Posts from ‘January, 2009’

At least some people in government are thinking straight.  A Sacramento judge Thursday gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the green light to furlough hundreds of thousands of state employees for two days a month, rejecting a union challenge that the governor exceeded his authority in issuing the December order.  This is great news, now people in [...]

It is now official.  The Franchise Tax Board has been told by State controller John Chiang (chung) not to send any more refund requests because his office will be unable to process them before Feb. 1st, dooms day.
In a world of tumbling stocks, zero percent interest rates, stimulus packages and out of control corporate spending California State leaders want to raise our taxes, [...]

California’s safety net is going broke.  The Fund that was established to help the state make it through a great depression scale correction in the economy is poised to go broke.  How is this so?  How could we have let our safety net be put on the back burner and forgotten only to fall apart [...]

After watching the Presidential Inauguration last night I got to thinking.  If many of the state leaders are in Washington attending inauguration festivities who is running the state?  Who is working on the budget? and who is figuring out how to solve the cash crisis forecasted by State Controller John Chiang to begin in February.  [...]

A proposal to raise the state tax on wine to a level more than six times higher..raise the tax on wine to 29.6 cents for a 750-milliliter bottle from 4 cents 
A six times higher tax on wine!  Not only are we depressed about the economy and our incompetent state leadership we will be forced to pay a [...]

Yesterday the governor gave is State of the State speed to both houses of representatives.  Unlike years before he did not focus on the plans for the next year he focused on basically telling the legislators that nothing should be done until the over $40 billion deficit in the budge is closed.   He urged representatives “to [...]

Come on, shouldn’t the leaders of California be setting an example?  
“The Legislature always needs to lead the way, as does the executive branch of government,” Steinberg told reporters.
So impose furloughs until you guys figure out how to cut 10 percent and layoff a few workers.  It’s an easy first step!
California Assembly, Senate wont impose furloughs - [...]

A decade of academic advancement due to class-size reduction, tougher curriculum, higher standards, testing, accountability and other reforms could be stalled — even reversed — by the necessity to cut spending.
Is this guy for real?  Over the past few decades education in California is gone in the toilet.  It is my opinion that this is [...]

Yesterday, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor suggested that we should call a special election and let the voters of california make a decision on if increasing taxes is OK.  Can California, or any organization, have an election where the majority acts in the best interest of the State even when this action might personally affect the majority in a negative way? [...]

After the governor vetoed the Democrats illegal budget plan he proposed a four legged solution.  The governor said that “the best way to solve our problems is with a balanced approach that is designed like a four-legged stool”.  The governor held a press conference telling the state about his stool, text and video can be viewed on his website.
The four legs are:

reduce spending [...]