When you’ve been following politics as long as I have — I still remember the 1964 presidential election, when I was 9 and valiant Barry Goldwater lost to the ogre LBJ — some things become inevitable.
In California, here’s the budget pattern: The wastrels in state government max out the state’s budget. A recession hits. Some cuts are made. But they’re not enough. So taxes are increased. That crashes the economy even more. The budget gets even worse. Even more drastic cuts are made. Taxpayers get sick of the high taxes and enact an initiative cutting taxes.
The process repeats itself.
Now that I think of it, it’s sort of like the plot of Arnold’s movies. I’ve seen almost all of them and, except for “Terminator I,” in which he played a villain, they all have the same plot, with Arnold being bested until the end, when he wins. So after raising taxes this year, watch for him to back a tax-cut initiative in 2010, when he runs for the U.S. Senate.
Anyway, the Chronicle reports on the plot of the budget:
As state lawmakers carry on a raging debate over how to solve California’s fiscal crisis, they agree on one thing: The situation is getting worse.
The budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1, which was estimated two months ago to be at about $8 billion, is now expected to widen to as much as $14 billion….
For the upcoming fiscal year, the deficit is expected to be “at least $11 billion; $12 billion to $14 billion is probably the right range,” Ducheny said.
With the fiscal crisis deepening, many legislators agree that cutting expenses may not be enough by itself to balance the budget, and that generating additional revenue through taxes and/or fees will probably have to be part of the equation….
“You won’t have a lot of time to dither,” said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. “If we don’t get this budget done during the middle of the summer, we’re going to be broke.”
Wouldn’t that be nice if the whole state government — followed by the feds and the locals — shut down permanently. Then these wastrels would stop robbing me. But it ain’t gonna happen.
For what will happen, watch any of Arnold’s movies.
Posts
