There is some good news in California this weekend. We’re apparently about to be hit with a lot of rain. The television stations are saying we’ll get four to eight inches this coming week. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot when the average annual rainfall in Irvine is just over ten inches. The El Nino rainfall should help end the drought that’s hit Southern California (and the entire state). If only Mother Nature could help California’s budget.
That, though, isn’t going to happen. We still have the Democrats who want to tax our way out of the problem and the Republicans who want to cut [spending] their way out of the problem. When I took physics in college, the professor asked, “When the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, what do you get?” I now know the answer: California.
The Republican analysis of the budget situation is available. Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget hopes for $6.9 billion from the federal government. California’s Legislative Analyst, Mac Taylor, doubts we’ll see that money.
The problem is that this budget, and the budgets for the last several years, have used gimmicks, slight-of-hand, and everything but looking at the core issue. It’s simple, really: California spends too much money. We need to drastically cut government spending. This means that public employees need to get less, public employee pensions need to be cut, and staffing needs to be cut. Costs shifted from the federal government to California need to be shifted back to the federal government. It’s time to be realistic about what we have coming in, and not spend a penny more.
It really is that simple. Unfortunately, there’s almost no chance of the state legislature actually dealing with the issue. Instead, more gimmicks will be in the future.
