Why Is Calfornia In So Much Debt?

[SUMG]

These are just some of the public employee salaries for San Francisco:

http://myprops.org/content/S.F.-is-gonna-b...ref=patrick.net

A special nurse....makes $350,000+?

[CMJ]

Main reason we're in debt is we govern ourselves by ballot measure out here.

[oldguystudent]

But those salaries in San Francisco will only buy the half portion of the Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's on non-holiday weekdays.

[KRAM1]

It's California...that's all you need to know. Everyone needs an example of how not to run a state. California is just being a good example of incompetence...hey, it gave us Nancy Pelosi too. See, California is just trying to keep up its standars of being the best at being the bad example. Too bad because i think the Texas Legislature has been trying to copy California.

[UNTflyer]

But those salaries in San Francisco will only buy the half portion of the Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's on non-holiday weekdays.

According to BestPlaces.net Cost of Living calculator....

A salary of $350,000 in San Francisco, California could decrease to $173,741 in Dallas, Texas

[KRAM1]

According to BestPlaces.net Cost of Living calculator....

A salary of $350,000 in San Francisco, California could decrease to $173,741 in Dallas, Texas

So that special nurse in Dallas will make $173,741.00???? Where do i sign up?

[oldguystudent]

So that special nurse in Dallas will make $173,741.00???? Where do i sign up?

This is just a guess, but that ratio probably applies to things like groceries and gasoline. I doubt housing is only twice as expensive in San Francisco. If you add that to the mix, I'd estimate the salary to be equal to around 80-100K. This doesn't necessarily justify the pay though.

Edited May 28, 2009 by oldguystudent

[FirefightnRick]

Firefighter.....$222,000?????????????WTF???????????

That can't be right?

By the way, if the "Special Nurse" looks anything like SUMG's avatar she's worth every cent of it.

Rck

Edited May 29, 2009 by FirefightnRick

[eulesseagle]

The salaries may be "part" of the problem but in reality the cost of living in California is so much more expensive than the rest of the country. T A X E S.

Main Reason: HIGH TAXES to support all the SOCIAL WELFARE programs used by the citizens and ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS by Californians. Hospitals are shutting down because of bankruptcy. People and corporations are leaving the state because of higher taxes to support their cornicopia of social welfare programs. I would dare say that most of California's illegal ailen population receives more money from their government welfare checks/various other social services than some of California's working poor......AND......receive better hospitalization.

The "governators" solution: More taxes!!! oops this time it failed and now he is threatening to cut teachers, firefighters, cops etc.........ATYPICAL socialistic move and if you think about it, pretty smart. Instill FEAR in the people. "That is pure MARX." The governator is counting on the people to renig on essential personnel cuts and accept the higher tax rates.

Since the governator is chasing people out of state because of his draconian taxes he is only left with two choices:

1. Higher taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

2. Very low to no taxes for business to draw business back to California......naw....that won't work.

Look at Maryland. In one year they have lost 1/3 of their millionaires because of higher taxes on millionaires.

Look at New York and the New York City tax rates......no wonder people are leaving.

[oldguystudent]

The salaries may be "part" of the problem but in reality the cost of living in California is so much more expensive than the rest of the country. T A X E S.

If I look at the turning point when California went from being a national model for its public services to its long slow slide into being a national embarrassment, it goes back to 1980 and prop 13. This essentially capped property taxes at 1% of purchase price for as long as the owner held the deed. So you buy property. and your property tax never goes up. This accomplished three things:

1) Helped fuel the fire for wild speculation in the residential market, driving prices up into Ponzi scheme levels over a 25 year period

2) Created a corporate tax loophole. There are so many commercial buildings in California that have worked to maintain the original deed, even though the original owner/tenants have long since left, it'll make your head spin.

3) Reduced what had been the backbone of the California state revenue system to a crippled shadow of its former self.

Ever since, the response to this has been for the state and local governments to implement temporary sales tax increases (yeah, temporary) and constantly increase the income tax rate for both individuals and businesses. So what you're seeing with Arnold is the effect of nearly 3 decades of complete mismanagement of the state. He didn't start it, he's just finishing it off.

There are of course many other factors including exponential population increase from both legal and illegal sources, iron clad unions with the strength of most national armies (the prison guards union leads the way on this, not the teachers), unfavorable business legislation such as Santa Monica implementing a minimum wage of $10.50/ hour in 2001 when the rest of the country was paying $5.15, and stupid, stupid Gray Davis signing the state's soul away to Enron.

[CMJ]

The state ballot measures often make it impossible to really allocate the money well too. When how you fund certain entities is written into the state constitution it doesn't give legislators much leeway. CA's constitution has been amended well over 400 times, and many of these amendments are items which could have just been things passed by the legislature(and thus easy enough to modify), but they couldn't come together and thuus it was put on the ballot. Once there, it's much tougher to keep modifying them.

Also, the fact that every state budget has to be approved by 2 thirds majority of legislature makes it nearly impossible for them to agree. Hence why the state almost never has a budget finished on time. Or anywhere CLOSE to on time. If I recall last year we didn't have a budget approved for like at least 3 months AFTER the deadline.

Edited May 29, 2009 by CMJ

[KRAM1]

California...the land of sun, sea and NUTS! Seems to me that all the "la-la land" stuff is coming home to roost for California. That is really too bad because from what i can tell the whole state gets a bad rap from the minority of the population (Holloywood elite, Bay area...Nancy Pelosi, etc), environmental whack-o's, etc, etc. that seem to weild way more power than they should. There are plenty of folks in California that are just as emabarrased about what is going on in their state than anyone else, but they seem to be "outnumbered" and out "organized" by the whack-o's that dominate the news, etc. Too bad. California was once a state to be envied...no longer.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Salaries are only part of the problem financially. Pensions are another MAJOR factor. I saw a report on TV from one of the institutes that study the economy where the speaker told of a pension plan where the worker could retire in nine years at 100% of his base salary.

However, I believe that was in Vallejo which is now trying to declare bankruptcy. Unlikely there'll be any money fo pay that tab. Then again, I fear that us taxpayers (U.S. Government) will bail them out and wind up makeing good on all of these stupid deals.

Just say no as the California voters have done. Then hanmer out what you can and cannot pay.

[CMJ]

California...the land of sun, sea and NUTS! Seems to me that all the "la-la land" stuff is coming home to roost for California. That is really too bad because from what i can tell the whole state gets a bad rap from the minority of the population (Holloywood elite, Bay area...Nancy Pelosi, etc), environmental whack-o's, etc, etc. that seem to weild way more power than they should. There are plenty of folks in California that are just as emabarrased about what is going on in their state than anyone else, but they seem to be "outnumbered" and out "organized" by the whack-o's that dominate the news, etc. Too bad. California was once a state to be envied...no longer.

Just about none of what you mentioned is the reason why the state is in such dire financial straits currently.