Ahhhnuld continues to Terminate California

[marmar]

from the Sacramento Bee:



Furlough announcement rattles many California state workers

By Andrew McIntosh
[e-mail]

Published: Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009 | Page 13A


Some were furious. Others were sad, even tearful. Many more accepted the news with graceful resignation, trying to hide their worries.

At the end of a week that brought nothing but more grim economic news, that's how dozens of state workers greeted the state personnel department's announcement that thousands of California public servants will be furloughed two Fridays a month and lose 10 percent in pay, starting Feb. 6.

None found the prospect of two three-day weekends a month appealing in the current economy.

"Sweet Jesus, help me God," sighed Jolene Deaton, a vital records staffer at the Department of Public Health who lives in West Sacramento.

Deaton fought back tears outside her downtown office building as she clutched a state memo announcing the furloughs in one hand and a sacbee.com news report about the plan in the other.

"I'm a single parent. I'm barely making it as it is," Deaton said. "It's just devastating to me. It's awful." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1531224.html

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Republican governors have never done anything good for California. n/t

[gratuitous]

2. Where's Darrell "Crybaby" Issa in all this?

Or is his fake outrage reserved only for those times when a Democrat occupies the governor's chair?

[rvablue]

3. Sorry, but can't blame Arnold on this. NO governor, Dem or Repub. will by able to fix CA's problems

until either the legislature or the people of California wake up and overturn Prop. 13.

[NV Whino]

4. California was doing just fine until Enron came along

That destroyed Gray Davis and then Arnie stepped in and settled the lawsuit for pennies on the dollar. So yes, I blame Arnold... and Enron and Bush and the GOP.

[rvablue]

5. No it wasn't....Enron exascerbated the problem, but CA has been running huge defecits for many, many

years.

The Repubs and their Enron cronies might have made it worse, but Prop. 13th set California on this course long ago and even with Obama and a Dem. Congress and maybe a new Dem Governor in California, the problems won't go away until the good people of California are willing to pay property taxes on par with the rest of America.

[Nipper1959]

6. Taxes

CA voted against too many taxes and you can't run a government without a solid tax base. Also, they still have that grandfather home owner property tax clause in place.

[rvablue]

8. What you are referring to is Prop. 13 and you are right, b/c of it the municipal tax base continues

to erode and every year the state has to fill the gap.

Overturn Prop. 13 or CA will remain a financial mess.

[NV Whino]

10. California had a surplus

until Gray Davis used it to buy us electricity when Enron fucked us over.

[shanti]

7. baloney

if he hadn't lowered the vehicle tax (which equals the deficit), we'd be in much better shape. he doesn't know his ass from a teakettle and the only reason he was selected (i sure as hell didn't vote for him either time!) was to end the enron investigations. i HATE him! :grr:

[rvablue]

9. Just so you know, I think Ahnuld is a complete ass and should never have been Governor

and yes, you are right, with the mess CA was/is in, he had no business lowering the vehicle tax, although that probably ended up helping lower income (usually renters?).

My previous post was meant in no way to be a defense of Ahnuld, but a clarification of CA's longtime budget woes and what has caused them.

I'm not saying this snarkily AT ALL, but if you have not yet read Schrag's "Paradise Lost" please go to the library or book store and get it. It is a must read for every Californian.

Schrag was a longtime columnist at the Sacramento Bee and predicted pretty well what Prop. 13 was going to do to the state.

Is Ahnuld a jerk and did he make things worse? Of course.

Will California ever balance budgets and get financially healthy without repealing Prop. 13. ?Probably not.