The Ungovernable State
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The Ungovernable State
California represents direct democracy gone horribly awry.
By Mark Gimein
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 - 12:00pm
Sit down and hold tight because we're headed toward adding one more casualty to the bailout ward: the state of California.
The citizens of California went to the polls this week (who knew you could vote in May?) and voted down all five of the ballot measures the Legislature had crafted to keep California solvent for the next several years. The effort to put together the compromise with bickering state legislators (mainly his own obstreperous fellow Republicans) had led California's Governator to every stratagem short of locking up the Legislature with nothing but bread and water until they could come up with a spending plan.
That compromise was already falling apart, thanks to state revenues running $8 billion below projections. Now, money the state counted on for this year, as well as $16 billion in taxes for the next three, is gone, voted down by the voters. For next year the state is a whopping $21 billion short. California's credit rating is the lowest of the 50 states. And it's back to the drawing board on the budget.
California's budget battles, and especially the recent vote, are as good a study as could be of how direct democracy can go miserably awry. Direct democracy, in this case, is the California habit—and for new taxes, which the Legislature can't enact without an essentially impossible two-thirds vote, de facto requirement—of submitting the big and small questions of government to the will of the people. If you live in California, you have the luxury of marveling about this up close. For those in any other state, the only words that come to mind are, "There but for the grace of God go we."
You can't really understand the lunacy of California government unless you actually take a look at the propositions on the ballot. On the other hand, simply trying to puzzle through them could easily drive you crazy yourself. But let's wade in anyway—with thanks to the Los Angeles Times, the League of Women Voters, and Balletpedia.org. Without those guides any effort to understand this would be beyond hopeless.
Prop 1A is a stellar example all by itself of what's wrong with voter-run budgets. It would have raised $16 billion in taxes over four years while also requiring the state to store more of the money from years of surplus for the busts that eventually come. Where you stand on the first of these depends on your politics. The second—saving more money in boom years—is one that pretty much any sentient being recognizes as a good idea. But too bad, down it goes with the rest of the package.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Comments
Comments on CA Voter Article
Mark It is wrong to blame this fisaco directly on the voters of California. The current system is structured so it is difficult to vote out current representatives. The CA legislature has consistently violated their responsibilities and without the direct imput of voters would have tripled property and business taxes, increase the state debt and continued to increase benefits for itself, the state union workers and illegal aliens. This downsizing will be extremely painful but if allowed to continue to its conclusion, CA will be one of the strongest in the nation. Sam
Response to Mark Gimein's article on California voters
As a California resident living through this budget fiasco, I must raise issue with Mr. Gimein's one-side argument of the big picture of voters in California. The article reads like a sob story for the legislature and blames the voters for not wanting to give more money to a group of people and governor who have squandered billions of tax dollars over the last 8 years on increasing services and ignoring any kind of rainy day fund.
The voters I know simply told the legislature to behave the same as the voters- live within your means and cut your expenditures to match your income reality. This is the alternative answer that voters have repeatedly voiced to their elected officials that you site in the article as missing. The reality of it is that the legislature refuses to accept this alternative and is looking to raise more money to avoid any cuts in programs.
California voters pay some of the highest property, personal income and sales tax in the country and have for decades but Mr. Gimein, you write this article as if the government is entitled to an endless stream of money despite the macro economic situation we are facing. I think it might be you who is in need of a dose of reality.
I invite you to publish my comments along side your article as a balanced approach to telling the story. I think your readers will appreciate a view from the inside.
Jay Helmer
Irvine CA
Prop 13 was a simple response
Prop 13 was a simple response to out of control gov't spending. The average citizen normally simply cannot fight the combined power of public sector unions, their clients, and other gov't hangers on. what else could they do? All the public has left are the bluntest of instruments to express disapproval. And now, CA has a 10% income tax and a 9% sales tax. And the state is out of money. How could that be, in the most successful state in the nation on so many levels? Simple - illegals. The CA politicians in DC have been, in general, some of the post pro-immigration and anti-border-enforcement politicos in the country. Well, now you have what you aksed for. Illegals driving up costs for government at every level - health care, education for their children, prisons, etc. And CA has more than any other state. Yet still, there is no howl of protest from the state citizens. It is as if you all are living in a dream. Or simply cannot perform the most basic powers of observation and reasoning. some of those citizens recently rejected all the tax hikes. They know that the problem cannot be solved by higher taxes. More and more illegals will absorb the benefit of higher taxes (although higher taxes will probably do more harm than good at this point, given how uncompetitive CA is and will continue to be compared to so many other locales). In any event, until illegals are kept out, and those that are here are sent home, the public has every right, and indeed obligation, to vote against raising taxes. The CA and national press are silent on the issue. Damn you all! Your children and grandchildren are being robbed of their birthright by your narcistic-feel-good political correctness that substitutes short term feel good ness for the hard decisions that need to be made. And your greed. CA has always been about 5-10 years ahead of the rest of the country on so many trends. The wave of government insolvency will be crashing to a town near you. Don't say you weren't warned.
California out of $
But California can't print $. So you go to DC where they print $ to get a fresh supply. Dream on. Solve your debt problems with more debt! What ever you do, do not face reality! Just vote for Pelosi!