California - The State Of The State Is Ungovernable

"People are asking if California is governable." Governor Schwarzenegger said in the State of the State address today that California faces insolvency within weeks. He said there is more gridlock in Sacramento than on our roads, if that is possible.

The governor gave a very short speech, saying there is no sense talking about education or infrastructure or water or anything else as long as we have this huge $42 billion deficit.

But the fact remains that the state's requirement that 2/3 budget-approval requirement means that the state is, in effect, ungovernable. A few anti-government extremists are able to continue to block the budget, refusing to compromise or even negotiate, demanding that the state lay off tens of thousands of workers, slash medical help for the elderly, slash police protection and firefighting capability, slash funding for courts, raise class sizes to 40 or 50 students, stop repairing roads and levees and everything else the state government does.

David Greenwald writes at California Progress Report wrote, in State of the People is Grim: More Budget Cuts Are Exactly the Wrong Prescription,

"Budget cuts totaling $16 billion over the last three years have already had severe consequences for the people of California. And the Governor's proposed 09-10 budget would further harm California families and our economy with an additional $17 billion in cuts to schools, health care, homecare, and state services."

Leading up to the speech, David Dayen at Calitics wrote, in The State Of The State Is, Well, You Know, "Typically he has done this speech to coincide with the evening news. This year he's trying to hide it."

We at Speak Out California want to invite readers to come up with some solutions for the budget mess. We are working on some ideas for a prize for the best ideas.

Click through to Speak Out California.

Comments

[WASanford]

The threatened IOU's strike me as a good idea. Our legislature could pass a law making them legal tender in our state. That way California could just print all of the money it needs. Since there would be some question as to whether or not to consider them income, they just might be nontaxable. California is facing the worst of the deflation and it should be safe for us to print ourselves some money just as long as we don't overdo it.

Deflation is a sure sign that there's too little cash in the economy; as prices fall, the currency becomes more valuable. Inflation is just the opposite. Both conditions can be corrected by manipulating the amount of cash available to consumers. In the case of inflation, taxing it away. In the case of deflation, printing up some more. That's Adam Smith's invisible hand at work. We can be smart about this and at least try to control the amount cash (and its flow) or we can just continue to duck because Smith's hand has made a fist and is beating the crap out of us.

[iblogleft]

Grow hemp brother! Tax and regulate Cannabis. That is a million jobs and 500 million in revenue and over a billion in cost saving to the state.

California is going to produce some of the most marketable retail Cannabis on the planet, eventually. Why wait?

Roosevelt ended prohibition and instantly created a million jobs.

[NewDayDawn]

I live in Cali for 18 years and moved back to the mid-west and have never looked back. So glad to be away from there!!

[SolarPowerGuy]

And though I never met you -- from the tone of your remarks, I probably would have been glad to see you leave.

[Dave Johnson - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, I know, It's terrible here, and I am stuck. I actually had to put a SWEATER on this morning. Imagine that. I can't wait to move back to the Midwest.

[SolarPowerGuy]

Refresh my memory. Was California's requirement for a two-thirds majority to pass tax increases a part of the infamous Proposition 13 of the late 1970's?

It's time for another proposition, one which will reduce the budget supermajority to 55%. There would still be a small hurdle to pass in the budget process, in the spirit of compromise. But it would be nowhere near the ridiculous 67% we have now.

Sorry, I don't have a clue how to fix this year's fiasco. But there's my suggestion for the long term.

[pogo]

The problem is underpopulation. Once California has another fifty million people, things will have to get better. We have to propagate and immigrate our way out of this nightmare of slow economic growth!

[SolarPowerGuy]

Pogo, I know you're being sarcastic, but I'm going to take you seriously for a moment. Because other readers might, too.

The Western United States has a serious problem with WATER. Even if we stopped growing rice in central California, there's no way that we can accommodate 50 million more people here.

Oh sure, we can make it through a dry year or three. But we're seriously unprepared for the once in a 100-year drought. And, the things we would have to do which would allow us to be fully prepared to shepherd our large population through a deep drought are incredibly destructive to what remains of our natural environment.

The same goes with the surrounding states -- not enough water for more growth.

Read Marc Reisner's _Cadillac_Desert_, an excellent book about the water problems of the American West.