Thanks for the quasi props on my rationality before I descended into 5th grader status. Cabdriver and others on the pro-tax simple majority side your argument fails to calculate one important factor. California is not a closed system, it is not a sovereign country (although it sure seems like it wants to move in that direction) and it suffers from leakage by it's citizens when they have reached the breaking point. They simply move to another state and take their tax base and spending with them. There are large numbers of well to do Californians who are now declaring residency in other states to avoid paying ANY California income taxes. I have first hand knowledge of long term residents living out of state for 6 months and a day and living in CA the rest of the year. We lose 100% of the revenue! Is that insane or what? Unless CA wants to succeed from the union and force people to choose between the state we love and our country it is on a path to financial ruin since it will never capture the taxes it is projecting.

Californians are oblivious. Those of you who live in California or are simply visiting. Talk to any passer by on the streets in your look hamlet, village, town or city about the budget crisis I can guarantee you that they would not be able to name their local state legislator let alone show any awareness concerning the $25 billion hole they are in. I remember asking my otherwise well informed elder cousin why he paid politicians on the local and state level so little attention. His answer. "I know this isn't the brightest of notions, but I'm of the opinion that thats just their job." And this an example of the amazing willful ignorance that in my opinion has lead to California's troubles. Simply put democracy can not function properly unless the people do their part, make the time, expend some effort properly informing themselves about what is happening in their local and state gov't.

These "cuts" are too little, too late. Just as with Global Warming--we should have started cutting emissions long ago, likewise California long ago should have trimmed spending in a responsible manner.

Their deficit is larger than most states' entire budgets--that's just ludicrous. The problem with the cuts here are just like cuts everywhere: they target the politically weak instead of being balanced and fair, and they're not deep enough.

The 2/3 majority requirement is a great start. The fact is, California's tax burden is nearly the highest in the nation despite the 2/3 rule.

The fact is, tax rates should never go up. States have it easy, they just tax by skimming off the top. As the economy grows, then tax revenue grows. That should be enough, period.

It's too bad all states don't have such a rule.

They could shave handouts by a fraction of 1% and pay for the parks with the money. This is just crazy.

And why the hell do they CLOSE the parks, instead of just shutting down the services? You don't CLOSE roads even as you're cutting the pothole repair budget. It's just a scam to provoke people to call for more taxes.

The great advantage of this present crisis, like hanging, is how it will concentrate the mind. In all the years I have lived in California, its overwhelming beauty has overwhelmed any rational awareness of its bedrock problems.

We are home to some of the greatest universities in the world (Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, CalTech and a dozen more); to the single greatest engine of the modern tech economy (Silicon Valley, located between San Francisco and San José); to the homes of bio-tech, nano-tech and entertainment tech; and, above all, home to the notion that at the end of the west reinvention is still possible. Every American believes in this.

Unfortunately, we also believe that someone else will solve our problems. This kind of narcissism may be more pronounced here than in any other state. And it is killing us.

Prop 13 and Three Strikes has proved the catastrophe predicted. AND: we have run out of water, and cannot sustain our population. (Read 'Cadillac Desert' and be horrified...) Los Angeles is not a city at all. It is a loose confederation of shopping centres, making mass transit impossible. The Central Valley is drying up, and salinating, and with it our massive agricultural economy. And on it goes...

A state constitutional convention owes us this much: the repeal of the Initiative process, and of the 2/3 budget rule. They have proven fatal. In time, Prop 13 must also be repealed. The municipal tax base is utterly distorted and infeasible.

Meantime, the coming cuts will -- for all their pain -- prove salutary. We've been living off our capital (intellectual, artistic, geographic) far too long. Time to put more into California than we take out.

Prop 13 was a disaster from day one because it was poorly written by "citizen legislators" who only looked at the short term results, i.e., cutting property taxes. This piece of crap legislation is the perfect example of why the Founding Fathers of our country worked so hard to keep the running of government out of the hands of the great unwashed rabble. Fortunately, their efforts have managed to hold true for the national government in spite of all attempts to turn the country into a total democracy. It's bad enough that Senators are directly elected or the electoral college is a cracked mirror reflection of the popular vote.

I live in California and watch with amazement as the Legislature can't seem to find its ass with both hands tied behind it even though the house is burning down. I watch while The Governator can't seem to lead, or follow, or even get out of the way. Arnold had all the answers (at least that's what he told us as we merrily recalled Grey Davis). Well, he doesn't have any more answers that Davis did because the power to govern has been stripped from our elected officials and put in the hands of the rabble and the minority. It's the French Revolution all over again (now all I have to do is find my knitting needles).