As I understand it, our economy is in such dire straights because most of the money in CA’s taxes leaves the state instead of staying in it.
I could be wrong about that. I am mostly dealing with facts I have obtained from Gov’t web sites, so the data could be skewed.
Your statement only deals with the management and not the fiscal reality of the cash flow in CA. It is true that we have a financial shortfall, but that could be the case with anyone, even if they made billions of dollars a year if all of that money was being taken by another party. No management in the world would be able to help in that situation.
Texas is another big tax donor state, yet they turn budget surpluses mostly. The difference is California doesn’t bother to balance their out of control spending with their revenues.
Texas, though, doesn’t contribute more to the US Budget than they get out, and… I hate to say this… Both GW Bush, and his predecessor in the Governors office did pretty good jobs managing the State.
During the Office of Rick Perry, they had some tremendous problems (I am from Texas, and technically, it is still a state of residence for some of my bills). Texas and California are however, the only two states (NY Possibly an exception, but only barely) that could really stand as an independent country in this day and age (They both did so in the past under very different conditions).
Upon thinking about it a bit. CA does have a more out of control spending problem. I still think that the problem could be remedied by a more equitable share of their Federal Tax money (not just Social Security) being returned to the state. Regardless of whether that happened, fiscal responsibility is needed. It doesn’t do any good to increase an income if the expenses rise disproportionately.
California’s uniquely awful budget crisis is mainly due to the state’s consitutional amendment that requires a supermajority to raise state taxes (and the fact that it’s never in the Republican minority’s political interest to agree to a tax hike), along with the lawmakers’ shortsighted tendency to cut taxes when the economy was in great shape.
I knew that I wasn’t imagining that bit about the Fed Taxing v spending.
I was also aware of the supermajority thing. Although, I wonder exactly how much of a Republican Schwarzenegger really is (I hope I spelled his name right. I can’t be bothered to find out). He has many beliefs about the rule of law and government that I find to be very at odds with the Republicans, and all I can really find that binds them together is his extreme misogynism and love of guns (alright, I could look further and find more, I am sure, but my point is that he is really a populist candidate/politician who just happened to land in the Republican’s back yard).
CA’s budget crises can also be traced to several Texas Energy companies (Does Enron mean anything to anyone) who gouged the state in all kind of manipulative practices during the late 90s/early 00s.
Also, never mind that California is responsible for around 12% − 14% of the USA’s total economy, or that we have a GDP, all on our own of around 2 trillion dollars (the largest in the USA, and I believe that we are right behind England or France in total GDP)… Yeah, never mind all that (to the naysayers of California).
That’s why California’s economy is 20 billion plus in the red. And has been for years. Fine fiscal management.
That’s why your governor has gone begging Washington for a bailout. Off of our backs, not yours.
You folks should secede. You’d save the rest of us from yourselves.
-- Born an bred in California, escaped the insanity as soon as I could.
As I understand it, our economy is in such dire straights because most of the money in CA’s taxes leaves the state instead of staying in it.
I could be wrong about that. I am mostly dealing with facts I have obtained from Gov’t web sites, so the data could be skewed.
Your statement only deals with the management and not the fiscal reality of the cash flow in CA. It is true that we have a financial shortfall, but that could be the case with anyone, even if they made billions of dollars a year if all of that money was being taken by another party. No management in the world would be able to help in that situation.
Texas is another big tax donor state, yet they turn budget surpluses mostly. The difference is California doesn’t bother to balance their out of control spending with their revenues.
Texas, though, doesn’t contribute more to the US Budget than they get out, and… I hate to say this… Both GW Bush, and his predecessor in the Governors office did pretty good jobs managing the State.
During the Office of Rick Perry, they had some tremendous problems (I am from Texas, and technically, it is still a state of residence for some of my bills). Texas and California are however, the only two states (NY Possibly an exception, but only barely) that could really stand as an independent country in this day and age (They both did so in the past under very different conditions).
Upon thinking about it a bit. CA does have a more out of control spending problem. I still think that the problem could be remedied by a more equitable share of their Federal Tax money (not just Social Security) being returned to the state. Regardless of whether that happened, fiscal responsibility is needed. It doesn’t do any good to increase an income if the expenses rise disproportionately.
Actually, Texas does contribute more than they get back. Texas gets 94% of federal tax contributions back. California gets 79% back.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/1397.html
Based on that map we can also see that more agriculturally focused states do well from federal tax dollars. I assume this is mostly farm subsidies.
You are correct about federal taxing vs. spending with respect to states.
California’s uniquely awful budget crisis is mainly due to the state’s consitutional amendment that requires a supermajority to raise state taxes (and the fact that it’s never in the Republican minority’s political interest to agree to a tax hike), along with the lawmakers’ shortsighted tendency to cut taxes when the economy was in great shape.
(N.B: it’s spelled “dire straits”.)
I knew that I wasn’t imagining that bit about the Fed Taxing v spending.
I was also aware of the supermajority thing. Although, I wonder exactly how much of a Republican Schwarzenegger really is (I hope I spelled his name right. I can’t be bothered to find out). He has many beliefs about the rule of law and government that I find to be very at odds with the Republicans, and all I can really find that binds them together is his extreme misogynism and love of guns (alright, I could look further and find more, I am sure, but my point is that he is really a populist candidate/politician who just happened to land in the Republican’s back yard).
CA’s budget crises can also be traced to several Texas Energy companies (Does Enron mean anything to anyone) who gouged the state in all kind of manipulative practices during the late 90s/early 00s.
Also, never mind that California is responsible for around 12% − 14% of the USA’s total economy, or that we have a GDP, all on our own of around 2 trillion dollars (the largest in the USA, and I believe that we are right behind England or France in total GDP)… Yeah, never mind all that (to the naysayers of California).