Irresponsible State Legislators & California’s Fiscal Hole
On Sunday, while participating in a rally in support of Israel outside the federal building in Westwood, my former State Assemblyman Paul Koretz approached me, asking for my support in his current bid for LA City Council. While I wondered at the appropriateness of his campaigning at the event, I took advantage of his approach to question his fiscal record.
First, I saw his current bid for elective office undermining the whole notion of citizen legislator. Some people just have to keep running for office.
When I moved to Southern California, Koretz was serving on the West Hollywood City Council. In 2000, he ran for and won a seat in the California General Assembly. Term-limited out in 2006, he announced shortly thereafter that he was running for LA City Council–which required him to move just so he could make another bid for elective office.
So, back to his fiscal record. Given that California faces record budget deficits, I asked him if he had done anything to contain the size of state government. He mumbled something about some expenditure he had looked into or some such. I wondered whether he pressed the governor to dismiss the state employees hired during Gray Davis’s tenure in office, the point being that even as state revenues have declined, the size of the government has grown.
I reminded him of the difficult choices my brothers have had to make during the economic downturn, having to lay off employees so they can keep their business afloat. Shouldn’t a state make a similar choice if it faces a revenue shortfall?
But, for the “past eight years,” to borrow an expression, in the Golden State, our elected officials have done little to cut state spending. Instead of working to cut spending, Koretz introduced a resolution to impeach the president, something beyond the purview of a state legislature.
It’s not just in Washington where Democrats (and alas Republicans as well) don’t see deficits as an impediment to new government programs.
As the state faces a budget shortfall, Koretz’s Democrats have devised a plan to raise taxes by calling them “fees” so as to bypass the state’s constitution’s requirement of a two-thirds vote in the legislature to hike taxes. Responsible legislators would cut spending, but California Democrats want to increase it.
And this is what bothers me about so many professional politicians, particularly here in the Golden State. They see it as their business to keep growing government, and refuse to accept the fiscal reality that most business owners deal with on a day-to-day basis: when your revenues are down, you reduce your expenditures.Â
California legislators have not seen fit to cut spending. And our governors, even Schwarzenegger who ran against the spendthrift Davis, have let them get away with the profligacy.
The governator wouldn’t be approaching president-elect Obama with a tin cup, begging him to bailout our nearly-bankrupt state if he had done a better job of holding the line on state spending. And if our state legislators didn’t see government programs as the solution to every social programs and necessary payoffs to every interest groups.
15 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
When I lived in L.A. the state had a recall election and I was happy to cast my vote for Arnold and was happier that he had won. I was confident that he would keep his promise to put the California´s fiscal house in order. Now it seems like it is back where it started. Could it be that Maria has infected him the Democratic fine art of spending?
Comment by Roberto — January 15, 2009 @ 10:18 am - January 15, 2009
Dan, a career politician is a career politician is a career politician. It doesn’t matter if you are in LA or Houston, these people have no other aspiration except perpetual power. Makes me wish that James Madison had put term limits in the Constitution (fortunately, we have them here in Houston at the local level).
If I had been there, I would have asked this political wannabe if (a) he had ever run a business before, (b) if he had ever had to meet a payroll or provide health care for his employees and (c) how he could run a business without anything other than profit without government assistance.
If he had flunked this 3-part test, he would not have gotten my vote. Period.
I know several current and former career politicians here in Houston and at the state level in Austin. They are nothing more than a bunch of high-priced hookers. As my Dad likes to say, “these guys/gals have to promise everything and deliver nothing.”
Needless to say, I don’t ever want to be put in that kind of position.
Plus, I agree with you – politicking at a protest is not exactly kosher. Sounds like whoring for votes to me.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 15, 2009 @ 10:53 am - January 15, 2009
The situation will not improve so long as productive people are driven out of the state, replaced by welfare sponges.
Meanwhile, not only will I not relocate to California (although I get regular offers to do so), I also have to add Colorado, Arizona, and Utah to states I won’t move to because the locusts who screwed up California bring their voting patterns with them when they’re done besh1tting their own nest.
Comment by V the K — January 15, 2009 @ 11:37 am - January 15, 2009
Don’t even get me started on this topic.
This whole thing suck for me, as I just got my CA teaching credential, and now just when I’m looking for a job, teachers are getting laid off because of the budget mess. And once Feb roles around, when the state is projected to run out of money, it’s going to get much worse.
I saw a stat a couple of weeks ago that said spending increases under the Squirminators tenure has been much higher that those under Grey Davis, the big spending lib he replaced via the recall. And I have no confidence that the current leadership in Sacramento (in that’s what you want to call it) is completely incapable of making the hard decision necessary to fix the current fiscal crisis.
You have to remember, this has been building for years. They have gotten around the budget mess by using procedural gimmicks and issuing emergency spending plans to compensate. Here is an example. When the last budget was passed, they had a unique source of income added to the revenue. As many of you know, California uses state lottery revenue to pay for education expenditures. In order to find a quick source of cash, the Govenator proposed to sell the lottery to a private company. That didn’t wash, so they did the next best thing, they used money borrowed against future Lotto earnings to help fill the budget gap. That money is in the budget and already being spent.
But there’s a catch.
The cash being spent not does not even exist yet. You see, in order to borrow against the Lotto, the state has to issue a bond, which must be approved by the voters via initiative. This bond measure wont be up for vote until March, and there’s no guarantee that the bond will earn voters approval. So the state is spending money it doesn’t even know it will get. Pretty nifty, huh.
You know, each summer, I install a pool heater and earn $600 or so. So, when it comes time to pay my sales tax, do you think the state will allow me to pay with money I don’t have yet??? Probably not.
Comment by sonicfrog — January 15, 2009 @ 12:01 pm - January 15, 2009
Sonic, do I dare ask how you feel about getting an IOU for your state tax refund?
Comment by V the K — January 15, 2009 @ 1:10 pm - January 15, 2009
On a side note, will Dan write about the Death of Khan?
KHAN!!!!
Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 15, 2009 @ 1:59 pm - January 15, 2009
#6 – TGC, you mean “Mr. Roarke.”
“De plane, de plane!”
RIP Ricardo Montalban.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 15, 2009 @ 2:04 pm - January 15, 2009
I think I can bring these two topics together, TGC:
Here in California, we’re being, “Buried aliiiiiiive! Buried aliiiiiive!”
Comment by Draybee — January 15, 2009 @ 2:06 pm - January 15, 2009
‘Fantasy Island’ is where the Democrats go to develop fiscal policy.
Comment by V the K — January 15, 2009 @ 2:14 pm - January 15, 2009
The crappy remake version.
Comment by sonicfrog — January 15, 2009 @ 2:18 pm - January 15, 2009
The state’s problems, in my opinion, can be traced back to the 2005 ballot initiative elections here — primarily due to the rejection of Prop 76, and to a lesser extent Props 74 and 75 in the same year.
After that, I think, Schwarzenegger just quit trying.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — January 15, 2009 @ 2:22 pm - January 15, 2009
The other problem is how truly divorced from reality the halfwits in Sacramento are. They are appointing leftover legislators like Carole Migden and Sheila Kuehl to half-time positions on meaningless government boards for six-figure salaries.
While she sold her Land Park home in Old Sacramento, Kuehl will still be spending plenty of time in the capital. Her appointment to the Integrated Waste Management Board will require her to regularly fly back to Sacramento for meetings.
She scoffed at criticism that the job is merely a plum political assignment and a way for her to continue to draw a state salary. Members of the board are paid $132,178 a year.
Meanwhile, they want to impose crushing taxes on businesses and people who actually WORK and make six-figure salaries.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — January 15, 2009 @ 2:27 pm - January 15, 2009
#12 – ND30, looks as though the Governator stated in his State of the State speech that he is not going to put up with legislative bickering:
“We should make a commitment that legislators – and the governor, too – lose per diem expenses and our paychecks, for every day the budget goes past the constitutional deadline of June 15th.”
“If the people’s work is not getting done, the people’s representatives should not get paid either,” he added.
(H/T Townhall.com)
Hear, hear!
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 15, 2009 @ 4:08 pm - January 15, 2009
Unfortunately, as soon as he tried to do this, the legislature, the unions, and the comptroller would all sue to stay the order.
Comment by sonicfrog — January 15, 2009 @ 4:38 pm - January 15, 2009
Ooooh! Thanks for the assist!
Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 15, 2009 @ 7:00 pm - January 15, 2009