Living within our means

Here in California we are having budget crisis (not unlike many states I am sure). It only took us until months into THIS year to balance LAST year's budget.

Why? Well, we spend more money than we make and we finally hit a wall where the citizens said ENOUGH! We are the highest tax paying state in the country and really have nothing to show for it.

Highest paid teachers equal lowest school results (I'm talking graduating rates, test results, productivity, etc...).

People who live on welfare and food stamps and unemployment and never want to get off their duffs and actually make a living for themselves.

Small businesses going under not because they don't have clients, but because they can't afford the taxes; so these small businesses cross the nearest border and do their business IN California FROM a neighboring State.

The real problem, however, is that people don't want to be told, "No, we can't afford that."

Yesterday I was listening to the news and hearing people complain about a local college that had to lay off 600 employees and enroll 2200 less students BECAUSE OF BUDGET CUTS!

Does it suck? Yeah! But it needs to be done.

Remember when you were little and you went to the store and you looked longingly at the shiny new bike? You told your mom that you wanted that bike (maybe even told her you needed the bike) and she said, "No, we can't afford that right now."

I'll never forget the time I was about 12 or 13. I was so upset because I was taking just 2 dance classes a week. I would NEVER get to dance on Broadway taking only 2 classes a week. EVERY OTHER girl in the studio practically LIVED there, I wanted to do that, too. My mom turned to me and said, "Okay, you can take dance lessons every day. You can take all the dance lessons you want in order to fullfil that dream. But you will have to give up going to private school and the great education we are paying for. We can't afford both; so make your choice."

I wonder what she would have done if I said I wanted to go to public school and take all the dance lessons I wanted.

The point that I am trying to make is this: even at 12 I knew that there were some sacrifices that had to be made. There are times when we want, or even think we NEED, to have or do something; but in the end it is a cost that is too much of a burden on something or someone else.

Does it suck that 600 people had to be laid off because of budget cuts? Yes! But what would you rather have? A school that is 600 less people running it or a school that bankrupts and can now no longer be in existence?

The funny thing is, do you ever hear anyone say, "Hey, cut my wages by a certain percentage and keep both of us!" You don't. Even though that person made that same percentage just 5 years ago.

The problem is that everyone wants more. More money, more toys, more this, more that. No one wants to be told, "No, we can't afford that."

If there is no money to be had we just...can't...afford...it!

Tuck Tail and Run Away

picture courtesy of The National Guard

Today is special election day in California. Don't you think that this would be a big reason for a governor to stay in the state? Don't you think that any meetings and other engagements a governor would have outside the state (even if it was with the President) should be rescheduled for another day?

Not according to our governor. Nope, he knows that his ridiculous bills to RAISE OUR TAXES again is going to fail miserably. So what does he do? He tucks tail and runs away! He left last night to go to Washington DC to meet with the President to discuss global warming! Apparently that is more important that an election in this state.

How important? Oh, it meant he had to drop everything! He couldn't go to the poles and vote; oh no! He had to get an EMERGENCY absentee ballot yesterday so that he could vote and then leave...on his private jet (how's that for caring about global warming).

WHEN all these bills fail today (which all the polls show they aren't just losing, they are losing in a landslide) there is going to have to be another emergency session of state congress to talk about the budget again...oh wait, our governor is talking about global warming; that can't happen. This is his pattern: get everyone all involved in something IMPORTANT like taxes, budget reform, etc...; when things get tough, distract everyone with global warming; talk about how we need to do this and this to reform California government; oops, things aren't going my way, quick let's talk about global warming; it keeps repeating.

I'll leave you with this: Last week in a press conference, a reporter was pressing him on the issues of these raised taxes we will be voting on today. The question was (loosely quoted) "How do we know that you won't try and raise our taxes again after this?" The great governator's response? "Because I...(long pause) I promise you" (said with very little confidence). See, he's made so many promises that he has broken that even he knows that he can't be trusted when he says he promises something.

Strength of Character

I'm a little late to comment on the course of events here (being that they are pretty much done and now in the past); but I can't let this pass without saying one thing: I am PROUD to have our Miss California be Carrie Prejean.

Why? Sure, part of it is because I do align myself with her viewpoint expressed in the Miss America pageant. The big part of it, however, is that she has enough strength to stand up the next day and NOT back away from her statement.

So many people will give their opinion and then quickly retract it because it created waves. Not Miss Prejean. Nope! She stood up there, gave her opinion (which is what Mr. Hilton asked of her) and the next day said she was not sorry about her answer. That's the way she feels about it and she wouldn't change a thing!

More people need to be like her. More people need to stand by their statements. I am sick of politicians, celebrities, and many others "apologizing" for saying what they truly believe. I'm even okay if what they truly believe or feel is the complete opposite of my opinion. Just stand by your statement! I'll respect you for that.

Stop worrying about what other people think. It's a sign of weakness. Miss California showed nothing but strength in this entire debacle. I'm proud of her! I am proud that she represents my state...gotta be proud of something around here; this seems to be all we have to hold onto for now; at least until next Tuesday's vote!

I may just recall him for this

picture courtesy of The National Guard

Our great state of California is in a budget crisis. We are getting ready to vote on 6 ballot measures that will, once again, increase our taxes for the next two years. This is on top of the one cent tax that they just gave us starting April 1st (no fooling). We already were the highest taxed state; now we are even more so.



Yet we still can't balance a budget! Why? Because we have allowed our state government to spend and spend our money and, rather than say, "No, we can't give you more money because we don't have it"; they say, "Oh sure, you can have more money. We don't know where we're going to get it, but of course you can have more!"



We elected Governor Schwarzenegger after recalling our last governor for basically the same reason.



While I think that is enough to say we need to recall this guy, too; that's not why I, today, have decided that I may just feel the need for another recall. No, today I was ready to call for his recall because he decided that we needed to declare us in a state of emergency because 3 citizens in this entire state have been diagnosed with this swine flu.



Sure, they thought that maybe two recently deceased people had died from this (proven later today to be false); and there were two more "possible" cases of this flu (again proven to be false). But still, that would bring the total up to seven. Seriously? You don't have better things to do that to put this state into a state of panic over 3 sick people? I hope I get the same courtesy next time I have a virus running rampant in my body (yes, I am in a bit of a tizzy over this).



I really don't think that we need to close down schools because a teacher called in sick (yes this happened at two schools today that I know of; and probably more). I especially don't think we need to waste tax payer money on a "state of emergency" over a flu that can be cured with a simple prescription medication and is not even effecting 1% of the entire state, no less the entire country.



Seriously Governor? You don't have more pressing things to worry about? Sure, this seems silly to want to recall him over; but it is this example that shows how incompetent he has been this entire time in office. Stop wasting my hard earned money; stop fooling around with inconsequential things; and most of all, do the job that you were elected to do and clean up this states spending!

Update

For those of you who live in California, now is the time to act. This is an update from my last post. Democrates attempted to put through an illegal vote yesterday by calling all the tax increases fees and claiming they only need a majority vote rather than the 2/3 vote for a tax.

Arnold only vetoed it because there were other apects he didn't like and wouldn't even comment on the legality of the issue. To the untrained ear, it sounded like he would have approved this illegal budget had it had the other cuts he wanted.

This is absolutly scary around here! Since when can a politician basically say that they don't like the way budget negotiations are going so they're going to pass an illegal budget anyway.

Oh, I'm fuming mad and making many calls today. They cannot get away with this. We need to act fast!

They'll only "negotiate" if they can raise taxes

Still no budget here in California and, to make matters worse, the Republicans have proposed a great budget, just like the governator had requested, and neither the Democrats nor the Governor are willing to accept it.

The way I see it, they don’t want to accept it because it would mean not taking more of our money through taxes or “fees”. They will be able to get $6.5 billion dollars just by redirecting funds that are currently not being used:

• 2.1 billion would come from Prop 10 monies which are currently not being used. This money is directed for early childcare centers; I work in a funded center and I can tell you, we don’t need that money. Sure, some of it comes in handy; however there are times when we are buying junk that we don’t need because it’s there. Knowing that there is that much left over…that’s a lot of wasted money!

• 3.9 billion would come from Prop 63 monies which are not being used. This money is directed for mental health issues. Now, I haven’t talked to anyone personally in this field, but from the reports I’ve read and heard, this money would be missed about as much as the Prop 10 money would be missed in the early childhood care centers.
  
• 484 million would come from some fund transfers.
  
  

That’s it. There is no more money coming out of the tax payer’s pockets or hands. The Republicans are seeing exactly what the public is seeing: there already is more than enough money available to them and not enough for us.

So, how does that compare to what the Democrats and Governor want to do? Every one of their plans involves raising taxes in many forms:

• (Democrats) 5.7 billion to increase the vehicle license “fee” (read tax) to 2% of the vehicle’s value. (Schwarzenegger) has a similar idea, but it would just be a flat $12 per vehicle to give a 451 million increase to revenue
  
  
• (Democrats) 2.4 billion to increase the income tax and freezing the tax brackets rather than letting them adjust with inflation. Now, Schwarzenegger doesn’t want to increase the INCOME tax…no he has other plans (read on)
  
  
• (Schwarzenegger) 9.1 billion sales tax increase by 1.5 cents for 3 years (cause of course they’ll drop it back down after 3 years and forget the fact that we have one of the highest sales tax in the country)
  
  
• (Schwarzenegger) 1.4 billion sales tax on services not currently taxed (things like taking your pet to the vet, amusement parks, sporting events, and of course let’s hit those cars up again with a tax on vehicle repairs)
  
  
• (Schwarzenegger) 1.2 billion for a 9.9% tax per barrel on oil extracted from California
  
  
• (Schwarzenegger) and last but not least 829 million by raising excise tax on alcohol to 5 cents a drink
  
  

Of course, according to the Democrats they are willing to “negotiate”; to them this means that they will be willing to make SOME cuts if the Republicans would just agree to increasing taxes.

Let’s see, the Republicans are willing to cut 15.6 billion dollars from the budget, the Governator 9.3 billion, and a whopping 4.5 billion for the Democrats. Who really is serious about get our budget back in order?

Everyone is willing to cut spending on the schools: 10.6 billion from the Republicans, 4.5 billion for Democrats, and 3.2 billion for Schwarzenegger. From what I see, way more than all that combined gets WASTED in the schools every year.

At least Schwarzenegger and the Republicans are close to what should be cut in SSI/SSP. When looking at the Democrats, it seems they aren’t willing to cut more than 750 million for ANY program other than the schools.

The Republicans specifically say they want to cut 738 million from UC and CSU by increasing the student fee and eliminating in-state tuition for UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS! I seriously want to know HOW they can get in-state tuition if they aren’t legal residents here. Someone want to explain that to me anyway?

There is also an agreement from the Republicans and Schwarzenegger in cutting spending on transit grants. I am all for this considering how little the transit is used in this state anyway. Oh, the Democrats are willing to cut, but only 156 million.

My favorite, the Republicans actually have proposed a 5% pay cut to the legislation! They see that if they are cutting from everywhere else, they need to cut themselves as well. I admire that!

A message to the California Republicans: Keep up the amazing work, stay strong, we are all rooting for you!