California's outsize problems won't be easy for Schwarzenegger to solve (Dan Balz)

[alp227]

The Washington Post
February 6, 2010

SACRAMENTO People in the nation's largest state are in a sour mood. They are unhappy with the economy, unhappy with what has happened to their state, unhappy with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and unhappy with the Democratic-controlled legislature.

The recession here began earlier and went deeper than it did nationally, according to estimates. In December, the unemployment rate stood at 12.4 percent, making California the fifth worst state in the nation. The Legislative Analyst's Office issued a report in November forecasting a turnaround this year but projecting that unemployment would still average more than 10 percent in 2012.

Lawmakers here face a $20 billion state budget deficit, after closing an even bigger deficit last year. "It was monumentally difficult," Susan Kennedy, Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, said of last year's effort. "Everything that could be cut was."

This year, given what it took to pass the budget last year, solutions will be even more difficult. There are no easy options left on the table.

Schwarzenegger is looking to Washington for help. In his State of the State address a month ago, the governor said California gets back just 78 cents for every dollar it sends to Washington. When President Bill Clinton was in office, Schwarzenegger said, California got 94 cents on every dollar sent. "We are not looking for a federal bailout, just federal fairness," he said.

Schwarzenegger wants permanent relief, not just another temporary injection of money through the stimulus program. He has been working to prod California's congressional delegation to lobby harder. His advisers say at least $2 billion is in play in negotiations with Washington, perhaps as much as $4 billon to $4.5 billion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/06/AR2010020601195_pf.html

[xchrom]

1. Still avoiding thevtwo things that need to be done:

Scrap prop 13 and raise taxes on the wealthiest corporations
and individuals.

Everything else is horseshit until we do that.

[Glidescube2]

2. You scrap 13 and I file for bankruptcy

and so will millions of others. Leave 13 alone. I can pay/afford a higher mortgage because 13 keeps the taxes low. And not just me but also renters. You scrap 13 and rents will go even higher.


There are other ways. Now if you wish to sock it to the ultra rich with a super huge tax rate them I'm with you. Just keep off the middle class, we are already choked off.

[xchrom]

4. Then scrap away - I have no motherfuckin mercy on this issue.

You think THIS misbegotten spawn of Satan was the only
goddamn path to tax equity?

This has NEVER returnend to the middle classes what
it was supposed to return.

Our fuckin schools have suffered -- everything.

Now I'm a home owner here myself -- work fuckin RETAIL
and I can afford my shit -- so if you can't afford
yours -- then move goddamnit -- your hurtin the state
with right wing horse shit.

[WestSeattle2]

3. California was truly the golden state until Prop 13....one of the

biggest fiscal mistakes EVER.

[bemildred]

5. Jerry Brown was right all along.

And back then too it was the failure of the legislature to adopt real reform that led to the initiative deform.

[yurbud]

7. and the 2/3 vote requirement for taxes and budget and term limits...

and every other piece of crap conservatives sold Californians as reform.

[StreetKnowledge]

6. Prop 13 is both good and bad law.

Keeping property taxes low generally helps residents of all income levels. But the part of Prop 13 that requires a 2/3 supermajority to get any sort of tax raise passed is the problem. Schwarzenegger has to know that he cannot cut much more, and if he wants to fix that deficit, its gonna have to ba tax raises. But will the GOP minority allow that with screaming and yelling? Doubt it.

[yurbud]

8. uh...Arnold IS the problem, and the GOP created our debt by letting Enron blackmail the state out of

billions, then using that debt as a club to beat our democratic governor in the recall, shoehorn Arnold into office, only to see him run up more debt than the Democrat did because Arnold and the GOP in the statehouse refuse to raise taxes on the rich crybabies.