California Has No Budget So Politicians Get No Paychecks

I live in California, so I can tell you what an utter financial disaster it is. Once again, California has no budget for the next fiscal year, but this time the politicians will get no paychecks if one isn’t passed. 

California is the eighth biggest economy in the world, but is perpetually in massive debt. Put another way, it mirrors the United States as a whole even without supporting a military. The reason why this is really boils down to thousands of reasons and would take a small book to go through. Okay, a large book. Regardless, the state is a disaster and regularly pays tax refunds in I.O.U.s. 

Jerry Brown was elected to be governor once again of this state even after his last effort was a disaster. From a family with a long history of inside political maneuverings, he boldly ran on the basic idea that he knew how to soft and strong arm the politicians in Sacramento and could get the necessary deals done. Apparently not. California has once again failed to pass a budget even though the shortfall has been reduced from $27 billion to $10 billion. 

The problem is the one seen across the country. Democrats want to raise taxes to fill the shortfall and Republicans want to cut spending. In this specific case, Brown is trying to get some temporary tax increases extended for another few months till he can bring the tax increase issues to the public for a vote, something he promised he would do during the campaign to overcome fears related to his tax and spend past. Republicans are, of course, refusing to go along with his plan. 

We Californians are fed up with Sacramento. As a result, we passed an initiative that makes the politicians feel the pain. If a budget is not passed by June 30, 2011, the politicians will start losing their paychecks. When they eventually get around to passing a new budget, they will NOT get their past checks. 

Now that is what I call justice! 

No doubt we will see a budget right around June 29th.