Same Old Story
California has a Republican governor who can’t convince Republicans in the legislature to stop blocking the state budget, so the fiscal year starts with IOUs. I saw it under George Dukmejian and Pete Wilson when I lived in California, so why should it be different for Arnold. They all talked about fiscal responsibility and all ran deficits that they covered up. Well the days of cover-up are over, and something has to be done, but the Republicans in the legislature refuse to do it.
Digby lives in California and notes who gets IOUs, “People needing temporary assistance for basic family needs”, and who continues to get cash, “Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees”.
Since California loves initiatives, why don’t they put something on the ballot that says if there isn’t a state budget at the beginning of the fiscal year, not only do “Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees” not get paid, but they are fined an amount equivalent to their pay and benefits for every day until a budget is passed.
That is the penalty for public workers who go on strike in New York, and the “Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees” in California are public workers who aren’t doing their job. They obviously need an incentive.
8 comments
It’s not an IOU from the Governator…It’s a F**k you!
(pardon the French)
I lost a good client when I was in California because of this. They ran out of money waiting for the state to pay them and couldn’t cover their payroll, so they had to shut down.
When the state finally paid them, they had already moved on to other things.
They paid me what they owed me, but most of their vendors couldn’t wait on the state to get its act together.
Your landlord and the utility companies won’t wait; your creditors won’t wait; so many people needed bridge loans that the interest rate went through the roof. You can’t treat people like that.
Apparently folks getting unemployment will still get a check (whew….) but folks on welfare will not. The Governator wants to completely eliminate welfare. If you are poor, disabled or old, the Republicans want you to die. Quite literally.
.-= ´s last blog ..Friday Night Food Recall News Dump =-.
That’s why the legislature needs to share the pain. The only thing they seem to understand is money, so you have to hit them where they live.
Many of the programs they are slashing involve matching Federal money, so they are cutting income more than they are cutting expenses, but they may not know that.
They dang well know it…they don’t care. And, remember, the Republicans don’t want that stinking Federal money.
.-= ´s last blog ..On this 4th of July….Yes We…CAN =-.
They always act like this is a short term problem and they’ll grow their way out of it, but that isn’t going to happen. Businesses don’t like states that can’t provide services, and the biggest drawback to having a business in California has always been the cost of housing, not taxes. People can’t afford to live there without much higher than normal salaries to cover the inflated cost of housing and office space.
A friend just emailed me a funny, which I think is appropriate at for this post. 😉
That is a pretty good description of cash flow. The US problem is that the money was given to the banks, and they haven’t done anything with it.
If they had given it to the unemployed and other people on the bottom of the economy, it would have moved into circulation and provided some demand for goods and services. As it is, there is no demand being created, which results in fewer and fewer jobs. It’s a death spiral, a flat spin, that is going to be more difficult and expensive to get out of the longer it goes on.