A Nightmare Approaches – The 2012-13 Budget!

by Jack

With the arrival of the 2012 budget, most of our 50 states will generate over $48 billion dollars in red ink. This by itself will be a monumental economic crisis, but one state is far worse off than the others and it’s debt is so horrific it could send us into depression. That state with soooo much at risk, carrying more debt than any other state is….California. Big surprise, huh?

In 2012 California is expected to carry forward debt in excess of $8.2 billion and this will trigger at least $2 billion in automatic spending cuts. Despite this dire situation, the legislative analyst office (LAO) predicts the CA legislature will increase general fund spending by 12%. A large chunk of this 12% comes from two mandatory spending programs – making this spending beyond their legislative control. Proposition 1(a) requires repayment of a $2 billion dollar tax loan and Proposition 98 requires $5.6 billion be spent on education.

California is broke and threatening to drag down the nation.

Actually, California is worse than broke, we owe billions that we can’t pay. We will likely enter the new year short by over $14 billion. The years and decades of over spending, over committing to future obligations, has destroyed the most powerful state economy in the USA and the 8th largest economy in the world. When you consider all the great advantages CA has, great weather, excellent soil, abundant water, all kinds of natural resources, you must appreciate how hard its been to destroy this state. But, given their tireless efforts the democrats managed to do it and you have to give credit where credit is due. Even Greece is making CA jokes these days. By all means, blame the democrats, they’re the big culprits in this debacle because they control every state office and they’ve controlled the purse strings for almost a decade. But, there was a time when the GOP could have made some proactive changes when they had the chance, before the change in population demographics carried democrats into absolute power… forever.

Last month Gov. Brown signed a flurry of bills before Sunday’s deadline – most of them totally unnecessary written for special interests that paid for them, many were harmful, with few exceptions. (760 bills, 128 were vetoed) Betcha didn’t know we needed 760 new laws. You didn’t, but never mind that – you still have to pay for them.

To quote from the Orange County Register, “Beneficiaries, as usual, largely were unions, those seeking authority over others and pet constituencies. We give the governor credit for one law to limit government, although he seemed motivated by the wrong reasons. Mr. Brown signed Assembly Bill 353 to prohibit police from impounding automobiles when drivers’ only offense is driving without a license. Impounds by local governments feed their insatiable appetite for money, so it is good to limit them. Mr. Brown, however, more likely responded to lobbying on behalf of illegal immigrants, who don’t have driver’s licenses.

Unfortunately, Gov. Brown also signed AB131, the so-called Dream Act, which requires taxpayers to subsidize college costs for illegal immigrants even more than they do for some citizen students. Pandering to his base constituency, the Democratic governor signed Senate Bill 202 to require all citizens initiatives go on the ballot for November general elections. Democratic voters tend to turn out in greater proportion in November elections as opposed to the primaries in June.

Mr. Brown also signed AB506, a bill pushed by government unions to make it more difficult for municipalities to file for bankruptcy, and consequently more difficult to void costly contracts with public-employee unions.”

This massive fleecing of CA citizens, and the whole economic screw up isn’t entirely due to our incompetent state legislature, no, some of it is due to an incompetent Congress.
They gave us massive illegal immigration, unfunded mandates and they too misspent our wealth just like CA democrats.

Illegal immigration may be beyond the control of the state legislature, but, the lavish CA welfare benefits that acted like a magnet for illegals was sure not! We’ve helped create a welfare system here that is tops in the country, where chronic welfare cases from other states come just to get on our wonderful welfare, and yes of course this includes the illegals. We created the gravy train and they came to get it – who can blame them?

The federal government has been slow to reimburse this state for direct costs due to their failure to control the border. It’s estimated that 25% of the cost for Medical goes to payments for illegal aliens and it’s one of the many reasons why this state is broke and services are going to be cut.

Here’s just one of the many major problems we face in CA as taxpayers: Unions in California have driven up the state employee payroll far beyond what is fair and reasonable. We’ve been committed to promises for benefits we simply do not have the money to fund, despite being the most taxed state in the nation!

In little Chico the Chancellor for the state college makes (not earns) over $326k in salary and benefits and he’s about average some Chancellors are making well over what the President makes. Check out this link. No wonder tuition is up over 250%.

Granted, there are some state workers that are paid fairly and equivalent to their counterparts in the private sector in the area they live, but in way too many cases they are miles ahead of the private sector and this is one huge problem for taxpayers. Here’s another example: California prison guards can easily make six figures with a little overtime. They can retire at age 55 and can earn up to 85% of their last year’s salary for the rest of their lives. They also continue to receive very costly medical insurance. Most of us must go on medicare while we pay these state employees to have Cadillac plans we can’t afford. As further examples, many county executives earn a salary greater than the president. Our state legislature is the highest paid in the nation, which proves a great salary doesn’t guarantee great results.

California is about to default and the only place we can turn is to the feds, but they’re broke too. Obama’s has raised the debt by 41% and it’s still climbing. Even after the proposed cuts we’ll still be running a deficit. So then what do we do here in CA? The State has already raided our country coffers, they’re barely above water and by the state Constitution the legislature can’t raid them again.

It’s a very strong possibility that California could default on many of its contractual obligations and debts and in the process of defaulting….we could drag the nation down and start an economic collapse from coast to coast. CA plays a huge role in funding the federal government, …talk about too big too fail! CA is that and we may be too big to save. This is a legislative nightmare and one that was easily preventable if we had adults in charge instead of liberals.

The risks posed here are quite real, this is not fantasy speculation. The alarming facts of California’s pending bankruptcy are coming right from the State’s Legislative Analyst Office. Keep in mind, our legislators use the non-partisan LAO resource to create future budgets and determine the future impact of legislation. So, when the LAO says we’re headed for trouble and we’re out of money come 2012 – you better believe it.