Comments on: As California Goes…

By: Senneth

Senneth — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:55:59 +0000

RepbchokingCA
I’ve wondered about that as well. Arnold has no experience and I doubt knows enough to get his state out of the mess. I don’t understand how California residents continue to vote for movie stars to their government. It’s all a mystery to me, but unfortunately your title of this post, LD, is so very true, as California goes so goes the nation, I mean people voted for an American Idol who is now residing in the WH and many are still in love with him. What about that makes any sense?

By: imustprotest

imustprotest — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:52:05 +0000

It was young college aged kids who voted for him, the same demographic that voted for Obama. I guess they didn’t care that he was a Republican, they just liked him because he was “cool” and quoted his own movies in his campaign rhetoric “I’m gonna blow up some boxes”……”hasta la vista”, etc. Arnold said nothing in terms of policy or solutions, just stupid movie lines.

By: ritamary

ritamary — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:17:39 +0000

In 2005 I moved to Encinitas, CA. I chose this particular area of Encinitas because there were two bus lines with stops about a half block from my apartment.

Schwarzenegger took away ALL state subsidy money for public transportation to balance the budget. Now the two bus lines are gone. Many elderly people live in this area and depended on the bus to get around. What are they doing now for transportation? Who knows? Who cares?

Schwarzenegger is actually the first American Idol political candidate. He has absolutely no qualifications to be governor but all the hype and backing by powerful interests put him in office.

By: beachnan

beachnan — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:06:25 +0000

We are having a really hard time in California. My husband, a self-employed building contractor, only had work for about 4 months out of 12 last year. They don’t even count him in the unemployment statistics because he is self-employed and ineligible to receive unemployment benefits. If he does find work, a lot of the time it is at a rate of 1/3 of what he used to make. We are upside down in our home, and are partners in a project that now includes 3 worthless lots, and one house already built, that must be rented because the sale will not cover our expenses. We are hoping to hang onto it, and sell it, if the values of property ever go up again. We invested our entire nest egg into this venture. I’m not sure what the answers to California’s problems might be, but I would like to ask everyone a question. I value our police and firemen. They do an outstanding job, but I know a couple of policemen who consistently make over $110,000 every year. They brag about how much overtime they get, and they tell me that they can retire after 30 years on the force, with 80% of their salary every year. Is this part of the reason our communities are going bankrupt?

By: imustprotest

imustprotest — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:17:20 +0000

Skinny and Ellen D are correct. The problem is the referendum process, flawed as skinny says, the same type of process is what gave us Arnold, as Ellen D said…..propositions and ARRRNold, both bad for California.

By: foxyladi14

foxyladi14 — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:52:25 +0000

the rich get richer..and the poor go hungry.

By: Kat5

Kat5 — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:54:46 +0000

CA sales tax revenues were down over 50 percent in April from a year ago. State individual income tax revenues were down something like 43 percent for the same period. Since CA is something of a bellwether…. Numerous state bailouts can’t be far down the road.

By: allimom99

allimom99 — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:36:39 +0000

The initiative system does make it impossible to have reason in our state. If you have enough money to buy the signatures, you can put ANYTHING on the ballot (like depriving people of rights they already have), and create an ad campaign to get it passed. I’m guessing most don’t bother even reading the props (I do), so no surprise we are in this situation.

Then we have the legislature – votes are commanded and negotiated by the parties in a neverending pissing contest. The true interests of Californians are seldom considered.

So yes, right now we are pretty screwed here in the Golden State. On a personal level, I guess it’s a good thing we are used to living a cash lifestyle, so we are better prepared than most, but it looks like it will be a long, painful path out of this for the left coast.

By: Ellen D

Ellen D — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:26:17 +0000

Another Californian here – I liked Gray Davis. He only did one stupid thing. When we were flush he lowered the car registration fee. He didn’t have to do that, he could have put the extra money away in a rainy-day fund. And now any going back to previous levels is called a raise in taxes. Just like Washington terminology.

One of the first things our bought and paid for Gov. did (recall collectors were paid per signature) was to put through propositions allowing the state to borrow an enormous amount of money just to meet continuing expenses. And this was in good times. Stupid stupid stupid.

But we got Arnold the same way the country got Obama. The “wouldn’t it be cool,” factor.

By: skinny malinky

skinny malinky — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:42:23 +0000

The legislature actually doesn’t have a whole lot of control over spending, thanks to the referendum process. Something like 80% of the budget is locked in due to propositions.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:06:18 +0000

The problem is not the Governor, it is your state legislature, House and Senate, that keep spending money you don’t have. Your debt has grown to a point where your bonds are not thought of favorably since they may not be paid back as required. Your legislature ignores the cost of harboring illegal immigrants and supplying them with services you can’t fund.

Your state government is in big financial trouble and if the propositions don’t pass, which I’m inclined to beleive they will not, you will be laying off more teachers and civil servants and services will need be slashed. But you’ll still be in debt with no way of finding the funds to satisfy the projects and services your legislature keeps passing.

But keep talking about the Governor even though all he can do is veto bills which will then be overridden by the legislature again.

By: skinny malinky

skinny malinky — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:36:34 +0000

It’s bad in CA. My wife is a teacher and will (hopefully) get to keep her job, but a lot of her friends won’t be. After the government layoffs that will happen if the props fail (which they probably will) unemployment will be a lot higher.

This state’s government is so screwed up. I blame the referendum process; it ensures that spending decisions are made by a public that isn’t informed, because it’s virtually impossible to be informed about all the different propositions. So much money is tied up in departments and purposes created in these props, which say that the money can’t be used for anything else. It’s a stupid system that no one is really trying to fix.

By: stodgie

stodgie — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:39:53 +0000

i believe they were talking about politics for the most part with california. however in recent years the idea of california leading the pack has lost any credability. the democratic legislature has been spending like there is no tomorrow with all these give aways.

By: trixta

trixta — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:42:34 +0000

As a Californian, this very thought has been on my mind. But as you say, where is the public outrage at Arnie — and the Recall itself? Wasn’t Arnie supposed to have saved us from ourselves—and from Gov Davis? Davis should never have been recalled, since back then during the Recall election Arnie was real cozy with Bush/Cheney and Enron. At least, Davis put up some fight against the oil industry and tried to expose their shenanigans. Davis wasn’t perfect, but I doubt we’d be in quite this financial mess if he’d still be in office. But ya never know how things would have worked out …. I never anticipated an Obama as president ….

By: trixta

trixta — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:35:25 +0000

I saw a headline yesterday in the Bay Area that the state gov of CA may grab monies from municipalities to make up for it’s shortfall. I don’t know if this will happen or not, but cities (like struggling Oakland) are livid about this state money grab.