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California Struggles as President-Elect Obama Promises Aid to States – US News and World Report
This is a crisis within a crisis. California’s budget short fall is ridiculous. Ultimately, Californians need to do deep soul searching to figure out the root problem and curb it.
California Struggles as President-Elect Obama Promises Aid to States – US News and World Report
Dan Walters: California budget relies on sham revenue – Inside Bay Area
As I was coming back from my mailbox, my negighbor and I chatted about work. He told me he ‘took some days off’, but now he was going back. “Thank God”, he said “our budget is finally passed, did you hear” I smiled and nodded and went back to my house. As many other state workers here in Sacramento, my neighbor is relived that he is back to work. Bills are finally going to get paid, and the state has already begun scrambling to send out checks of back pay.
Is this really something to cheer about? I don’t think so. California tries to become innovator in many sector of our economy. We want to have stringent rules for the environment; we want to be pioneer in funding stem cell research etc… yet we cannot manage our spending. This budget does disservice to many part of our economy. Many social services suffer cuts. Schools’ spending limit is curbed. It still borrows money from future lottery revenue. Basically it puts a temporary band-Aid on our problem and defers solving the real problem for next year. More agony awaits next year as Democrats and Republicans battle it out over taxation and cutting funds from school. How a state, that cries over its poor performing schools, prides itself as a hub of technology is beyond me, but to not even have a budget that improves our schools that produce future engineers and scientists is a shame.
Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee says “ Nobody could have dreamed up a less responsible, more gimmicky, sure-to-backfire state budget than the one California’s political leaders cobbled together and were jammed through the Legislature on Monday night to end a months-long stalemate.”
Well, we finally have a budget. I hope our leaders have learned some lessons and they will be prepared to balance our budget for next year… Yet I’m not so optimistic…
Should voters take some of the blame? …
Dan Walters: California budget relies on sham revenue – Inside Bay Area
California’s budget crisis could have ripple effect
After a record past due, California legislators finally came out with a compromise yesterday regarding our state’s budget. Those who advocated for no extra tax seeming to be on winning end of this deal; however, we still have to wait and see if the governor is going to approve the latest compromise. Although this will fix our budget temporarily, in a long run, we are more likely to face similar problems unless the systemic problem is fixed. Perhaps this might be time where voters need to step in and fix how our state budget is handled. With the 2/3-majority rule, we are more likely to be facing similar problems year after year. Cutting from education and other important social services might not be a way to keep our local economy going. It is important to understand that education is the backbone of our economy. Globalization has made education one of the most important assets to have in order to have sustainable economy.
California is the worlds 5th largest supplier of food and agriculture. It is understandable that our economic crisis will have a ripple affect towards the whole nation. I spoke with most of my neighbors who were worried about their pay being cut the federal minimum. Temporary and contract workers have already felt the budget crunch, as they were the first to receive pink slips. Just as we thought the mortgage crisis is about to get better, having such issues is disturbing. .
California voters need to think hard work towards fixing our budget issues before our budget deficit gets even bigger!
Amorphous Thoughts 