The HS Dent Financial Blog

RSS      

California Cannibals

The State of California has a balanced budget proposal…sort of.  To close an ever-widening $26 billion gap, the legislature has proposed $15.6 billion in cuts, $4 billion in revenue from sale of property, $3 billion in accounting gimmicks that accomplish nothing, and $2 billion in theft borrowing from local taxes.  Apparently, when the times get tough, the tough pillage their neighbors.

California is using a provision that gives it the ability to forcibly borrow (everyone else recognizes this as stealing, even if you intend to give it back later…isn’t that a joyride in police parlance?) local monies and then the state must pay it back within 3 years.  Nevermind that locales are suffering.  Nevermind that some of the suffering in those locales is being caused by the IOUs the government sent out in lieu of real cash to vendors across the state.  Nope, none of it matters.

Apparently, beyond my thoughts on Monday about consumers being out for themselves when it comes to determining how we run our households, state governments can be out for themselves as well.  Even when it involves ripping off their own constituents so that they won’t have to do the job they were elected to do.

We are almost 2 years into this economic shakeout, and we still haven’t recognized the most basic of notions of where we are - that we must get by on less.  People know it.  Consumers behave like it.  But as soon as we move from private consumers to politicians, we seem to behave as if by some magical force the economic engine of yesterday will come roaring back.  Every day that we beg, borrow and steal in anticipation of this return is another day we have squandered instead of trying to arrive at workable long-term solutions.