California Screamin'

[marmar]

from LA Times:



California could be broke by July, state official warns
Despite the budget fix enacted in February, the state is on track to come up $23 billion short of what it needs to get through the year, the Legislature's chief budget analyst says.

By Evan Halper and Eric Bailey
10:26 PM PDT, May 7, 2009


Reporting from Sacramento -- California could run out of money as soon as July, the Legislature's chief budget analyst warned Thursday, as a new poll showed voters poised to reject five budget-related measures on the May 19 ballot.

If the propositions do not pass, the state could find itself as much as $23 billion short of the money it needs to pay its bills over the next year, according to a new forecast by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor. The poll, from the Public Policy Institute of California, found that even as voter interest in the ballot measures rises, all are trailing except the sixth one -- Proposition 1F, which would bar pay hikes for lawmakers in deficit years.

The other measures would provide the state with as much as $6 billion in the coming year through borrowing against the California State Lottery and temporarily reducing some social services.

One proposition, 1A, which barely one in three likely voters supports, the poll shows, would extend recently enacted tax hikes until 2013, plumping state coffers by another $16 billion. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-budget-crisis8-2009may08,0,7342537.story

[liberalhistorian]

1. Isn't this one reason why they got rid of Gray Davis?

I thought Ahhh-nold was supposed to be the Golden Boy Savior? So much for that bullshit tripe.

[omega minimo]

2. The worst part of any California disaster is having to watch the Gubernator try to talk about it.

Painful

[panader0]

3. Legalize weed, tax it=budget surplus.

[Cha]

4. Oh, and legalize

Gay Marriage.

[Rage for Order]

6. Doubt it

If it's legal, what's to stop people from growing their own for personal consumption? That's what I would do...hypothetically, of course :)

That said, it should still be legalized to take the burden off of the criminal justice system. That would save some money, but it wouldn't balance the state budget.

[MisterP]

5. Musclehead's Props are quite neoliberal: his argument is,

"education and retirement are better served by balancing the budget, at the expense of actual education and retirement budgets"
like the time Tanzania decided to reduce how many were dying in hospitals--by imposing user fees that reduced hospital attendance!
and how much did he blow on the 2005 special elections? $50M?
and he (and Lockyer) gave up $7B Enron owed the state