It starts with the legislature. Actually, it starts with the idiotic requirement that the legislature needs a super-majority to pass a budget. The Dems refuse to cut spending; the Reps refuse to raise taxes. Apparently they think if they dig in their heels, the others will say “oh, you got us. Here, we’ll just cut this big ol’ Waste & Fraud line item.”
And so, whenever times are tough, we run into deficits – which get papered over with accounting tricks and borrowing. The last time it happened (a few months ago) they did what they always do – pass the buck to the citizens, through the Initiative process.
Which is rant #2: the legislature has not passed difficult legislation in 30 years. They prefer to dump it on the citizenry.
And now, #3: if it involves money on infrastructure, or schools…it ain’t going nowhere. So our schools, once the best in the country, are now #49 in funding per pupil, and about to get worse. It’s a sad state of affairs when a state with an economy that’s 7th largest in the world is looking up at Mississippi in educating its people.
There seems to be this weirdly anarchist mentality in our state that you should only have to pay for what you, personally, are using right this second. In other words, never pay any taxes for anything. Meanwhile, the infrastructure is degenerating day by day. I’ve been working in the public sector, paying taxes, voting, and writing my legislators; I’ve been holding my students to high standards and encouraging them to participate in the system to improve it. If you have any ideas on what else I could do, I’d like to hear them, because I’m fresh out.
My wife, who is a fairly new California public elementary school teacher, is very depressed. She already can barely handle her job now, and it’s almost certainly going to be harder next year. They’re either going to give her more students, or have her teach more classes, or maybe both.
Right now she doesn’t think she’s giving all her students the attention they deserve. It’s only going to get worse.
It’s time to push the big ole reset button: constitutional convention.
Our government needs complete structural reform. Initiatives are too easy to pass and too hard to amend. Local governments and schools either can’t raise the revenues they need, or if they can, it’s stolen by the state. The legislature cannot make hard decisions and gerrymandering prevents replacing them. The legislature can’t fix the budget even if it wanted to because of mandates.
The fact that we only get 70 cents back on each tax dollar we send to the feds is one more millstone around our neck.
Oh please. I already pay more of my income in taxes than the rest of my family in Taxachusetts. Maybe if they stopped extending social services to illegal immigrants, started cracking down on illegal immigration fullstop, stopped incarcerating people at high volumes and made homeowners pay for their children’s educations I’d be more sympathetic to this viewpoint. This state is run by a bunch of retarded leftists and an equally retarded bunch of rightwingers.
Yes, it does. That’s why they’re included in the rant.
suranyi: I certainly empathize with your wife; my daughter and 2 sisters-in-law are teachers. But at least your wife has a job, unlike my daughter, who will be substitute teaching next year, if she’s lucky.
anu-la1979: I’d gladly pay more in taxes if it meant maintaining our parks and roads, and paying for teachers. Gas prices dropped $2/gallon in the last year; they could’ve added on a gas tax without anyone even noticing. But noooo…
pleonast: absolutely right. The situation is FUBAR.
As a fellow Californian, I endorse this OP. The only Californians more screwed up than the legislature is the voting population. We pass expensive propositions, and propositions limiting the freedom of the legislature, and then we are opposed to taxes to pay for them. Most of the increase in spending comes directly from propositions, like the 3 strikes law.
I agree with Pleonast - time to tear down the whole thing and start anew, especially with majority vote for tax increases and much more stringent rules for getting propositions on the ballot. In the short term, I hope there is a way of cutting services that affect the middle class, The poor are going to get screwed no matter what.
Surveys have shown that people want to cut spending, but when you give them a list: education? prisons? roads? they like all of them. So, we’re going to balance a deficit of $21 billion by stopping raises for legislators.
Even worse news: if we don’t spend a certain minimum amount on schools and other things, we lose up to $20 billion in stimulus funds. And it looks like we don’t have the money to reach this. Good job, Californians.
May I remind you that immigration is a federal matter? The state cannot patrol the border. Once illegals get past the feds, they’re here. California cannot do much about it.
Would you prefer that we deny them medical care? Sure, some would die off, which might conveniently act as a deterrent, but their unvaccinated children make excellent disease reservoirs, and I don’t think we can afford that. We really ought not to educate them, because uneducated kids running loose on the street are always a community asset.
And how would you identify them, anyway? Anecdote time: my mother was an illegal, from Canada. White, English-speaking. I know a lot of third- and fourth-generation Mexicans (many of whom don’t speak Spanish). What are we supposed to do, carry ID papers at all times proving citizenship? Round up the Spanish-speakers just in case?
Sorry. Illegal immigration is a problem, but the arguments about illegal immigrants tend to equate to either anti-Mexican racism or poorly thought out us-vs-them stuff, without considering the long-term effects or practicalities.
Here in California, “the system” is broken and has been all along. The conditions now with the economy, are just making it more obvious how broken it was all along. We need a “reboot”.
There’s a reason I moved out of Eden in 1997. <sigh>
The root of the budget troubles goes back to the tax-revolt fervor of Howard Jarvis et al. in the late 70s and early 80s. Proposition 13 was only the start. Proposition 4, IIRC, made it nearly impossible to raise taxes when needed to provide income. Then a proposition came along mandating a certain percentage of the budget go to education. Then along came a proposition that …
But the reason these propositions pass is that the Legislature doesn’t. Legislate, that is, not in any meaningful way. Even when they are not hampered by a super-majority requirement, they refuse to deal with political realities. Like a Democratic majority in the Legislature but a Republican governor. No, we’d rather engage in finger-pointing than admit that we need to suck it up and do what we would prefer not to. Idiots.
And yes, the public in California is always demanding a liberal approach to services, but then turning around and refusing to pay for them. And I would very much doubt that someone is paying more in California in property tax pro rated for the VALUE of their home than in Massachusetts. It’s just that Californian properties are ridiculously expensive, making the taxes high in cost per family. Stop flipping your properties, and they will get better and better looking, thanks to Proposition 13. :rolleyes:
Yeah, I hate not living there. But I hated living there worse.
Does anyone know of an authoritative site where we can find tax burden by state? Including state and local income taxes, sales tax, property tax…? I’d like to refute (if indeed its true) the belief held by anu_la1979, and a man-on-the-street interview I saw on the news last night, that Californians pay some ungodly amount in taxes.
They rank California 6th. New York is 1, New Jersey is 2.
To add to the ranting, can the right please stop chanting the mantra “raising taxes will always lower state income, lowering them will always increase it.” It’s plainly false. If we tax at 1%, then cut taxes 1%, I think state income would go down. Likewise, increasing taxes to 100% would similarly kill state income. There’s a sweet spot. People will spend entire careers trying to find that maximum point, but cutting taxes will always increase revenue is clearly not true.
FTR I am an immigrant to this country myself and ethnic so you needn’t lecture me about racism. No, I do not think illegal immigrants ought to qualify for social services-the simple fact is that it drains this state of money that could go to legal immigrants and citizens. What does border patrol have to do with proving that you’re a citizen to qualify for state services?
Here you go. New York is higher than us. We’re still way up there. And no, I am not at all willing to pay more of my income in taxes than I currently do until I’m reasonably assured it’s going towards something worthwhile. And homeowners start paying up on their property taxes. Do you realise a significant portion of people in SoCal have stopped paying them this year?
Additionally, Medi-Cal could stop demanding brand-only medications for all its patients when filling prescriptions, similarly skyrocketing the costs the state pays out in medical benefits. Almost every prescription they do this with results in a $100-200 increase in cost unnecessarily when a generic exists. I’ve never before seen a state Medicaid program that only covers brand medications. It’s insane.
Actually the Democratic majority and the governor get along fairly well. The problem this year was with the Republican minority, which was just big enough to hold up the budget thanks to our stupid 2/3 rule. The governor was unable to persuade those in his own party to compromise. This is what happens when you elect a movie star and not a politician to whom other politicians owe favors.
Our income and sales taxes are high, but the property tax is wildly varying. Since I’ve been in my house for 13 years, mine is pretty small, and my neighbor who has been in his house for 30 has very low property taxes. Businesses are covered by Prop 13 also, so they too get low taxes, which is absurd. The big problem is that the high reliance on sales and income taxes make us very subject to fluctuations in the economy. When it is good there is a rush of money which gets used; when it is bad the money goes away and the spending is locked in, often by Propositions. The Sacremento based reporters on Forum this morning said there is a 10% structural deficit, but it is now 25% due to the recession.
Plus, are you aware that the February compromise lowed corporate taxes? :rolleyes:
