Try it. They are in big trouble…
Nuke it from orbit…it’s the only way to be sure.
-XT
Or they could legalize marijuana which by one estimate would bring in 13 billion dollars a year, cutting the deficit from 24 billion to 11 billion.
The only way they can balance the budget is to thoroughly dismantle a large chunk of the social services they provide. Their hands are sooooo thoroughly tied between debt service and education spending mandated by constitutional amendments enacted through ballot proposition.
The bottom line is that the Democrats are finally going to have to play nice with the Republicans. I suspect that that will take some time; they have usually failed to do so in the past.
But marijuana is against federal law. And while Obama has been playing nice with regards to medical marijuana, I don’t think he would tolerate legal recreational use.
So can’t California borrow money? How will this situation play itself out? Will one side or the other have to cave in a big way (e.g. huge dismantling of social programs and/or massive tax increases?)
Perhaps…but how would they pay it back?
Not a chance. Both sides have the other by the throat. And the California voters have essentially fucked themselves, voting for all manner of thing without any thought to fiscal reality. In order for California to balance the budget they would have to amend the states constitution and take out a bunch of things they all voted to put in…and then they would have to figure out some way to create some kind of realistic budget and stick with it. This would entail both ‘sides’ (and in California politics there are myriad factions, not simply Democrats vs Republicans) giving up all manner of sacred cows. Not. Gonna. Happen.
They are, IMHO, fucked, and the only thing that could save them is if we have another boom time like in the 90’s, where capital and jobs flood back into the state.
As I said…nuke it from orbit. It really is the only way to ‘fix’ the problem and be sure…
-XT
Hold a constitutional convention and remove all of the mandatory spending clauses and revoke prop13. Needless to say, this would lead to a one term run at the governorship, but history would remember you kindly.
Ok, I did it. In fact, I have a $20 million surplus. I cut $4,960,000,000 from the budget and raised taxes for the $19,060,000,000 needed. No problem. In fact, I took every tax increase option the simulation would give me. None of them were very onerous. They also give the biggest bang for the buck.
Then one begins by addressing the federal law. I find it hard to believe that California could be so well and thoroughly fucked and no other state is having any budget problems at all. :rolleyes: So decriminalization and subsequent taxation would benefit other states as well.
How high could those taxes go? Head back to GD for another thread where you, too, can play Drug Czar.
I think it’s a promising sign that some mainstream media is willing to at least discuss the issue, rather than resorting to the knee-jerk “Drugs R Bad, mmkay?” auto-response.
Not that legalizing pot and taxing the bejeezus out of it would be enough to completely fill CA’s financial hole. But … it’d be a helluva start.
Anyone want to suggest a single change in law or policy that could provide as much of a financial boost to their economy?
Sure…cut out every social program. THAT would get them back a boat load of money as well. And, it’s equally likely. Or, on the same plane of likelihood, raise magic ponies that shit gold and/or the magical non-polluting non-greenhouse gas emitting abundant fuel!
-XT
If only there were some sort of car tax…
Is Lex Luthor’s plan from Superman 1 a viable option?
I hope you mean this as the inside joke it really is! (and from your location, I imagine it is :p)
For those not playing along: The main reason that Schwarzenegger is governor is that Gray Davis, the prior governor, went along with a plan that re-estabished a rather onerous personal property tax on autos in the state. The people propmptly recalled him and installed the Governator.
Ditto. I think the only tax increase that would effect me personally was the gas tax, and I’d happily pay that.
Even if they legalized marijuana tomorrow, I doubt the appropriate structures for producing, regulating and taxing it would materialize in time to help CA in the current fiscal year.
I think the game (for lack of a better word) provided by the OP contains a great example of why this is such a big problem for Californians:
(One of the options provided in the game)
Why do they only provide the option to rescind Prop 13 for commercial properties, and not for residential properties? Because that would hit “too close to home”. Nevermind the fact that doing so would more than double the amount of revenue brought in by such a tax increase (instead of ~$2 billion, it might be closer to ~$6 billion).
I remember NPR interviewing someone recently (a random Californian) who said something along the lines of, “I don’t understand why our legislators can’t balance the budget. There are a lot of unnecessary programs that can be cut - there’s no need to start making cuts to our education system.”
After hearing this, I realized that the problem lies in this concept of “sacrifice”. People seem to think that sacrifice means, “Giving up a program that I’m lukewarm about, to save some money”, rather than, “Giving up a program I fully support, to save some money.”
Until Californians realize that they need to make sacrifices in the latter sense, this mess isn’t going anywhere.
The interactive was interesting and shows just how much in a bind these politicians are in. We cry about taxes yet we depend on those dollars to fund parks to jails. Based on the interactive, it appears that best course is to cut spending across the board while raising taxes. I know in Michigan, our governor was able to keep community colleges and universities funded by using the stimulus funds; why can’t California do the same with their share of the stimulus?
Budget Scmudget, handle it like real Americans. Just pawn some stuff off every once in a while.
I bet you could make real bank selling Berkley or UCSB as scrape-offs.
I smell a rat. According to that program, I cut every program there was, and I still hadn’t balanced the budget.
Cut all of the programs and increase all of the taxes…I’m getting a ETA: Gah! I was right the first time…increase taxes and cut everything gets you $30 billion a year.
-XT