California’s Economic Crisis: Part 1 – Progress (?) and Education
Submitted by J Boogie [TLL] on Saturday, 21 February 2009Comments
California’s Economic Crisis is the first in a multi-part tale of political blunders, late night senate meetings, and economic clusterfucks. The story will follow the way California is dealing with its budget deficit, and such an important story deserves more than one post. This first installment discusses the path taken to get to this (ahem) landmark deal and the issues surrounding it, as well as the implications of a significant budget slash. Burning the Midnight Joint
It took some time to get passed, but California has finally approved a set of tax increases and spending cuts in order to stay afloat. The budget has been deadlocked since last week, (and technically longer, since the issue has been in contention for months now) floating in political limbo because it lacked one vote. Not surprisingly, the vote needed to come from a Republican. Party lines are difficult ones to cross for politicians. They generally care more about staying rank and file, rather than looking at the over-arching picture. However, with the state of California in such a dismal state due to its record $42 Billion deficit, 20,000 jobs on the line, and countless construction projects being placed on the back burner, Republican Senator Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria crossed the line and cast the deciding vote to approve the budget plan.
TLL applauds Sen. Maldonado for having the juevos to take such a risky career step and break the political norm, as it may jeopardize his political future. However, it would be pointless to stay within party lines in the midst of such a crisis. Though nobody likes tax increases, California is flat broke. With such a huge deficit, the state would be unable to continue to fund its own programs unless something was done about it. And since no state is allowed to go into debt in order to pay for programs, California needed to bridge that ever-growing deficit somehow. $42 billion is a lot of money to owe. Here are some important budget details for you to look over (please note that much of the budget remains shrouded in mystery by some fat politician’s ass, or Arnold’s biceps):
Noteworthy Budget Points:
- Sales tax increase by 1%
- Surcharge on state income taxes
- Increase in vehicle-license fees, from 0.65% to 1.15%
- Elimination of two state holidays (Oh no!)
- Elimination of $15 billion in spending, including around $8.6 billion from education
Now, although I believe it was probably necessary to pass something, I do not agree with many of the details of this budget. As Lt. Gov. John Garamendi notes, this budget is merely a short term solution to a long term problem. The increase in taxes in the areas listed will merely postpone the bleeding out of what is not merely an open wound, but a wound that is hemorrhaging profusely. California’s government has failed its constituency, and the biggest losers will be our children (as if burdening the next generation with trillions in bailout debt wasn’t enough, we have to make them stupider to boot).
“No, I’m…doesn’t!” – Philip J. Frye
The nation’s largest University system will suffer the most as a result of the budget plan. With such huge slashes in the education budget, concessions will have to be made amongst the CSU institutions to deal with the shortfall, on top of last year’s $386 million in education cuts. State University fees will likely be increased. Further, California’s University of California system will also be forced to make even further changes to its admission policies, going beyond simply lowering the number of incoming freshman they can accept. California’s kids are set to become even dumber the way this budget treats education. And that is flat out sad. On a more positive vibe relating to education, at least some of the Federal stimulus money has been allocated to educational spending. The thought pattern must have been that, since California is set to receive federal stimulus money to be allocated to education, slashing state funding for education was kosher. However, with the American education system in shambles, educational spending ought to be a much higher priority than what the knuckleheads in Sacramento seem to think. Schools in California are grossly over-crowded. Teachers are underpaid and disrespected. It is no wonder that California’s educational system has grown into a state of disarray. Obviously, the way to solve such a problem is to pull a jack-move on the paltry funding that education currently receives, and make it harder for educators to do their thing. If you detected a hint of sarcasm in there, kudos. And if you didn’t, well, you might be the unintended victim of California’s new “Dumb it Down” educational campaign. I hear they have a Lupe Fiasco California school system remix out.
Further failure on the part of California’s government includes their stunning lack of coordination with the Federal Government stimulus package. In certain areas, the new California budget is actually in direct opposition to the federal stimulus bill. Why did the world’s 6th biggest economy, one of the nation’s most important states, completely fail to work closer with our federal government? They realize how important California is to the U.S. economy and they may have been able to give valuable input on California’s situation. Instead, Arny decided to deal with the crisis himself, along with a few other hand picked politicians. The inability to ask for help is a sign of weakness. California’s governing body has just showed how weak they are…
With other developments sure to come, stay tuned for the second installment on California’s Economic Crisis, soon to follow.
-TLL
