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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

California's Woes

I like living in California and I hope to continue to be able to live in California. However, if taxes are raised enough, I will feel compelled to leave for a lower tax jurisdiction in order to better provide for my family.

California is having some serious problems governing itself. As Megan McArdle wrote:
California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. ... You can blame Republicans who won't pass a budget, or Democrats who spend every single cent of tax money .... You can blame the initiative process, and the uneducated voters who try to vote themselves rich by picking their own pockets. Whoever is to blame, the state was bound to go broke one day, and hey, today's that day!
We had a bunch of ballot initiatives to vote on yesterday, and while I got held up and didn't make it to the polls before they closed, I would've voted with the "uneducated" majority against tax increases had I been more timely. To vote for tax increases would mean that I'd be more likely to have to move so it would seem rather pointless to me.

I feel that the voters should set the budget and then the governator and legislature should figure out how to operate within that budget. They should choose which jobs and services to cut and they should get started now. Far fewer teachers, police, firemen, bureaucrats, etc. That I'm willing to live without.

6 comments:

erp said...

I hate to bring up the U word, but isn't California burdened with entitlements and contracts which are inviolate.

If Arnold can figure a way out of this, perhaps there'll be hope for the rest of us.

Bret said...

Yeah, pensions, unions, etc. are a substantial problem.

I'm worried that the State will decide it owns my house. Or, more accurately, that the creditors of the State will decide that the State owns my house when the State defaults on its obligations.

Does anyone know of any precedents one way or the other regarding that sort of thing?

erp said...

It couldn't have happened before Obama came along, but now?

Harry Eagar said...

Sure, I know lots of precedents. Orange County, Indiana.

Calm down, breathe deeply.

Bret said...

Indiana? What happened there.

Orange County is a radically different case. They weren't suffering from overwhelming obligations.

Harry Eagar said...

Went bust. Long time ago.

California is not inventing the wheel.