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ENLARGE
Now we’ve really done it. We’ve poked the blood-sucking monster in Sacramento and it’s time to grab whatever we have left and run for our lives.
If he is telling the truth — and why wouldn’t we believe anything that comes out of the monster’s mouth — the state is roughly $41 BILLION in the hole over the last two years, which is mind-boggling even for a state of 38 million people.
Last week an overwhelming number of voters told the governor and state lawmakers to pound sand, pummeling proposed tax hikes and other Ponzi schemes they claimed would help them balance the budget.
Since that Tuesday election, lawmakers have been threatening to pick the pockets of cities, counties, school districts and anyone with a wallet in order to save their jobs.
And that brings up the million-dollar question: How do those guys stay employed?
They have failed in almost every way imaginable. If they were students, they would have flunked out long ago. If they were in business, they’d be closed, fired, or both.
The only initiative that passed Tuesday was the one where lawmakers don’t get a raise if they don’t pass a balanced budget on time. That didn’t go nearly far enough. I would have voted for one that required every state lawmaker to be kicked out of office on July 2 every year if they didn’t pass a balanced budget. Power is far more important to most of them than a paycheck.
“But how would we govern?” you might ask. Easy. Every day the Legislature is not in session is a good day for the budget, taxpayers, businesses and anyone who is tired of lawmakers passing stupid bills that cost money we don’t have.
What should they do? Excellent question. For starters, we can no longer afford to pay government services for the 3.2 million people living in California illegally. Last I checked that bill was roughly $13 BILLION per year. That one move would put a nice dent in the deficit, but nobody in Sacramento has the guts to even discuss it. I wonder, though, how a ballot question on that issue might fare today (not that lawmakers pay attention to what we want).
“Would you rather close schools, fire stations, police stations and other services, or stop paying for health care, school and other services for illegal immigrants?”
And before you gentle souls start going all Mother Teresa on me, it’s not about race, or sensitivity. It’s about money, as in we don’t have any, as in we can’t even afford to take care of our own citizens.
Once that’s done, we need to turn to the state payroll. A 5 percent cut in the 200,000 or so state jobs isn’t nearly enough to cover a $41 BILLION problem. The state needs to cut at least 20,000 jobs, but that would mean standing up to the labor unions that put half the elected officials into office.
I get a copy of the Capitol Weekly and a peek into the classified section shows no evidence that the state gets it when it comes to payroll cuts. There are more employment ads for state jobs in that little weekly newspaper than you’ll find private sector jobs in a week’s worth of the New York Times. In fact, at the top of the classified page, this is what you’ll find:
“At any time there are 3,000 employment opportunities in California government.”
“But what about a job freeze?” it goes on to ask.
“Even during a job freeze supervisors can ask for their positions to be exempt from the freeze. Over 50 percent of the jobs listed here are exempt because of extreme need ...”
Here’s one extreme need: “Associate Government Program Analyst. Location: Sacramento; $7,377-$8,379 per month. Call Chuck Bennett.”
There are four full pages with jobs just like the one Chuck is offering.
A few pages later we can read about all the state promotions that have been made in the last month. A guy named Will got a promotion from Supervising Research Analyst to Manager and his pay went from $105,000 per year to $110,000 per year. Life is good for Will, even while his employer is bouncing checks from San Diego to Redding.
Maybe Chuck back in research can analyze that one for us.
What really frosts me is the threat they always make, parading teachers and firefighters and cops out, as if to say, “If you don’t give us more money, we’ll release all the murderers into your kids’ classrooms, where there won’t be any teachers or cops to save them and when they burn the school down, there won’t be any firefighters to put out the flames.”
Here’s a better idea: Tell the UC chancellor he doesn’t deserve $400,000 per year and a 100-member staff. Then shut down, or consolidate, half of the state departments and have the state Legislature close every other month.
And for extra measure, not another new law gets passed until there is a balanced budget. Every time they pass a bill, it costs somebody money.
None of that will happen, of course. I just had to get it off my chest. The monster is headed our way and, unfortunately, it will eat Nevada County right along with the rest. That’s unfortunate, considering our county has actually been managing our money better than any county in the state. They actually have built up a rainy-day reserve up at the Rood Center and will probably have to stand by and watch the Sacramento monster gobble it up on its way to Lake Tahoe and beyond.
Jeff Ackerman is the editor/publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299 or jackerman@theunion.com.
If he is telling the truth — and why wouldn’t we believe anything that comes out of the monster’s mouth — the state is roughly $41 BILLION in the hole over the last two years, which is mind-boggling even for a state of 38 million people.
Last week an overwhelming number of voters told the governor and state lawmakers to pound sand, pummeling proposed tax hikes and other Ponzi schemes they claimed would help them balance the budget.
Since that Tuesday election, lawmakers have been threatening to pick the pockets of cities, counties, school districts and anyone with a wallet in order to save their jobs.
And that brings up the million-dollar question: How do those guys stay employed?
They have failed in almost every way imaginable. If they were students, they would have flunked out long ago. If they were in business, they’d be closed, fired, or both.
The only initiative that passed Tuesday was the one where lawmakers don’t get a raise if they don’t pass a balanced budget on time. That didn’t go nearly far enough. I would have voted for one that required every state lawmaker to be kicked out of office on July 2 every year if they didn’t pass a balanced budget. Power is far more important to most of them than a paycheck.
“But how would we govern?” you might ask. Easy. Every day the Legislature is not in session is a good day for the budget, taxpayers, businesses and anyone who is tired of lawmakers passing stupid bills that cost money we don’t have.
What should they do? Excellent question. For starters, we can no longer afford to pay government services for the 3.2 million people living in California illegally. Last I checked that bill was roughly $13 BILLION per year. That one move would put a nice dent in the deficit, but nobody in Sacramento has the guts to even discuss it. I wonder, though, how a ballot question on that issue might fare today (not that lawmakers pay attention to what we want).
“Would you rather close schools, fire stations, police stations and other services, or stop paying for health care, school and other services for illegal immigrants?”
And before you gentle souls start going all Mother Teresa on me, it’s not about race, or sensitivity. It’s about money, as in we don’t have any, as in we can’t even afford to take care of our own citizens.
Once that’s done, we need to turn to the state payroll. A 5 percent cut in the 200,000 or so state jobs isn’t nearly enough to cover a $41 BILLION problem. The state needs to cut at least 20,000 jobs, but that would mean standing up to the labor unions that put half the elected officials into office.
I get a copy of the Capitol Weekly and a peek into the classified section shows no evidence that the state gets it when it comes to payroll cuts. There are more employment ads for state jobs in that little weekly newspaper than you’ll find private sector jobs in a week’s worth of the New York Times. In fact, at the top of the classified page, this is what you’ll find:
“At any time there are 3,000 employment opportunities in California government.”
“But what about a job freeze?” it goes on to ask.
“Even during a job freeze supervisors can ask for their positions to be exempt from the freeze. Over 50 percent of the jobs listed here are exempt because of extreme need ...”
Here’s one extreme need: “Associate Government Program Analyst. Location: Sacramento; $7,377-$8,379 per month. Call Chuck Bennett.”
There are four full pages with jobs just like the one Chuck is offering.
A few pages later we can read about all the state promotions that have been made in the last month. A guy named Will got a promotion from Supervising Research Analyst to Manager and his pay went from $105,000 per year to $110,000 per year. Life is good for Will, even while his employer is bouncing checks from San Diego to Redding.
Maybe Chuck back in research can analyze that one for us.
What really frosts me is the threat they always make, parading teachers and firefighters and cops out, as if to say, “If you don’t give us more money, we’ll release all the murderers into your kids’ classrooms, where there won’t be any teachers or cops to save them and when they burn the school down, there won’t be any firefighters to put out the flames.”
Here’s a better idea: Tell the UC chancellor he doesn’t deserve $400,000 per year and a 100-member staff. Then shut down, or consolidate, half of the state departments and have the state Legislature close every other month.
And for extra measure, not another new law gets passed until there is a balanced budget. Every time they pass a bill, it costs somebody money.
None of that will happen, of course. I just had to get it off my chest. The monster is headed our way and, unfortunately, it will eat Nevada County right along with the rest. That’s unfortunate, considering our county has actually been managing our money better than any county in the state. They actually have built up a rainy-day reserve up at the Rood Center and will probably have to stand by and watch the Sacramento monster gobble it up on its way to Lake Tahoe and beyond.
Jeff Ackerman is the editor/publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299 or jackerman@theunion.com.
