If you have been watching my other thread on this subject and my onetime response to Qwerty on the unfunded federal mandates California is forced to pay, then the below game is just right in proving my point. There are a few unfunded programs and also programs that are directly linked to federal assistance dollars.
So give it at try and see if you can balance California's budget and at the same time find out how much else the state loses over that $24B shortfall we have now.
Also, the companion article is of interest as well
quote:
Armageddon. Apocalypse. Disaster: These are the words being used to describe California's staggering $24 billion budget deficit. Lawmakers failed to pass a budget by Tuesday's midnight deadline and the state may now have to issue billions in IOUs to cover the bills.
Almost every state is suffering from the effects of the recession, but not every state accounts for 12 percent of the national gross domestic product. According to AP, if California goes down, so goes the nation: California's annual $1.7 trillion economy is the world's eighth-largest economy and provides a significant chunk of tax revenue for the government; California alone[/] funds many social programs for the entire nation...
"California is the key catalyst for U.S. retail sales, and if California falls further you will see the U.S. economy suffer significantly."
How did California dig itself such a huge hole? The recession certainly didn't help, but Time's Kevin O'Leary writes that California's financial troubles can be traced back to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. An antitax measure, Prop 13 makes it extremely difficult to raise taxes or pass a budget unless a 2/3 majority in both state houses agree — a virtually impossible task. California Rep. Zoe Lofgren tells Politico:
"If we [in Congress] had to do what the California legislature does, we would never send a bill to the president of the United States,” she said...
— State employees will be forced to take another day of unpaid leave a month, in addition to the two days leave they were forced to take starting in December. (NYT)
— Funding for the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement will be slashed by $20 million. The "little-known unit" has played a key role in several of the state's high-profile cases: The bureau's agents helped arrest Scott Petersen for the murder of his wife and unborn child, and their investigation led to charges in Anna Nicole Smith's overdose death. (AP)
— 80 percent of state parks would be closed, 25 in the Bay Area alone, including several beaches along the peninsula. Park visitors spend an estimated $2.6 billion a year in and near state parks, but closing the parks would save only 0.26 percent of the $24 billion deficit. (SF Chronicle)
— Education funding would be reduced by $5.3 billion. School districts have already laid off 30,000 employees. Class sizes are expected to surge from 20 to 30 students and many after school programs, arts and music classes will be cut. A national education survey conducted this year ranked California 47th in per-student spending. (AP)
— Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing to eliminate the state's $1.3 billion welfare program. Frank Mecca, the head of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, tells Time, [I]"California could become the only state in the First World without subsistence benefits for poor children."Well... crime would shoot through the roof following this move... and with less peace officers to deal with it. Please try the little game I linked you too. Ought to be interesting.
If the people of California would just be allowed to grow weed and be the only state in the US to be allowed to grow it and sell it and then be taxed on it (a fair tax) they could be out of the red in 1 year. Then the only other issue would be to get rid of Nancy and that other womam democrat.
