being voted to Sacramento is a reminder of how unbalanced the nation was following 9-11. Arnold pls go away; voters, find and vote for ppl who offer solutions.
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