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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCalifornia Is No Longer Your Crazy Deadbeat Uncle
This is what happens when you let Democrats govern. . . California's credit rating has been slashed to junk-bond status, and citizens are advised to stock up for the not-too-far-off day when cigarettes and Botox become the hard currency of choice. At this stage, we couldn't give California back to Mexico. Ann Coulter, 2003
For the past few decades, making fun of California has been a favorite pastime of conservatives and, for that matter, just about everybody. We're either the Libertine State (Ganja! Gays!), the Nanny State (Eat your fruit before you get your Happy Meal toy!), or a redoubt of ecofascism. (AB 32: the horror!) But more than anything, we're just perpetually brokethe governmental equivalent of Annie Liebovitz or Mike Tyson. And regarding that Ann Coulter actually speaks the truth. Well, except for the part about blaming government by Democrats.
Anyone passingly familiar with the nation's most populous state knows that our budget woes trace back to Proposition 13, a ballot initiative that cut and capped property taxes and required a two-thirds vote to pass any future tax increases. This, in turn, kicked off a nationwide tax revolt that ended up installing former California Gov. Ronald Reagan in the White House. Since then, California has trended more Democratic than the rest of the country, but that hasn't mattered: A minority of Republicans in the state legislature have held up all efforts to patch the gaping revenue hole left by Prop. 13and more recently the foreclosure crisis and recession. As Kevin Drum noted yesterday, in 2007 California spent $3,100 per resident out of its general fund. Today that's down to $2,400.
Here's the good news: The nationwide tax revolt that started in California appears to be ending in California. Yesterday state voters passed Proposition 30, a ballot measure that raises sales taxes and income taxes on the wealthy in order to prevent $6 billion in cuts to schools and services. And even more surprisingly, voters apparently have elected a Democratic supermajority to the state Senate and Assembly for the first time in many years, finally giving Democrats the ability to overhaul the Golden State's tarnished tax code. In short, California might not be a national laughingstock much longer. With the fiscal cliff fast approaching, that honor may soon go to Washington.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/california-prop-30-supermajority
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,712 posts)I was exceptionally pleased to see Prop 30 pass. And the supermajority is just the icing on the cake!
And our weather is just plain superb...
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)state university system was the envy of the nation until the sad effects of Prop 13 began eating it alive. I'm old enough to remember when education was valued above all else but then Tax cuts became the opiate of the masses in America and it's all been downhill since.
As all trends seem to begin in California, this is indeed good news.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)and be able to eat it as well. Every time someone says tax cuts fools salivate, but the phrase makes me see red.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)to pay for the program.
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)flamingdem
(39,328 posts)but there is still enough left to revive it
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)Rick Scott is doing his best to screw over the state university system here in FL....miserable worm that he is.
on point
(2,506 posts)During that little looting episode under the rethug deregulation of the eletricity market.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)I knew Enron had really screwed over CA, but I never knew the amount was equal to your debt. All of it unrecoverable right?
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)long term plan.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)We had a surplus before Eron fucked us over. Then that jerk Issa got the recall going. Then Arnie settled for pennies on the dollar.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)It was a consortium of 4 out-of-state energy companies that were screwing over the state. And to add insult to injury, Dick "Dastardly" Cheney rubbed it in your faces, claiming it was the state's fault for "not deregulating enough", while his sidekick, G. "Muttley" Bush, refused to provide federal assistance.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0322-11.htm
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)There was an entire consortium trying to drag down California to diminish our liberal asses.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)fill out their absentee ballots in Cali this year.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)shakes his rotting fist at you tax-and-spenders. And if my nose is not mistaken, I believe he is also passing gas. No doubt it is a furious cloud of angry miserliness.
caveat_imperator
(193 posts)and suffer crippling depression because of it.
Good luck, California!
Catch2.2
(629 posts)Let's hire more Firefighters!
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]n/t
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)I'm finally recovering from my Yes on 30 campaign stress. And that 2/3rds majority is incredible too.