posted
Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California. If he is true to his word, he will repeal the car tax and is going to have to gut education in order to make up the deficit.
I know a lot of people were vehemently opposed to Gray Davis, the fumbling of the energy contracts, and his blandness made him look down right impotent compared to Schwarzenegger, but nothing about Schwarzenegger tells me he gives a wit about schools, except for after-school sports programs. When you cut funding to schools, K-University of California, the effect may not be felt for twenty years. Well, that's not true, it will be felt sooner than that in the rise in general crime and the slowly degrading culture and standard of living.
The tech economy is just starting to restructure itself. We had an economy predicated on the idea that you don't have to sell a product or sell a useful service. And once that tech bubble burst a few years ago, the government had to realign itself with the economic and social needs of the people that weren't living in a fairyland. Maybe the tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations will draw new businesses to California, or, more importantly, allow new ones to originate here, but California is still where we keep the nice weather, cheap labor, farmland, and not a small number of good universities. There are reason that businesses originate here.
Maybe it'll be worth it even if it comes at the expense of textbooks, photocopies, teacher's salaries, and public works.
We'll see. One man isn't going to narrow or degrade my hope for this state. Good luck.
But I just don't see how he's going to fix the budget without raising taxes.
Was Buffet right? According to NPR this morning, CA spends 90% of its budget on Education, Security, and . . . um. . . Public Works, I think? Since voters don't want to cut these programs, Arnold's going to be hard pressed to find money elsewhere.
A strongly partisan state legislature. . . a huge economy that is the worst in the nation. . . and FAME. . . baaaad combination if you ask me.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
He is going to do it. He promised to cut taxes, and he is a man of his word. Class sizes will get bigger. More kids with disciplinary problems. More kids who graduate without learning how to read, or without wanting to.
Maybe he can mitigate that trend with a swarm of Public service announcements, but then again, he believes too much in irresponsible "freedom" to go about the business of telling people not to drive SUVs or asking parents to read to their kids.
Sure you care about California because both you and I are human. There is no shame in that. I wish more people did.
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Wrongo. California still has the strongest economy in the nation. Even though Dubya through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did his best to destroy California's economy, it's GrossDomesticProduct is 5th/6th compared to all nations of the world: only the US, Japan, Germany, France, and possibly Italy are higher. It's debt load as a percentage of GDP is considerably smaller than any of those nations. It's debt load as a percentage of GDP is smaller than 40+ states. It wouldn't even be close to having a debt if the Republican-controlled federal government would just return the $50billion extra Californians pay as taxes to support the Republican-voting welfare states.
And contrary to what Arnie says, he can not repeal the car tax by executive fiat without first balancing the budget. The car tax increase (back to the levels of former Republican governor Pete Wilson) is mandated by law to maintain local government tax revenue as tradeoff for state control of revenue from what were once local property taxes.
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As much as I would like to believe-- as I calmly sit here in Kansas -- that California is a world away and has no affect on me -- that is just not true.
As posted at This Link, (which, I believe, was paraphrased by aspectre in an above post) -- California is basically 10% of our nation's total economy, so if California has problems, we all have problems.
I hope Arnold has enough public sway and support that whatever he has to do, he can get the people to accept it and bite the bullet to get back on track.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Irami, after school programs are what he worked to do several years ago.
A repeated theme of his campaign, since day one, is that California's children should have first dibbs on its treasury. Education was a big theme in his campaign. He even mentions "bringing back our education" in his victory speech.
Did you reallly think he was only talking about afterschool programs?
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Docmagik, this guy is going to gut the University of California and the Cal state systens until they can't bleed any more. I just don't believe him. It's like when Bush said that he'd put social security in a lock box, and then took a few million dollars out.
quote:"Education has been always a passion of mine," the leading Republican replacement candidate said. "What we want to accomplish here in California is we want to get our education straightened out."
What does that mean?
How do you run on the campaign centered around the idea that Californians are dreadfully overtaxed, and then leave the door open for tax increases?
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So, wait ... why is it that you believe Schwartzenegger is going to gut education to balance the budget?
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Education will be collateral damage if he gets rid of the car-tax.
That is, unless he borrows a printing maching from the Denver mint.
__________________ As an aside: Maria Shriver is the prettiest first lady I can remember. I don't know if I want to know how she got that way, probably a mix between strong genes plastic surgery and a strict work-out routine, but she is hot.
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Okay, so this is really just a presumption, based on nothing. I'd rather wait and see what he does before pronouncing doom and gloom, particularly specific brands of doom and gloom.
Here's a silly quote from an idiot:
quote:"I'm horrified at the thought that Schwarzenegger can be our governor," said Gretchen Purser, 25, of Berkeley, who voted against recall. "I'm sick of Republicans trying to take over the state."
Heh heh. Now, if that was a complaint against the inherent problems with the recall itself, I'm fine with it. But it sounds more like someone who erroneously believes that California, by rights, belongs to Democrats, and that Republican Californians should have no say in the governing of their state. I say that's ridiculous Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Take away the car tax. Where is the money going to come from, swift? We are talking about 4.2 billion dollars in addition to the 8 billion dollars he needs to will into existence just to balance the budget.
It's a projection, call it even a premonition, just like I'm pretty sure that if I jump off of my window, I'll fall. But who knows, I could go up.
My complaints against the system are marginal. I don't like the proposition system as practiced, but mostly, I don't like the Republicans trying to take over this state. I'm pro-choice. I respect same sex partnerships. I like clean tap water. I believe that public education is the cornerstone of democracy.
I'm not going to hide it behind a disdain of procedure. And to be honest, taxing cars is just fine by me. It's not as squeaky as taxing cigarettes and booze, but if that's the determining factor on whether someone is going to buy a car or ride their bike, then I'm all for it.
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I'm thrilled a Pro-Gay, Pro-Choice Republican is the Governor Elect. I think all the partisan sniping from the left shows they care more about the Dems than the State.
It seems the media and the dems take for granted that raising taxes will raise revenues. However, historically this is shown to be simply not true.
When Pete Wilson raised taxes more than any other governer in history, California collected a Billion less in revenue.
It's very easy to move your corporation to Tax Free Nevada. There are commercials for it all the time. Every time one of those corporations move, we lose tax revenue. If you lower taxes enough to make that unprofitable, those corporations will stop moving. And it's not just corporations, but Rich people too. Buy a house in Nevada, declare it your residence. Heck, use it as your Reno vacation home. Suddenly you're portfolio is immune to California taxes.
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