California's budget crisis much worse... says Jerry Brown

Don't you love it when you run for public office and you campaign on "reforms" and manipulate everyone into thinking that's what you're going to do...? Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger did, and nothing was reformed...

What about re-running for the public office that you held some twenty five years before, and campaign on "living within our means"... well Jerry Brown did, and it looks like "living within our means" might become "live in total poverty" soon enough.

It turns out that California Governor-elect Jerry Brown came clean yesterday, adding: "We've been living in fantasy land, it is much worse than I thought. I'm shocked..."

Oh my, I'm so shocked too!


But don't worry Governor Brown, the California Legislative Analyst Office said that the State will not go bankrupt and the Government will not collapse.

Yeah right.

You would think that something like this would at least force people to wake up to the grim reality that California is in. In a more common comparison, California's deepening financial crisis is of the magnitude that Greece is currently going through.

Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature made significant cutbacks to State programs, yet, it still faced a $20 billion budget gap, which in turn just last month, actually amounted to $25 billion because the Legislature under estimated some of those cuts. Of course that does not include the $200 billion California has in loans and other debts.

Business Insider had an interesting look at some of the other ridiculous spending in Sacramento that has gone on over the last several years:

- In the past 23 years, California has established 23 prisons (one per year) each costing roughly $100 million a year to operate; yet it only established one University, being UC Merced.

- To prove that we spend more money on illegal aliens, than we spend on improving our educational system, 23,000 teachers received pink slips in the last year, yet we spend $859 million a year on imprisoning illegal aliens.

- Seven of the most unemployed cities in the United States, are right in California.

- $500 million is spent each year on fire control

The situation is incredible. Now California is already having to rely on the Federal Government for some kind of bailout. Last month, Sacramento announced it would receive $40 million a day from Washington just to cover its unemployment benefits. 

Already, Governor Brown says California's deficit could rise to $28 billion over the next year and a half, and face $20 billion in State deficits through fiscal year 2015-2016. He and the State Treasurer are looking into cutting spending by 25% across the board, and even potential problems in California raising over $3 billion in costs associated to meet the mandates in President Obama's Health Care Bill. At the same time, he is exploring the option of raising taxes into his first year, which is the last thing he should even think about. That would rise the unemployment levels in California and perhaps force people into the brink of poverty. 

It is clear that the California State Legislature is the problem. They bow down to the unions and want spending for all their radical programs and other things that this State simply cannot afford any more. I'm sure that nearly 95% of them probably don't even read any of the bills they implement in Sacramento, and of course, they're supposed to be the ones that approve the budget each year, and probably that same 95% don't even have a clear conscious as to what they're doing.

The central spending problem in California is obvious: The cost of illegal immigration and funding to pension plans and benefits. Reform those two issues, and California's crisis can be reduced.

Whether or not Jerry Brown will actually see the writing on the wall and realize that this has to stop, is still unclear.

California is going to get ugly real fast… Part II

As many people already know, California has been experiencing severe financial problems for several years, and they continue to escalate. In the past year, California has struggled to find ways to solve the $20 billion deficit.

Now there is more grim news on the horizon. Seven days after the election in which the same ignorant voters in this State decided to re-elect the same morons responsible for destroying the economy of California and choosing not to vote for the propositions which may have helped prevent further damage financially, the California Legislative Analyst Office (LAO), announced that there will most likely be another $19 billion gap between revenues and spending in the State in the coming fiscal year.

Based on their non-partisan analysis, the LAO indicates that $6 billion will result in a shortfall in the $86 billion general fund spending plan that was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger on October 8^th. So what was already a $20 billion budget deficit has actually grown to the tune of $25.4 billion. In addition, $400 million in Medi-Cal savings is more than likely not going to happen because the California Legislature took too long to implement the plan and the savings ended up being too high than what was projected.

I’m sure incoming/returning Governor Jerry Brown is going to love to have to deal with this crisis when he takes the helm in January.

Mac Taylor, a legislative analyst with the LAO, says that California will most likely have to face budgets problems of $20 billion each year from now, all the way through fiscal year, 2015-16.

Incredibly, the LAO report believes that California “will not go bankrupt, and that debt payments will not go into default and the State government is not on the verge of collapse.”

Where have these clowns been in the course of the last several years? Do they (the Legislature and the LAO) not fully comprehend the seriousness of this matter? Do they not realize that there needs to be emergency cuts to severe problems in California like government worker programs, union and pension fund plans and the cost of illegal immigration, which are all major factors to California’s financial woes?

The officials in the California State Legislature have been beyond reckless with policies on spending, completely lazy when it comes to focusing on solutions, and it has gone far beyond the point to where the entire State has been unable to remain as a place to carry out its business, as they continue to leave in droves, and now, the State is having to borrow $40 million a day in payments, just to cover its 12.4% unemployment.

But this joke of a LAO report sincerely believes that everything is going to be fine, we’re not going to become bankrupt, despite the fact that the deficit has grown to $6 billion because the solutions to try and close those gaps will simply not pan out.

The truth of the matter is that Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Controlled State Legislature has had ample opportunities over the last several years to enact measures and address the State’s problems to help cut spending, and save tax payer money. They all vowed not to do so, and continued to support the programs that have since destroyed the State, and then they all stand around and wonder why the State is suffering horribly. It is hypocritical, and it is disgusting.

Once Governor Brown takes over in January and the new Assembly resumes, it will probably be the same business as usual. Ignore all the real problems and threats to California and come to the tax payers to bail out the problems that will be forthcoming. One of the problems in this State are the ignorant hypocritical voters that always whine and complain about how serious the situation really is here in California, but yet they continue to vote for the same idiots that have committed themselves to destroy it. Incredible and insane!

California should be added to the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest population of hypocrites!

It is going to get real ugly here in California

As a lifelong resident of California and despite that I am only 24 years old, I've seen California go through tough times. Maybe this sounds too premature to say someone my age and in my generation see California crumble year after year after year.

But the evidence speaks for itself:

We've had some of the worst Governors in both parties. Pete Wilson, a Republican, deregulated electricity. Then, after he left office, we get Democratic Governor Gray Davis, who threw California into a deficit crisis and we had rolling blackouts. The voters of California revolted in 2003, and threw Davis out as Governor. So then, we get this has-been famous actor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger who vowed to stop State spending and cut taxes.

What in the hell happened?

Schwarzenegger did absolutely nothing. He campaigned as the new 'Reform' Governor, and all of his reforms have proven to be total failures. He did not cut taxes, he raised them. In February, 2009, he joined Democrat Karen Bass, the Speaker of the State Assembly, Republican State Senator Dave Cogdill, Republican State Assemblyman Mike Villines and Democratic State Senator /President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg all came together in what they called a "bi-partisan compromise" to help close a portion of California's $42 billion shortfall.

How did they do this? Well amid the fact that entire State, being the seventh largest in the world's economy was pretty much (and continues) to tedder on the verge of bankruptcy, they all elected to raise everyone's taxes, after they pledged in 2006, that they would NEVER do such a thing to the people of California.

Instead of Governor Schwarzenegger asking the Democratic controlled Assembly to reform pension funds to the unions, and maybe do something about the illegal immigration crisis in California which in 2005 alone, the State spent nearly $12.5 billion in the costs of illegal immigration; they all decided to raise everyone's taxes. As a result, those four State representatives, two Democrats and two Republicans were awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile and Courage Award by Caroline Kennedy earlier this year. It's disgraceful.

Some of the other elected State representatives we've had in recent years have demonstrated that they are also a complete, utter embarassment. In addition to the traitors mentioned above, why don't we all have a flashback for a moment for some of the other corrupt politicans in California:

- Fabian Nunez (former Democratic State Assemblyman, former Speaker of the State Assembly): In October, 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that Nunez spent tens of thousands of dollars of our tax payer money for his own personal use including vacations, luxurious meals and entertainment. Despite an investigation, he was not convicted. Well, what a surprise.

- Anthony Adams (former Republican State Assemblyman): He also took a tax pledge, vowing to never increase anyone's taxes in his district, but did it anyway. The people in his district started the recall paperwork, but failed.

- Michael Duvall (former Republican State Assemblyman): He was caught on tape in July, 2009 to admitting he had affairs with two women and even went into details about the sex with both of them. He resigned in disgrace.

- Roy Ashburn (Republican State Senator): He represents my district in Kern County, and I actually know Roy Ashburn very well and was a political friend of my family. Well, despite the fact that he was married and has two daughters, people always accused Senator Ashburn of being gay. After campaigning against the Same-Sex marraige proposition in 2008, Ashburn was arrested in March of 2010 for driving drunk after he left a gay-night club in Sacramento. After making bail, he admitted that he was indeed, gay. He should resign.

- Pat Wiggins (Democratic State Senator): She is apparently not fitted to continue to serve as State Senator in California any longer, and did not seek re-election this year. At least on two different occasions in the couple of years, Wiggins has had behavioral outbursts on the Senate floor, at one point scolding an aide and yelling obscenities at people testifying before the State Senate. They kept her on just to have a majority vote, despite the fact that she apparently has been diagnoised with dementia.

Those are just a few of the corrupt politicans that have been elected to serve our State in recent years, and this is what they do up there.

Since neither party is committed to helping California, the deficits continued to rise in California, it continues to suffer from a $20 billion budget gap and the unemployment rate is about 12.5%, and businesses and corporations are leaving every other week because of the unfriendly business environment and high fees. It is virtually unsustainable. One would think by now that the people in California would finally revolt and ask for something to be done, but that was simply not the case in last night's election in California.

California has already had Jerry Brown as a Governor back in 1975, and turning his tenure then, California's $6 billion surplus, was turned into a $1 billion deficit. Of course, in retrospect, that is nothing compared to what Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have done.

Brown, who also served as State Attorney General in recent years, had been quoted as saying "we need to live within our means". What a load. The fact is very clear that now Governor-elect Brown, will favor special interest groups, the unions and all of their pension plans and most likely, do nothing about the illegal immigration crisis. The fact that Democrats won largely last night here in California, should send disturbing messages to everyone, but perhaps I'm speaking too soon. After all, a majority of Californians voted these people into office because they're all liberals, but maybe in the next year or so, they will see the writing on the wall, and see that they made a significant mistake.

Please do not get me wrong, I did not think too highly of Meg Whitman in the last month of her campaign. While I agreed with her notion of creating jobs, cutting spending and fixing education and all of the works, she did come from a business background, but unfortunately, she knows nothing about the political system in California and what the people really wanted. Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, changed her campaign several times, and embarassingly contradicted herself when it came to the issue of illegal immigration, for example, at one point saying she was "tough as nails on illegal immigration... to end sanctuary cities like San Francisco...", then deciding to set up bill board ads in Spanish saying she supported immigration reform in an attempt to garner more Hispanic voters... and that took votes away from her.

Additionally, Barbara Boxer retained her U.S. Senate seat, even though it would have only taken a few more votes to get her the hell out of office; and we have this sanctuary city supporter/mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom to become Lieutenant Governor. Is he going to favor shutting out sanctuary policies in cities like the one he ran which violates federal law...? Probably not. So instead of California voters, wanting to initiate change like pension reform for State workers, solving illegal immigration, fixing education and cutting spending... instead we all decided to vote for this freak show.

Maybe I can understand slightly why Jerry Brown won the Governor's race. People were tired of Schwarzenegger. So instead, they vote for the liberal candidate. I decided to vote for neither in the end... I voted for the Libertarian candidate Dale Ogden.

Now that the election in California is over, I can honestly say that nothing is going to be done. There will be absolutely no improvement in California's political system because the people that vote in this State are obviously arrogant, favor left-leaning ideaology that has proven to be a failure, they don't get the facts correct on the issues and continue to support huge salaries and pension funds for unions and State workers.

If Jerry Brown actually has any guts, he will address those matters laid out above. Stop the immigration crisis and reform pension funds and salaries, instead of focusing on a decision to possibly repeal Proposition 13 and raise everyone's property taxes. Those two issues are critical with relation to spending as to why California has suffered for so many years. Solve those problems, and we will be on the road to financial recovery.

But I honestly cannot see it coming into fruition, because nobody wants to hear it.

Now get ready for more problems in California. Proposition 23, which challenged the Global Warming Final Solutions Act signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, failed last night. This means more than likely, more jobs will decline, and taxes for gasoline prices will rise. Also Proposition 19 failed to legalize marijurana. Not entirely surprised, except the fact it would have put criminal drug cartels out of business and the State maybe would have generated tax revenue, although I understood the notion of wanting to keep it away from children... of course.

Nevertheless, this State is in some really hard times and it can only get worse. This State is going to get ugly real fast. They better do something soon to solve our financial problems, otherwise, California may as well just go bankrupt and maybe decide turn itself back over to Mexico.