WTF does "Fiscal Emergency" Mean?

Jeez (8.00 / 2)

Looking back, maybe there should have been some sort of proviso in that Prop wherein if it's the Governor's budget and it's been about a week since it passed, you don't get to declare an emergency.

I'm proud to work for Barbara Boxer

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 15:29:53 PM CST

If this is an emergency (8.00 / 4)

Then the VLF  should be brought back. There can be no question that the tax cut was irresponsible. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right Arnold?

By the way, as a fee, rather than a tax, the VLF would only take a simple majority.  It would also end the 45 day clock, I'm guessing.

I'm proud to work for Kamala Harris for AG.

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 15:36:53 PM CST

That would make sense, wouldn't it? (8.00 / 2)

Arnold doesn't get to invoke this and blame the Legislature - it was his decision to repeal the VLF and blow a multibillion dollar hole in the state budget. We should hit him hard on this over the next several weeks - he created the crisis through a reckless revenue cut, he doesn't get to make other people pay the price for that act.

Of course we should also continue to broadly push on revenue fixes over spending cuts - I don't know that we should even be accepting spending cuts as a necessity at all, certainly not at the outset of negotiations - but the VLF in particular seems an easy target to advance our ideas.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave

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by: Robert Cruickshank @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 15:46:10 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I believe the VLF (0.00 / 0)

needs a 2/3 vote to reinstate.

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by: modem @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 18:00:02 PM CST

[ Parent ]

You could be right (0.00 / 0)

Ah well, how about a "smog abatement fee". See, it's a fee because we have to abate the smog and the carbon created from cars, and particularly SUVs.

How's that work? Well, if not, there's always my original plan: John Laird as our fiscal overlord. It's a special position created during "fiscal emergencies". The Assembly Budget Chair gets to restructure the tax code and spending as he so desires.

So, how about that one? Perhaps we should just put that on the ballot.

I'm proud to work for Kamala Harris for AG.

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 18:26:12 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Dream Democratic reponse, A group game (8.00 / 1)

"Once again the Governor has abdicated the responsibilities of his office and given up an opportunity to lead.  At a time that the state of California is faced with a budget crisis which demands in-depth, fundamental reform, the Governor has chosen the quick, easy fix..."

next?

I'm proud to work for Barbara Boxer

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 16:07:27 PM CST

Thank you fine economic steward (8.00 / 3)

If the Democrats can't spin this one into showing that the Schwarzenegger tenure has been a total failure, then they're useless.

And it will have major implications for what course we take.  They have to point out all of the budgetary insanities that the Mentally Ill Homeless Terminator has foisted upon the state.  Right now, he's seen as more trustworthy than anyone, and people will fall in line with his wrongheaded remedies.

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by: David Dayen @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 16:14:43 PM CST

Silver lining (8.00 / 1)

At least the Speaker has that health care vote set for Monday :)

I'm proud to work for Barbara Boxer

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 16:24:19 PM CST

[ Parent ]

If there's a knock on state Dems (0.00 / 0)

 - unlike DC Dems - it's that they are sharply partisan.

That's cool. Just what we need.

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by: Pacific John @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 18:38:50 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Let the law suits begin (0.00 / 0)

$14B is a lot of cash, and finding it will either violate the endless auto-pilot mandates, or crush programs not mandated by the voters, but required to meet federal law, like MediCal.

Around 2/3 of all state and local spending is for education. And you'd have to pretty much set it aside just because it's CA's 3rd rail, even if it weren't mandated by things like Prop. 98.

But finding big cash from unprotected funds like health care for the disabled?

Knock yourself out, Arnold. In case you can't remember that far back, the first time you got your ass kicked was when you tried to cap enrollment on the major program for kids with developmental disabilities.

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by: Pacific John @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 18:36:58 PM CST

Obviously, The Answer Is Annexation By Germany (0.00 / 0)

I mean, where Arnold comes from they knew how to deal with emergencies.  And look how well that turned out....

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 21:25:43 PM CST

A Simple Solution to the "Fiscal Emergency" (0.00 / 0)

According to FAIR, illegal immigration costs California an estimated 10 billion dollars annually for education, health care and incarceration costs. There's your deficit.
Of course, I don't believe our Governator has the kahonees to do the right and NECESSARY thing here. He certainly wouldn't want to of-e-e-end any of his friends on the other side of the aisle.

Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. --Barry Goldwater

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by: ericreinhardt @ Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 19:40:16 PM CST

So according to an anti-immigration group (8.00 / 1)

founded (along with a number of other flanking and cross-citing anti-immigration organizations) by John Tanton, a man who certainly appears to be a racist, and funded by far-right groups like the Olin Foundation, undocumented workers cost CA money.  Except, maybe they don't.  They pay taxes and contribute to the economy, and according to studies by people without an axe to grind, they use services at a lower rate than native-born residents.

One grows weary of the nativist jingoism that substitutes for actually working on solutions. (If only we threw out the immigrants!  Everything would be solved.)  Except if they were documented, they'd still use services,  and if they were birthright citizens, they'd still use services, in both cases at a higher rate than the undocumented immigrant population.

The toss-out-the furriners sentiment is lazy thinking, often racist, always nativist. (One notes that if the user name is reflective of the commenter, Mr. Reinhardt would have been subjected to the same prejudice when the initial wave of German immigrants arrived in the 19th century and through WWI -- ironically, he's a modern Know-Nothing.)

P.S  It's cojones, which is, even more ironically, a Spanish word.

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by: jsw @ Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 21:10:07 PM CST

[ Parent ]