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You can't create a crisis simply by refusing to raise taxes (which were already near the highest in the nation). Sure you can. Spending increases are very pre
by rprasad 14y ago
You can't create a crisis simply by refusing to raise taxes (which were already near the highest in the nation).
Sure you can. Spending increases are very predicable, and generally increase with the size of the governed populace.
There is a limit to how much efficiency you can extract from technology and procedural changes when there are legal (and especially constitutional) restrictions on what you can do and how you can do it.
The Republican minority repeatedly attempted not only to prevent spending increases, but to reduce budget revenue to 1960s levels, i.e., to the level of spending when the state's population was roughly half its current size. The only success they had was in reducing budgets for (very successful) social programs and drug rehabilitation.
- NoPiece 14y agoJust as spending rises predictably, so does revenue along with GDP. Taxe rates haven't gone down, so all you need to do is grow spending at a reasonable rate. California didn't grow spending reasonably or responsibly. As tax revenue spiked during the dot com and real estate boom, spending went up commensurately, and beyond.
- guelo 14y agoTax rates didn't go down but tax revenue dropped dramatically during the recession.
- NoPiece 14y agoThey didn't drop dramatically, they flattened, or reverted to the mean after a decade of excessive growth based on the real estate bubble. This graph is from budget summary: http://i.imgur.com/Zvjbw.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Zvjbw.jpg If there was one iota of spending restraint in the lead up to the recession, California wouldn't be in a crisis.