Cali going broke

Joined: 18 Mar 2005 Posts: 256 Location: 3rd coast

So how are things out there? (I know Nofs resides in the Sunshine State.)

I remember when Arnold first announced on The Tonight Show in Aug. '03 that he was running for governor. Boy was he going to fix the mess created by Davis.

And now it's six years later. Guess it's easier in the movies, eh Arnie?

Not that I'm being snarky over your troubles, since here in the Lone Star State we're probably going to have to have an additional summer session. Our governor, a regular dim-wit, promises that various agencies here (Insurance Board, Department of Public Safety) will not get shuttered, even though the legislature has yet to find the money to fund them past 2010. State college tuition rates are still outrageous. Property taxes have gone up three times in five years for my neighbor. Galveston is slow to recover from Ike, and it wasn't even a Category 4 hurricane.

Feel free to give us your side of things if you live out in Cali. In Texas we may have to buckle down and do the same thing one day.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 8380 Location: Central CA

California is basically dead in the water... the minority that has been running the state since Proposition 13 passed 30 years ago has finally brought the state to its knees through the supermajority requirement that was built into it.

There is no way out... Arnie and the thugs in the yacht party are insisting that the vote on the 19th was a referendum against any taxes... it wasn't... and that the majority were voting in favor of cuts that will totally destroy the safety net for the working poor, eliminate health insurance for four million kids, deprive the elderly of... well, I've already lost 12% of my meager little less than 10k income and they aren't through with me yet. And no matter how many citizens sign petitions or try to stand up and tell them it's bullshit, that's not what we voted for, the governor, the minority in the legislature and worst of all, the damned corporate media refuse to listen.

And I'm telling you right now... what's happening here in California is what's going to happen to Texas and every other state in the union unless someone gets this under control and damned quick. We just got a head start on it due to Prop 13 and Enron.

A good place to get the skinny on what's happening here is http://calitics.com/ and bear in mind, when you're reading some of the stuff they're doing to California, there's a good chance that you're also looking at the future of your own state if you keep on electing the same lackeys and pawns of Wall Street to provide your governance.

Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 461

I consider myself financially conservative but even I have seen in looking at Prop 13 that it really doesn't make logically sense. We have something in mass that attemps to go somewhat half way but it too is flawed.

This might open up a can of worms but what if California did what Alaska did with oil. Meaning the state owns it. Some offshore drilling but the profits (like alaska) goes into a fund for the general public and everyone gets a check. The economy could get more into it, some jobs would be made and some more in tax coffers.

Does the state allow towns to add their own fees? That can add up potentially. Personally I like the way how NH is structured. Just have a state property tax (granted all the liquor stores also are owned by the state). There's no sales or income. One of the old basics of wealth was those that owned land...well this aims right at it.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 8380 Location: Central CA

Yeah the local jurisdiction can set certain fees for certain things but the problem is that in times like these, the state not only shuts off the grants and such to the local jurisdictions, they also confiscate a lot of the purely local revenues such as the property tax.

As for the oil thing... I'm not sure we could do what Alaska did because it would take a referendum and once again you'd run head on into the 2/3 requirement.

There are a lot of people... hell even little people like me... wracking their brains looking for a way around what's about to befall us. The trouble is that so many things were slipped by us when we weren't looking that there doesn't appear to be a way back now.

That's why I urge everyone to beware of any attempts to impose a super majority in their states. Majority rule may not always be be popular, especially with the minority, but in the overall picture, it's definitely preferable to to having 34% of the legislature... most of them from the Southern California area where Prop 13 originated and which has been robbing the rest of the state blind for years anyway... dictating policy over the heads of the other 66%.

Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 2110

HC, me thinks that Miss Hutchinson will give Rick Perry a run for his money. He's already miffed that she's thrown her hat into the ring. Be interesting to see who the top Democrat will be... Rolling Eyes

Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 1707

From a state suffering the after effect of Bush syndrome, not only nationally but locally, too......

Our governor is more concerned with his spray tan than how many school teachers will be laid off.

I still find it odd that a suck-up republican politican was so damned fast to stick his out for democratic money $$$ - and damned proud of it, too.

Go figure. I pay my taxes and the sheriff gives is buddies unexplained bonuses.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/morris-17521-court-guilty.html

I pay my taxes and the tax collector spends 60k a year for personal "business" travel.

And now, the states largest republican contributor has been brought up on charges because he and our state rep., along with the president of the local college - tried to slide 6 million through on a state bill - funding a flipping airplane hangar on the contributor's airport property - claiming it was a classroom.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/state-17695-jury-hearing.html
Evil or Very Mad

This country is in a big world of hurt.

Evil or Very Mad

I love republicans Evil or Very Mad

Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 461

To sort of explain a bit more about what we have in mass it can basically inflate housing prices or at least assumed housing prices.

There's the tax rate and the assesment.
The tax rate is not allowed to go up anymore than I think 2.5% (hense the name) unless people vote to override it. I'd say maybe 70% of the time there's not enough votes to override it. Well here's the thing though...the rate might not go up but if a town really wants the money assesments go up...even without improvements. So watching a house go up 10-30K a year in value is really false since it's what the government has implied. This would be like a car insurance company stating that a '97 corolla is a antique and thus needs a more expensive policy!

So when someone goes to sell their house and a potential buyer sees that it is selling for less than the assesment they might automatically assume something is wrong with it. I can understand that the market naturally will cause prices to fluxuate but in making it nearly always going up by default is illogical.

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