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And I don't see how they can discuss the sorry state of California without mentioning those marvelously wonky ballot initiatives (give us unlimited services but

And I don't see how they can discuss the sorry state of California without mentioning those marvelously wonky ballot initiatives (give us unlimited services but don't raise our taxes) that are the real source of the problem. And don't forget that this is the American Enterprise Institute talking - the story is skewed and filtered to fit their world view.

anamax 17y ago
> give us unlimited services but don't raise our taxes Except that that's not true. Income and sales taxes are, in principle, unlimited. (Prop 13 is actually keeping city and county revenues from cratering - my property taxes went UP this year thanks to prop 13.) And the amount spent on voter mandated services doesn't dominate the budget. (There's a 50% on education requirement, but that's just a tax on spending on other things.) CA added a lot of programs and spending since the golden era, almost all by legislative action. How much of it made things better? CA's govt is incapable of prioritizing within the constraints laid out by voters. Yes, if voters say spend money on something, that means that the legislature may have to go without some program that they'd like.