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
Amorphous Thoughts 
To learn more about California’s budget-making process try the California Budget Challenge. The Challenge allows you to create your own version of the state budget-deciding what to spend and what to tax. You can then alert your legislators and the governor of the policy choices you made. It’s a great way to learn about the trade-offs involved. Try it! http://www.next10.org/challenge
Thanks Soph575, for sharing the site.