Californian cities are making it awfully difficult to resist the appeal of places like Austin. The dysfunction in government and the general unfriendliness to

Californian cities are making it awfully difficult to resist the appeal of places like Austin. The dysfunction in government and the general unfriendliness to the upwardly mobile is appalling. California neither benefits from the good Puritan economic sense seen in New England states nor the thrift of good-governance states like Montana. Yes, Montana ! : For six years it has been one of the only states in America with a budget surplus: this year it is a record $433 million, proportionally equivalent to a federal surplus of $858 billion. Thus we’ve been able to cut taxes, invest in education and infrastructure and keep essential services intact. We recently got our first bond rating upgrade in 26 years. And we’re not simply riding the Western energy boom. The recession has driven unemployment to 7.5 percent, and while we’ve had a great run with oil, coal and gas, royalties from these commodities account for only 9 percent of our budget surplus. How do we accomplish what most states and the federal government cannot? I like to say we run government like a ranch. In ranching — my old job — you either pinch pennies or go belly-up. We do the same in government. Perhaps Washington can try it. For one thing, we challenge every expense. If it isn’t absolutely necessary, we eliminate it. When the recession came we found $80 million in savings, which helped us avert a budget crisis. Little things added up: we renegotiated state contracts, cut our energy consumption by 20 percent, auctioned off state vehicles and canceled building projects and computer upgrades. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/opinion/cutting-costs-the-montana-way.html?pagewanted=print http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/opinion/cutting-costs-the-... California is not just a weird cesspool of the quixotic and the inept. It is quixotic and inept for solely the sake of being so. (If you didn't notice, someone already down-voted your entry. I expect the same of mine.)