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How would you write the states budget?


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2013 Feb 11, 11:52pm   5,857 views  17 comments

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http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=22835

Online tool lets Californians pick priorities •  There are still difficult budget choices to consider For the first time in years, Californias budget process this year will not be focused on solutions for closing massive budget shortfalls, but on decisions that will affect the states future.

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1   Tenpoundbass   2013 Feb 12, 12:40am  

I would call Murray the accountant.

2   FortWayne   2013 Feb 12, 12:52am  

It's not just budgets, its how these budgets are managed. When unions overload on overtime with make-work work it just hurts budgets without any tangible positive results.

If state runs programs that it knows are filled with fraud and does nothing about the fraud it drains budgets.

And really what is with the explosion of medical problems that cannot be verified in this country? Economy slows down a little and huge portion of society suddenly goes on disability.

3   zzyzzx   2013 Feb 12, 12:56am  

Or just do what Democrats always do and follow the advice of the bad advice cat:

4   FortWayne   2013 Feb 12, 12:58am  

Good one zzyzzx. CA just did something really stupid lately with taxes without addressing any real structural problems we face.

5   zzyzzx   2013 Feb 12, 1:01am  

I was easily able to finish with a $4.1 Billion Surplus, without raising any taxes.

I also put a 3.2B dent in the debt.

6   FortWayne   2013 Feb 12, 1:10am  

zzyzzx says

I was easily able to finish with a $4.1 Billion Surplus, without raising any taxes.

Politicians see that 4.1 billion surplus as 4.1 billion they can give away to their biggest donors. Takey from taxpayers, givey to cronies.

7   Tenpoundbass   2013 Feb 12, 2:35am  

Why do I feel like I'm listening in on Stranded space travelers on a distant asteroid, when you two talk about living in California. You poor poor souls.
Godspeed...

8   nope   2013 Feb 12, 3:40am  

California probably would be stupid enough to let citizens decide on the budget. That's pretty much how they got into the mess that they were in!

9   Ceffer   2013 Feb 12, 4:16am  

Well, the projections assume everything is being managed without waste or pork barrel, as mentioned.

The main problem is all give away with no controlling or efficiency mandated. Private industry aggressively puts its controllers in to identify areas of waste, fraud, and abuse. In government, it is the opposite, the waste, fraud and abuse are the points of the operation, with enough services provided and freebies to succu-rat voters to keep revolution at bay.

Private industry has to manage its costs to make a profit, government just keeps going after the stuck pig taxpayers for more.

10   HEY YOU   2013 Feb 12, 4:49am  

Immediately eliminate all tax breaks & state benefits to all Republican,Conservative & Tea Party businesses & individuals. Without knowing how much these parasites are sucking from the state teat working on a budget is a waste of time.

11   nope   2013 Feb 12, 5:09am  

Ceffer says

Well, the projections assume everything is being managed without waste or pork barrel, as mentioned.

The main problem is all give away with no controlling or efficiency mandated. Private industry aggressively puts its controllers in to identify areas of waste, fraud, and abuse. In government, it is the opposite, the waste, fraud and abuse are the points of the operation, with enough services provided and freebies to succu-rat voters to keep revolution at bay.

Private industry has to manage its costs to make a profit, government just keeps going after the stuck pig taxpayers for more.

It's really wrong to think of government and private business finances in the same way.

There's plenty of room for disagreement about what priorities a given government should have, but it's always incorrect to compare how a government operates to how a family, corporation, or any other organization operates.

Corruption aside, most of the 'inefficiency' in government is intentional.

Lets say that I need a highway built.

Proposal A costs $100M, requires 1500 workers, and will take 2 years to complete.

Proposal B costs $300M, requires 3000 workers, and will take 4 years to complete.

Someone who's primary concern was building the highway would, naturally, choose proposal A. Someone who's primary concern was the state unemployment rate would more likely choose proposal B.

At the federal level, this gets even more ridiculous. Today we have a congress attempting to force the army to purchase more tanks, even though the army is currently selling off excess tanks because they have very little use for them.

Once you understand what the goals of government officials actually are, the decision making and 'waste' makes much more sense.

12   FortWayne   2013 Feb 12, 5:29am  

Kevin says

California probably would be stupid enough to let citizens decide on the budget. That's pretty much how they got into the mess that they were in!

CA citizens have never decided on the budget.

13   Ceffer   2013 Feb 12, 5:34am  

Hmm, I guess I could consider welfare recipients "government employees" whose job is to turn food into shit to subsidize the agricultural industry and to make sure that prison employees have steady jobs and benefits.

Now that I think about it, that makes it OK! It's amazing what a change in perspective can do, maybe I will become a reborn liberal.

I remember years ago I was young and naive and I went to a recording service to look at something, I asked the guy why the legal system was so inefficient, expensive, cumbersome and crooked.

He looked surprised and said, "well, that's the way we make our living" like a vampire explaining why he is going to suck your blood out, that it was fully justified on that basis.

I said, "Yeah, but you are stealing my living to do it." and he didn't argue with me.

14   nope   2013 Feb 12, 6:28am  

But they're not necessarily 'stealing' anything.

If there was no government, what would GDP be? How about employment rates?

Governments are trying to manage an entire city, county, state, or country. They have many competing objectives.

All of the world's 'successful' economies are full of this sort of government waste. Every single one. The governments that don't have this sort of obvious 'waste' are universally failed states.

15   Ceffer   2013 Feb 12, 6:40am  

It's well known that up to a certain point, taxation stimulates economies. If nothing else, the role of government is to provide infrastructure, rules, laws and boundaries, even a certain level of employment so that the conduct of society and commerce can be predictable and secure.

However, beyond that tipping point, the falloff becomes rather rapid, the parasitic aspects overwhelm the beneficial. California has well exceeded that tipping point and relies on its weather and traditional attractions to deploy attention away from its parasitic inefficiencies.

I have never heard the "waste makes great" argument, that is a new one, a kind of psychological inversion argument. Like "ugly is the new beautiful" or "up is the new down" or "bad is the new good".

16   FortWayne   2013 Feb 12, 7:26am  

Ceffer says

I have never heard the "waste makes great" argument, that is a new one, a kind of psychological inversion argument. Like "ugly is the new beautiful" or "up is the new down" or "bad is the new good".

A lesson I learned early on, folks will believe what they want to believe especially if it makes them money. Even if they know they are wrong, they will go above and beyond to prove that bad is the new good regardless of facts against their worthless ways.

17   nope   2013 Feb 12, 7:36am  

You've never heard of keynesian economics? I find that hard to believe.

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