Well, Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown of California, has come out with his budget plan:
California Governor Jerry Brown’s budget will cut spending by $12.5 billion, including as much as a 10 percent pay reduction for most state employees, aides said.
The plan, which Brown is to unveil today, will also raise $12 billion by retaining tax increases due to expire and making other modifications. Some of the revenue will go to cities and counties as part of Brown’s plan to transfer spending authority from the state to local governments…
So, Brown is proposing cuts which, as Mish points out, will solve 44.6% of California’s budget problems…and that is if the cuts are real, rather than fiscal hocus pocus. And where does Brown want to get the other 55.4% of the money he needs? From the unemployed, cash-strapped people of California, who will be asked to approve higher tax levels going forward. Want to take bets on the chances of that happening?
At best, Brown has bought himself 6 to 9 months of “extend and pretend” on the California budget. At the end of that time it will transpire that the cuts weren’t as much as advertised and that revenues didn’t come in at expected levels (even if Californians agree to the extended tax hikes Brown proposes)…and so California will be right back where it is now: teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
California’s government is bloated – it spends far too much money on things which government should not be doing. Even in areas where government should have a role, California spends too much on over-paid, union labor and on un-necessary and wasteful budgetary padding. You could reduce California’s budget by 50% and as long as you didn’t cut in to what people really need – police, fire, emergency medical, primary education – no one would ever notice…except when they started to notice California’s economic boom as the burden of government is lifted.
But, Californians didn’t vote for that. They vote for Jerry Brown, an uber-liberal government hack and matched him up to a legislature firmly under the control of uber-liberal government hacks. And so rather than the real spending reductions necessary, California will get bankruptcy on the installment plan.
Blogs For Victory 