House of Eratosthenes

As the end of California’s fiscal year approaches, the Governor and state legislators confront a $24 billion deficit. While Republicans and Democrats wrangle over how to address the gaping shortfall, some members of the press have started to look for a scapegoat for the fiscal train wreck. Many have blamed the California taxpayer’s only protection: Prop. 13, the 1978 measure capping state property taxes at 1% of a home’s assessed value.

Perhaps the most egregious example of the finger-pointing is a recent piece from TIME’s Kevin O’Leary, moaning that “Before Prop 13, in the 1950s and ’60s, California was a liberal showcase.” He insists that “at the root of California’s misery lies Proposition 13,” and concludes that “in California, the conservative legacy lives on.”

How ridiculous. Of all the problems contributing to the fiscal mess, state under-taxation is the least of them. California’s sales and gas taxes are the highest in the country – and it has the highest vehicle license fees and the second-highest top-bracket income tax, too. Its corporate tax rates are the highest of all Western states, and for the fourth year in a row, a survey of 543 CEO’s found that California’s toxic combination of high taxes and intrusive regulations made it the worst place in the nation to do business.

Said TIME article is here.

The financial crisis in California grew worse this week as state controller John Chiang warned that if legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package, he would begin paying California’s bills with IOUs on July 2. The last time the state did this was during the Great Depression.

What has brought California to such a perilous state? How did its government become so wildly dysfunctional? One obvious cause is the deep recession, which has caused tax revenues to plunge for all states. But California’s woes have a set of deeper reasons: direct democracy run amok, timid governors, partisan gridlock and a flawed constitution have all contributed to budget chaos and people in pain. And at the root of California’s misery lies Proposition 13, the antitax measure that ignited the Reagan Revolution and the conservative era. In Washington, the Reagan-Bush era is over. But in California, the conservative legacy lives on.

As a red voter living in this blue state, I find those last two sentences to be…interesting. More than interesting. Coffee hurts when it comes out your nose, did you know that?

Still, the Time columnist might have a point. Why don’t you look into things and decide for yourself, whether California’s problems are on the taxing end or on the spending end. But I would suggest including in that research a reading through California’s list of state agencies…out loud…maybe after you’ve put on Henry Mancini’s March of the Cue Balls. Start at A and work forward.

After you’ve finished, does this look like a state that just might be suffering from some bloat — maybe? Or does it look to you like “the conservative legacy lives on”?

Ah, but don’t you see, it’s a perfect scapegoat setup where the liberals can blame all the crap they screwed up on conservatives. Now as California’s economy slides off into the sea the liberals can say stuff like “If you elect that conservative Sarah Palin, then what happened in California will happen to the rest of the country!!! Arnold was a conservative too!!!”

Of course, all of us who are REAL conservatives know that Arnold is no such thing, but to the liberal it doesn’t matter.
- Instinct | 06/30/2009 @ 11:01
“And at the root of California’s misery lies Proposition 13, the antitax measure that ignited the Reagan Revolution and the conservative era. In Washington, the Reagan-Bush era is over. But in California, the conservative legacy lives on.”

So if one were to look at a state with high property taxes we could obviously conclude that they are fiscally sound, no problemo, si?

Gee, let me think for a second…OK, I’m done, I just remembered I live in the Peoples Republic of New York , one of the highest property taxed states in the union and by golly we are just as fucked as Cali as far as our budget shortfall goes.

Also, I don’t quiet remember Reagan or Bush policies leading us into recessions, out of them yes, into no. Let see both served eight years, very robust economies during their tenures…hmm…

Damn it, lets not let facts get in the way of a little Reagan, Bush bashing, please continue TIME, sorry for interrupting. Assholes.
- tim | 06/30/2009 @ 14:18
They are clearly not finished in California’s government just yet. I note that there are still no state agencies or groups beginning with the letters K, Q, X, Y, or Z.

Clearly there is still room for growth.
- vanderleun | 06/30/2009 @ 14:25
I counted 390 when I loaded the names into a programming editor.

Of course the bloated size of our government is just one piece of it. We have unions, which means not only is it impossible to spent nine cents or less in Year[1] on an item that received ten cents in Year[0]…you’re usually obliged to spend eleven cents in Year[1]. The illegal aliens that are supposed to be helping out our economy so much, apparently need to be working harder at it or finding us another crop of illegal aliens that are more illegal than the ones we already have. The budget items are frozen in place, usually by referendum, so you can still have a heady fiscal crisis even if the state takes in more than it spends — but that’s neither here nor there, because this state seldom does that.

It is a cultural impossibility for anyone in this great state to bitch about something, without having a program in place to deal with it the following year. Hangnail. Itchy butt. Couldn’t find the desired flavor of ice cream at the store. No complaint is too meaningless, trifling or trivial to receive a brand spanking new claim on the taxpayer’s dime…except one: “I’m sick of all these taxes and pain in the ass regulations.” That one, and that one alone, is ritually ignored.

A modest slogan seven words in length could have yanked us back from the edge of the cliff: “Not All Human Discomforts Must Be Soothed.” Now we’re over the guardrail. Too late.
- mkfreeberg | 06/30/2009 @ 14:58
The illegal aliens that are supposed to be helping out our economy so much, apparently need to be working harder at it or finding us another crop of illegal aliens that are more illegal than the ones we already have.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the drain on resources the illegals are. That maybe, just MAYBE, having millions of them in our state using medical and social services, jail space, and classroom space – all at taxpayer expense – might be contributing to our state’s fiscal….uh, state.

I have a question for you all. Don’t property taxes usually fund local governments, not the state? Or is TIME upset because California’s recently gotten into the habit of borrowing from cities and counties?

Funny how when governments run out of money, it’s always because the people aren’t paying enough. Funny how it never works that way with individuals – a corporation never flounders because its customers aren’t paying enough, and an individual never flounders because his employer isn’t paying him enough. Or more to the point, in neither of those cases does the entity have the power to simply go and demand more cash….as the state government thinks it can do to us. Hell, my hours just got cut back at work, and I have 2 choices: A) Take it B) Leave it. There’s no option C) Demand more money, or bemoan the rules that forbid me from demanding more.

I won’t even get started on what a bad place this state is to be a gun owner, or how much hassle it is to hunt here. On point A, we’ve got a bill now in the Senate Public Safety Committee which would criminalize the simple act of buying handgun ammunition over the Internet, and on Point B, the Department of Fish and Game is considering expanding the area covered by the ban on lead-free hunting ammunition. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they tell us that conventional bullets are not to be possessed within the borders of this state at all.
- cylarz | 06/30/2009 @ 15:28
One question that bothers me is how do we stop that power creep cylarz mentioned? An answer I see a lot is run more conservative candidates, but that is not a helpful answer. How do we find conservative candidates? At Conservative-R-Us? Who has the power/authority/mission to find prospective conservatives and set them on the path?

One reason that is also mentioned often as to why we don’t see more conservatives on the political scene is that conservatives have lives. This is a problem imo, because we desperately need people in government who share our views to their core, not simply as talking points. I feel that the future of America might literally depend on people like Marco Rubio and Sarah Palin becoming more commonplace at all levels of government. But how to bring that about? Is it even something that we can really plan?

Honestly lately, I’ve been feeling quite fatalistic about our chances of reversing the coming…. hell, i don’t even know what we’d call it, catastrophe? As long as Rubio and Palin are the exception and not the rule, things aren’t going to get better.

(Discovered your blog this year, love it. Keep up the good work MF 🙂
- KG | 06/30/2009 @ 21:14
And yet another nobody doesn’t make the time to not stop by and not say anything.

Thanks for the kind remarks, they mean a lot.
- mkfreeberg | 06/30/2009 @ 22:04
Ahh, you’re welcome. I tend to just read most of the time, but things are getting to be such that holding back gets harder and harder with each passing day.

And btw I’m from the SF Bay Area… I wish I could say that having courtside seats in front of the action was enjoyable.
- KG | 06/30/2009 @ 22:51
cylarz asked a good question -“I have a question for you all. Don’t property taxes usually fund local governments, not the state? ”

Here’s the break down of my last NY State Property Tax bill:

Sate & Federal Mandates-
Medicaid Program Tax
Other Social Services Mandate
Public Safety Mandates
Other Mandated Services(e.g. Public Health)
General County Budget

If all the counties are solvent wouldn’t/shouldn’t the state theoretically be also?

Does the State only “take in” sales tax as revenue?
- tim | 07/01/2009 @ 08:57
Coffee hurts when it comes out your nose, did you know that?

Yeah? Well, here’s a tip.
Definitely avoid reading while drinking Moxie!
(I claim enhanced victimisationshiphoodnissity on this)
- CaptDMO | 07/02/2009 @ 13:24

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