Posts Tagged ‘California’
Thursday, December 13th, 2012
This was supposed to go up last night, but there was a glitch. Ten hours late sounds about right for California…
California leads the nation in outrageous pay and benefits for unionized state employees. Including $822,302 a year for a single prison psychiatrist.
Calpers to taxpayers and bond-holders: DROP DEAD. We’re getting ours, jack.
Since California has hiked tax rates tax revenues have decline. Those unwilling to learn from the Laffer Curve are doomed to live through it.
Living in California means not being able to afford police.
The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino has had 45 murders this year.
Bankrupt Stockton has had 68.
And Los Angeles is shuttering courthouses because they can’t afford them.
The Blue State Suicide Pact.
Movie and TV production is leaving California.
“Why would you leave $25 million on the table?” Oh gee, I don’t know, but maybe because you have to pay back $34 million on your risky $2.5 million loan? Math, liberal! Do you speak it?
California Blue Shield wants to hikes rates as much as 20%. How’s that ObamaCare working out for you?
People are still leaving California…and Texas is the most popular destination.
Texas was once again the destination of choice for more people moving within the United States as a whole, with some 515,000 people moving here in 2012. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mario Loyola talks about how unions become sanctioned government cartels.
Speaking of TPPF, they linked to this Dallas Fed report, which shows that the Texas economy continues to hum along. “Texas added 22,900 jobs in October, lowering its unemployment rate in October to 6.6 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September and 1.3 percent below the national average of 7.9 percent.”
Tags:Budget, California, CalPERs, Crime, fraud, Laffer Curve, Los Angeles, ObamaCare, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Crime, Economics, ObamaCare, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, November 19th, 2012
Another quick update on the respective fates of our nation’s two biggest states:
In case you didn’t notice, California Democrats now have a super-majority in the legislature, which means they can raise taxes to their heart’s content. That should only heighten the difference between California’s Blue State model and Texas’ Red State model.
California spends far more money on its welfare state that Texas, but has greater income inequality.
The election California voters helped accelerate the state’s economic decline.
America is becoming California…and California is becoming Greece.
The California city of Atwater backs away from bankruptcy after winning concessions from unions.
Texas added 36,600 total nonfarm jobs in October, dropping unemployment down to 6.6%.
Tags:Atwater, Blue State, Budget, California, Red State, Taxes, Texas
Posted in Budget, Texas, unions | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
Six days to the election, and I’ve spent most of the night handing out candy. Six days until we choose to follow the successful Texas Red State path of low taxes and limited government, or the failing Blue State California path of bankruptcy and bigger government.
CalPERS sues Compton to force the bankrupt city to keep donating to the underfunded, soon-to-be-bankrupt state pension fund.
Incarcerating someone in a California prison guards costs and average of $47,000 a year. Ridiculous guard salaries and perks.
Texas has one of the lowest State-Local debt burdens in the country.
For a contrarian view, Victor David Hanson offers up reasons not to leave California.
Nothing at all to do with politics, but I can’t resist noting that the “Dream Team” Los Angeles Lakers have hit a little snag on their way to going undefeated in the regular season. Meanwhile, the completely gutted and rebuilt Houston Rockets are 1-0. You take your satisfaction where you can find it…
Tags:2012 Election, Budget, California, CalPERs, Economics, Elections, Texas, Victor Davis Hanson
Posted in Budget, Economics, Elections, Texas | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
With the election less than two weeks away, time for a roundup of how the champions of their respective political models (Texas for Red States and California for Blue States) are doing:
Why is gasoline so expensive in California? Because Californian politicians have made it that expensive. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
California is getting ready to shovel more benefits to public employee union members. Because retiring at age 50 with 90% of their salary just wasn’t enough.
Bankrupt San Bernadino stops paying into the CalPERS pension fund. (Previously.
Moody’s: “we expect…more bankruptcy filings and bond defaults among California cities, reflecting the increased risk to bondholders as investors are asked to contribute to plans for closing budget gaps.”
It’s all part of California’s Fifty Shades of Golden electoral masochism. “Not surprising, the most productive of California’s citizens are leaving in droves. For those who want to prosper, the safeword is “Texas.'”
The guy from California who under-reported unemployment to make the numbers look better? Obama donor. This is my shocked face.
California has actually carried out some pension reforms (like capping annual benefits at $132,000), but its pension plans are still underfunded by $165 billion.
California got $411 million in the National Mortgage Settlement. So how much of that actually went to help people with their mortgages? None of it. “Think of California’s persistent budget deficit as a great white shark devouring every source of cash in its path.”
Might California voters finally be reaching a tipping point against big government? Answer cloudy, ask again later.
Texas continues to add jobs.
Moreover, they’re not low wage jobs either:
The total personal income (TPI) in Texas reached $1.07 trillion dollars in the second quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s an increase of 71 percent from the state’s corresponding total 10 years earlier, $626.7 billion.
Here’s another way of looking at it: Texas accounted for 8.02 percent of the nation’s TPI this year, up 1.10 percentage points from 6.92 percent in 2002.
That’s nearly five times larger than the runner-up, Florida, which increased its share of national TPI by 0.23 points in a decade. Just four other states registered gains better than a tenth of a point.
Texas has the best unemployment rate among the five biggest states, at 6.8%. California, at 10.2%, has the worst.
Texas’ tort reform has attracted medical specialists to the state at a rate outstripping population growth.
Texas added 262,700 private sector jobs over the last year.
And Dwight, as usual, has more on the goings-ons in Golden State locales like Oakland and Bell.
(Hat tips for many Texas items: WILLisms’ Twitter feed.)
Tags:2012 Election, Blue State, Budget, California, CalPERs, Democrats, Elections, fraud, gas prices, Oakland, San Bernardino, Texas, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup. First up: The man who moved from one to the other:
Chuck DeVore examines the differences between California and Texas. Scariest takeaway? “With one-eighth of the nation’s population, California has one-third of America’s welfare recipients.”
A review of the book Crazifornia. Pay special attention to the California bridge tester who couldn’t test bridges because he was up on child sex crime charges.
More on how California has underestimated their debt obligations. By an order of magnitude.
“City College of San Francisco is perilously close to bankruptcy, in part because it employs nearly twice as many faculty as similar colleges and pays them better – yet educates no more students on average, says a new financial analysis of the state’s largest public school. The college got into trouble because, unlike other colleges, it failed to make the budget cuts necessary to keep up with reductions in state funding, never set aside money for its growing retirement obligations, and ‘has provided salary increases and generous benefits with no discernible means to pay for them.'” So it’s like the State of California in miniature. Bonus: Its current budge assumes the passage of Proposition 30.
And speaking of propositions, Prop 37, requiring the labeling of genetically modified food, will be a windfall for trial lawyers.
Atwater is the latest California town having layoffs and considering bankruptcy.
The city manager of Stockton explains why the city had to declare bankruptcy. It’s filled with special pleading for vested union interests: “Nor can we leave the CalPERS state pension system. CalPERS should be reformed, but if Stockton didn’t offer an industry-standard pension plan, we simply would not be able to staff an already challenged police department. It is unrealistic for creditors to posit that Stockton reject existing pension obligations.” Attention anyone thinking of buying California bonds: When it comes to paying you or paying union cronies, you’re going to get the short end of the stick, no matter what the law says.
What other California cities could declare bankruptcy? How about San Diego and Los Angeles?
More signs the Texas economy is outpacing the rest of the nation.
Texas bonds are outperforming the rest of the nation.
Texas adds more construction jobs than any other state.
Texas cuts crime more than the rest of the nation.
(Hat tip: Willisms, City Journal, others.)
Tags:Blue State, bureaucrats, California, Chuck DeVore, Democrats, Red State, Texas, unions
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Regulation, Texas, unions, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 28th, 2012
I’ve got another Texas vs. California piece coming around on the guitar, but I thought there was enough here to warrant a separate post.
Hold on to your hats, but it seems that California voters might, just might, be catching on that the Democrats who run California’s state government are wasting their money.
I will now wait for the indignant shouts of incredulous outrage to die down.
Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Well, I did say “might.”
The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.
If voters aren’t willing to stop spending for a $100 billion train to nowhere that everyone know will never be completed, and which would lose even more money every year if it was, when will they?
Brown’s measure would temporarily raise income tax rates on high earners for seven years and boost the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in a bid to avoid steep cuts in funds for schools and other programs.
Note that word: “temporary.”
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the way politics actually works knows that there’s no such thing as a “temporary” tax hike. The only thing that prevents Democrats (and establishment Republicans) from spending every cent of every tax collected and more is booting them out of office. Raising taxes simply ensures that they’ll spend all the new revenue and additional money they don’t have on top of that. And with the fiscal tsunami California is facing from bloated government, spiraling debt, and gold-plated public employee union pensions that will bankrupt the state, those “temporary” taxes will never be repealed. Ever.
And two or four years down the line, the next Democratic governor will be asking the voters to approve another “temporary” tax hike…
Tags:2012 Election, Budget, California, Democrats, Elections, Jerry Brown, Taxes, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Elections, unions, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, September 21st, 2012
Time for another Texas vs. California round-up of how the Lone Star State is kicking the not-so-Golden State’s ass in just about every measure except signing NBA free-agents.
You know how bad California’s debt was? Well, it’s worse than that. A lot worse. Try “at least $167 billion and as much as $335 billion.”
California may see more bankruptcies. (Gee, ya think?) And Jerry Brown’s desperate hunt for money is pushing more cities that way.
Texas continues to outperform the rest of the nation in export growth.
Is Democrat-run California broke because it’s corrupt? “The governor and Democratic leaders are no more serious about reforming pensions than they are about shuttering state parks. The goal they are serious about is raising taxes.”
Bankrupt San Bernandino eliminates almost 100 jobs.
You know how some claimed California beat Texas in job growth? Yeah, not so much.
How bad has it gotten? Minor league hockey team has “Our City Isn’t Bankrupt Night” to taunt rival Stockton.
Texas’ tort reforms worked, doubling the number of Texas doctors between 2000 and 2005.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Democrats, Red State, Texas
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
The City Council of San Bernardino, California failed to pass budget cuts at their meeting Tuesday, despite the city already being in bankruptcy.
After a meeting that lasted more than nine hours and stretched past midnight, the San Bernardino City Council failed to pass a plan for drastic budget reductions, an initial step in the city’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The proposed “pre-pendency plan” included $22.4 million in cuts, achieved by measures including slashing more than 100 jobs and closing three of the four city libraries. It would not cover the entire $45.8-million budget shortfall, but city staff called the plan a necessary first step.
Proposed cuts to the Fire Department became an irreconcilable sticking point. Twenty positions in the department were slated to be eliminated without layoffs, and the plan included an option of rotating closures at fire stations.
Instead of voting on the budget plan as a whole, Councilman Chas Kelley made a proposal to vote on an alternate plan for the Fire Department that was backed by the firefighters union, and to direct staff to seek bids on a proposal to contract out some of the city’s trash services.
The vote, taken after midnight, passed 4 to 3 but was promptly vetoed by Mayor Pat Morris, who had called that plan “irresponsible” and an “almost slavish adoption of a union proposal without any analysis.”
Maybe they can delay things long enough that repo men are actually carting furniture out of the council chambers before they vote…
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Democrats, San Bernardino
Posted in Budget, Democrats | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 27th, 2012
It’s late August, and California’s slide toward insolvency continues apace.
How badly underwater is CalPERS? Try $884 billion.
Speaking of California unions, here’s how they’re trying to block reform.
California’s recovery is much slower than the already slow pace of the rest of the nation.
Things have gotten so bad that Moody’s is rexamining the outlook on all California cities.
What California should learn from Wisconsin.
CalTrans spends $22.5 million on unneeded home repairs, with a hefty side-helping of graft. (Hat tip: Dwight)
So what happened to all those Solyndra glass tubes? Can you say modern art?
Texas snags it’s lowest bond interest rate ever at 0.225%. That makes sense. Broke ass California getting a 0.43% rating doesn’t.
Texas has five of the ten fastest growing counties (including Williamson).
California’s “urban forest” offset scam.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, environmentalism, Obama Scandals, Red State, Solyndra, Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Global Warming, Obama Scandals, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, August 16th, 2012
Looks like California has done such a good dog of screwing the pooch that I may have to start doing these roundups weekly:
Although bankrupt, California is about to add another outrageous benefit to its already bloated pension plan.
The Road Warrior‘s future as California’s present.
Creditor demands that Stockton reduce it’s outrageous pension plans.
In deed, CalPERs and state and local governments have combined to screw both taxpayers and bond-holders.
Hermosa Beach meter maids make make nearly $100,000 a year.
Could Fresno be the next California city to declare bankruptcy?
That is, unless the next California city to declare bankruptcy is Los Angeles.
Tags:bankruptcy, Blue State, Budget, California, CalPERs, fraud, Fresno, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Red State, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »