Nothing could be more absurd than this state. Anyone of just average intelligence knows that in order for California to provide services, taxes HAVE to be raised. That such idiotic initiatives like Proposition 18, or even the ability to reject anything Sacramento enacts, could have ever passed shows how dysfunctional this place is. Now all of these silly juvenille things must be repealed to California can be governed. If Californians themselves - to whom many of the wealthy belong - are, as the author says, unable to grow up, Washington must take over the parenting until they do.

The democratic process as it is practiced in most parts of this country doesn't allow 34% of the policymakers to have as much power as 64% like they do in California.

Yes, you pay taxes in California but they're artifically low.

But be my guest. Rejoice in the success of republicans to force the destruction of your state government. See if the power brokers and corporations will provide the services you need without charging you more than the taxes would have been. Then you'll still complain.

Conservatism is a disease of the soul and mind.

California's sheer size allows people to settle into such disparate groups; they don't have to deal with each other. In a smaller state compromised would be forced by sheer propinquity.

concise and accurate

thanks much

Trainman

And others complain about pensions quite often. What they don't want to admit is that pensions are part of the compensation that each worker is due; State and University workers accept a salary that is less than industry average in return for deferred compensation, i.e., a pension. If you want to get rid of pensions, then be ready to pay higher current wages.

It may be that those who complain the most are part of the "I don't want ANY government" faction, but at least recognize that pensions are not the evil that you think.

Just look at how Democrats gave in and pandered to Republican fear-mongering on crime.

We have to get the law enforcement vote blah blah blah.

Law enforcement always wants more money. The Democrats decided the most expedient path to power was to give it to them.

But that investment didn't turn out to pay off.

That's because prison is not like education. The people you get out are almost never better citizens than the ones you put in.

How many senior citizens on fixed incomes would have lost their homes of 30+ years during the crazy housing bubble of the Bush years? Suddenly your modest 2 bedroom built in 1968 is worth $800,000? Huh? How could a retired widower afford those new propery taxes?

Divide the deficit by the population of California and by 52 weeks in a year - result? $12.50 per week per person. That's how little extra tax money is needed to solve this deficit. Of course I myself will be paying *less* tax soon as I work for the University of California and we're about to have our wages slashed.

we've been brainwashed by the anti tax propaganda of the right and bought the lame argument for too long.

Prop 13 was the beginning. Now we don't have money for essential services that everyone benefits from. If you like your libraries fire departments and schools taxes are the club dues that pay for services and infrastructure.

I personally believe certain essential services like health care and education are a right not a privalege. The investment in these is cheaper in the long term - prison populations decline as standard of living is improved. The truth is if you don't pay going in you pay double going out. For example the banking crises that sucked our treasury dry. The cost of housing inmates who given better prep may not have wound up on that track. Investment in renewable energy to create a new industry and combat Global Warming which trumps all of the above. Face it, when the polar caps melt we'll all be nostalgic for the Bush administration!

We have to get off the selfish track - raise our taxes if we must and stop being delusional. Pull together and envision a workable future. What other choice do we really have?

....and I am saying it again, because Gary Kamiya didn't even mention it in his essay:

Term limits is what caused this mess. Its because of them that we are being governed by a bunch of amateurs who don't have anything but their own self-interested ambition to consider.

It's not the "right wing" (ie. fiscally responsible leaders) who have created this mess. It's been the spenders, the "left wing" that wants CA to be all things to all people. They are the ones who have created this.

If it weren't for the responsible ones, who hold the line on ever more taxes (we are already taxed to a hilt) CA would be totally unworkable for productive people at all...instead of merely being 49th in business friendliness.

Let me illustrate: In 2000 the budget was 100 billion. In 2008, a mere 8 years, they were spending 140 Billion, a full 40% more in all of CA history in a mere 8 years. And no, our population did not increase that much either...it was simply rabid spending in the face of the tech and real estate boom...of course they don't save for a rainy day....just want to spend and spend.

Well the day of reckoning is here and finally the politicians, who were so stupid and led us to this, are being embarrassed and MUST cut to fix the mess they created. IT's a good thing and CA has a chance to come back but only with better habits.

CA's attitude has been to tax and "make suffer" the productive, the job creators, businesses, the non criminal...they are so foolish. It is these people, the givers, the producers, the good citizens who take nothing who they should be worshipping because all benefits come from them. So stupid.

They are a necessary evil. When a person is forcibly parted with the product of his/her labor, that is a serious infringement upon liberty and should not be undertaken lightly.

And for those of you who disagree and think taxes are too low, there is no problem - simply pay more until you think it right. But that's not what pro-tax folks want; they want OTHER people to pay for their brilliant ideas. Some virtue, that.

Per the Constitution, our government is here to protect us from crime and foreign powers, not wipe noses and mend injustice. It is a pity that this is being destroyed in an attempt to turn the US into a limp facimile of Europe, from which paradise most of our ancestors fled in search of freedom, economic prosperity, and reduced government interference in their lives.