Jan 26 2009
There is still no solution!!!
It is late January. According to the best estimates, the state runs out of money at the end of the week.
And there is still no budget solution.
What are lawmakers doing? They are in negotiation - or so their staff members say. I assume they are also sleeping and eating, answering phone calls, dealing with lobbyists and other people, and working on legislation that they want passed.
When you have a serious problem, you devote ALL your attention to it until it is fixed. These guys should be put in a room and locked in until they come with a solution. Sometimes the best way to come up with a solution is to work on it until you have one. That is not what the legislators are doing.
Maybe it is because the solutions do not affect them. I am not sure most of them would feel an increase in the sales tax, the car tax or anything else they want to raise. They won’t feel the cuts they want - and need - to make. Instead, they are insulated from the severity of the problem while they remain in Sacramento.
I don’t argue that cuts need to be made. But the cuts the legislators are looking at do not strike to the heart of the problem.
The problem is that California overspends. We overspend on programs that include illegal immigrants. Commissions and boards - and the salaries that go to commissioners and board members - need to be cut. Do we really need all of them?
The claim is that it is too hard to find waste in government. I disagree. Cut jobs. Many departments have vacant positions all the time. Cut those positions, and slash the budgets of departments accordingly. Make departments hold up to private sector ratios. If the private sector has 2 accountants for every 100 workers, then the state should be held to the same standard. I can tell you that most HR offices in the state are overstaffed and a waste.
A principle that doesn’t seem to be understood in this mess is that a solution has to be found. The debt cannot continue to rise.
At some point people are going to move out of the state. It becomes cheaper to live on unemployment and social security in the midwest than it is in California. Maybe we should create a program to move all our low-income/state-income dependant people to the midwest? That would solve part of the problem 
We need creative solutions - and permanent ones.
It just seems that no one is doing anything about the solution, and only talking about the problem.
