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The media refers to it as a “meltdown.” Unless state lawmakers give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a budget that balances a $24 billion deficit by the end of the day today (one that doesn't include tax hikes), the Golden Goose will have dropped its last egg. The state is expected to run out of cash by the end of July.
Unfortunately for those who need state money (welfare recipients will start getting IOU's that won't pay for groceries and the state unemployment fund is an estimated $6 billion in the red), a meltdown is exactly what it may take to get our inept Legislature to finally get it. They have been writing checks they can't cash for too long and it's time they learned the hard way. Anyone who has ever bounced a check knows what I'm talking about.
This may be the only chance the governor has to do what voters put him in office to do — clean up the cesspool that our state government has become. In order to balance the budget, he has asked lawmakers to eliminate patronage boards (where board members earn six figures for a dozen meetings each year); curb the rampant fraud in social services (perhaps ensure that we aren't paying welfare to feed a crankhead's drug habit) and in-home health care (where billions are spent on 300,000 union caregivers); reduce the state labor force and revamp the generous employee pension plans; look for areas of government that could be privatized, and perhaps consider working part-time (the governor thinks lawmakers have WAY too much time on their hands).
Back to the crankheads for a moment. I know a welfare investigator who has some really depressing stories to tell about the rampant fraud that most state officials have turned a blind eye to. He wonders, for example, why we don't demand drug tests for welfare recipients. “You want our money?” he asks. “Then you shouldn't mind if we make sure you're not spending it on drugs.”
I know ... how cruel.
“We must use this crisis as an opportunity to make government more efficient, which is a much better option than raising your taxes,” the governor said in a weekend radio address.
I'm on that like a politician to a fundraiser.
What I'm not all over, however, is the notion of closing 200 state parks. Not while the hog still has a ton of fat. Besides, I don't think the state will save anywhere near the $143 million is says it will by closing the parks. A recent study from California State University, Sacramento found that state park users, on average, spend $57.63 per visit. Statewide that amounts to more than $4.2 billion in positive cash flow directly and indirectly in the form of sales taxes, etc. Some experts have argued that $2.35 is returned to the state's general fund for every $1 the state spends on its parks.
One of the parks on the hit list is Empire Mine State Historic Park, right in our own back yard. I was up there over the weekend for my daughter's wedding photos. When she was a baby I'd plop her in my backpack and hike the trails as she peeked over my shoulder, delighted by the beauty that surrounded us. Outside the gates on Friday ... in the blistering heat ... a woman sat collecting signatures to keep the park open.
Grass Valley officials estimate that Empire Mine State Historic Park generates as much as $10 million per year in tourism money. Despite some who suggest that mining is the work of the devil, visitors come from around the world to see the remnants of what once was one of the very best.
If the rangers were to leave, that park would be left to the vandals and other morons who would jump at the chance to destroy it. We need look no further than the Julia Morgan House for evidence of that.
One idea being considered is a $15 levy on vehicle license fees (non commercial) that would go directly to a state park fund. In exchange for paying the fee, visitors with a California license plate would get free access to the parks.
That sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. One of those rare opportunities for taxpayers to get a real return on investment.
And that's the reason for the meltdown today. Taxpayers have not seen a return on investment and are tired of watching their hard-earned money go to crooked politicians who are in the pockets of special interest groups that could care less about the rest of us. Businesses are tired of being squeezed to death, or forced to pack up and move to a place that does not view them as sheep ready to be fleeced.
There are some examples of better fiscal management out there. In 1992 Colorado voters approved a Taxpayer Bill Of Rights (referred to as TABOR) that requires the state to adopt a balanced budget each year. As a result, lawmakers there are not as overwhelmed by an economic slowdown that has hit nearly every state in the nation.
Maybe if we let it melt, something better will rise from the puddle that our once Golden State has become.
Jeff Ackerman is the editor/publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299 or jackerman@theunion.com.
Unfortunately for those who need state money (welfare recipients will start getting IOU's that won't pay for groceries and the state unemployment fund is an estimated $6 billion in the red), a meltdown is exactly what it may take to get our inept Legislature to finally get it. They have been writing checks they can't cash for too long and it's time they learned the hard way. Anyone who has ever bounced a check knows what I'm talking about.
This may be the only chance the governor has to do what voters put him in office to do — clean up the cesspool that our state government has become. In order to balance the budget, he has asked lawmakers to eliminate patronage boards (where board members earn six figures for a dozen meetings each year); curb the rampant fraud in social services (perhaps ensure that we aren't paying welfare to feed a crankhead's drug habit) and in-home health care (where billions are spent on 300,000 union caregivers); reduce the state labor force and revamp the generous employee pension plans; look for areas of government that could be privatized, and perhaps consider working part-time (the governor thinks lawmakers have WAY too much time on their hands).
Back to the crankheads for a moment. I know a welfare investigator who has some really depressing stories to tell about the rampant fraud that most state officials have turned a blind eye to. He wonders, for example, why we don't demand drug tests for welfare recipients. “You want our money?” he asks. “Then you shouldn't mind if we make sure you're not spending it on drugs.”
I know ... how cruel.
“We must use this crisis as an opportunity to make government more efficient, which is a much better option than raising your taxes,” the governor said in a weekend radio address.
I'm on that like a politician to a fundraiser.
What I'm not all over, however, is the notion of closing 200 state parks. Not while the hog still has a ton of fat. Besides, I don't think the state will save anywhere near the $143 million is says it will by closing the parks. A recent study from California State University, Sacramento found that state park users, on average, spend $57.63 per visit. Statewide that amounts to more than $4.2 billion in positive cash flow directly and indirectly in the form of sales taxes, etc. Some experts have argued that $2.35 is returned to the state's general fund for every $1 the state spends on its parks.
One of the parks on the hit list is Empire Mine State Historic Park, right in our own back yard. I was up there over the weekend for my daughter's wedding photos. When she was a baby I'd plop her in my backpack and hike the trails as she peeked over my shoulder, delighted by the beauty that surrounded us. Outside the gates on Friday ... in the blistering heat ... a woman sat collecting signatures to keep the park open.
Grass Valley officials estimate that Empire Mine State Historic Park generates as much as $10 million per year in tourism money. Despite some who suggest that mining is the work of the devil, visitors come from around the world to see the remnants of what once was one of the very best.
If the rangers were to leave, that park would be left to the vandals and other morons who would jump at the chance to destroy it. We need look no further than the Julia Morgan House for evidence of that.
One idea being considered is a $15 levy on vehicle license fees (non commercial) that would go directly to a state park fund. In exchange for paying the fee, visitors with a California license plate would get free access to the parks.
That sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. One of those rare opportunities for taxpayers to get a real return on investment.
And that's the reason for the meltdown today. Taxpayers have not seen a return on investment and are tired of watching their hard-earned money go to crooked politicians who are in the pockets of special interest groups that could care less about the rest of us. Businesses are tired of being squeezed to death, or forced to pack up and move to a place that does not view them as sheep ready to be fleeced.
There are some examples of better fiscal management out there. In 1992 Colorado voters approved a Taxpayer Bill Of Rights (referred to as TABOR) that requires the state to adopt a balanced budget each year. As a result, lawmakers there are not as overwhelmed by an economic slowdown that has hit nearly every state in the nation.
Maybe if we let it melt, something better will rise from the puddle that our once Golden State has become.
Jeff Ackerman is the editor/publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299 or jackerman@theunion.com.
