While the rest of the country is focused on Arizona, California remains in a bit of a fix – and by ‘fix’ I mean ‘rampaging financial crisis.’ The state needs to come up with twenty five billion dollars to handle its budget shortfall, and incoming Governor Brown has decided to split the baby* in the new budget. He’s proposed 12.5 billion in spending cuts and 12 billion in tax hikes. Said tax hikes will take the form of extensions on current tax rates (which will need to be ratified by the voters in a June vote; the spending cuts will hit everywhere except K-12 education & prison guards (which are represented by two lobbying groups that were heavy supporters of Brown). But the controversy over that may pale in comparison to Brown’s proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies, which is currently having the same effect on local governments as a thrown rock does, right after it impacts the hornet’s nest. No doubt more controversy, objections, push-back, push-push-back, and scenes of torch-bearing mobs are all to follow.
All in all, I’m glad that I’m not Governor of California – and, truthfully, there’s a certain relief in the notion that I’m not obligated to give the Governor of California advice on how to fix his state’s long-time financial woes. I will, anyway** – I’m that nice a guy – but I don’t have to, and arguably the state of California has already made it clear that fiscal conservatism is not welcome over there. Which is their privilege: but it means that all I have left to offer is a certain rough sympathy. Which, for what it’s worth, I extend.
Moe Lane