CA on brink of collapse

[Dossenator]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts418

If CA does not balance their budgets by midnight tonight they will have to start sending out IOU's on July 1st for all debt. CA has a 24 billion dollar deficit. We in CA voted last month on a slew of props to help with the budget crisis....they all amounted to increases in taxes (after taxes had just been raised). I, along with most CA's, voted no on all the props. I believe that the CA government has to cut programs....spend less. The people of CA are taxed to death, home prices are completely outrageous, and I could go on and on (have I mentioned that I can't wait until I can move back to Arkansas...however, there is no way my wife and I could sell our condo for anything close to what we financed it for 2 years ago...so we are stuck right here for awhile).

If you do not live in CA you may be wondering why does this matter to me. Well, CA's economy alone would rank #8 in the world (raking in around 1.7 trillion a year). If CA goes down then it will be felt across the entire nation.

The governator wants to cut programs...I am in favor of that, but the dems don't want that...am I confident they will get anything worked out....NO! The bottom line is if you have 1 dollar you should only spend 1 dollar. They don't seem to get that concept...now they owe 24 billion and have no money.

The governator has propossed to eliminate the states welfare system, close most of the state parks and state beaches in CA, sell state land and property (I saw on the news the other day that this would include the LA Coliseum where the USC Trojans play), forcing state employees to take more days off of work without pay, cut the amount of money that is going to education and other gov. services, etc, etc, etc.

[Dossenator]

Did CA reach a budget in time...NO!!!! And over night the deficit climbed another 2 Billion dollars. Here is the latest story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090701/pl_ ... nia_budget

[Derek]

It's not going to be fixed.

Nothing against anyone in California, especially you, but this talk of the Federal Guvmint intervening is nonsense.

We HAVE to stop spending money like it's going out of style, and the dollar is going out of style.

There is going to be a LOT of pain to go around for all Americans.

[Dossenator]

I completely agree. I am against the federal gov stepping in. I think that the CA gov has to simply eliminate programs and get the budget balanced. Spend only what you have. Will it affect a lot of families and put a burden on many...yes, but in the long run it will be worth it. They keep trying to fix a broken leg with a band aid....it just doesn't work.

[Spence]

California has legislated themselves into bankruptcy. They have long been the liberal example to the nation, even more then New York. Now we are hearing they are "too big to let fail". I'm getting a little tired of that phrase. How about starting a phase that says "we are too smart to legislate ourselves into bankruptcy" and then don't. If you don't spend more then you make, you won't go broke.

I know a guy who is dating a girl who has been......lets say.....irresponsible her whole life. My friend and I were talking about the credit problems. People not being able to afford the credit the had. She agreed and said that a bank sent her a credit card and she maxed it out. They should have known that she couldn't pay it and shouldn't have sent it to her. As long as people like that exist, and we don't shun them (and I mean that), we are doomed. I believe that a little shame could fix lots of the countries problems.

[Dossenator]

Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried, since he first entered office, to reduce CA's budget. However, the democrats who control the state gov continued to shoot down everything he proposses. The Dems answer is to always raise taxes. You only can do that so many times. 4 years ago the state was in a crisis (not long after I moved here) and the Governator then said time after time....for every dollar you have you can only spend 1 dollar. He slashed funding to education, road construction, police, etc and he was blasted for it. He said we simply do not have the money to mantain everything at the current level. He was warning that things would have to change or it would get much worse. Well, here we are and it is much worse.

My wife is an assistant principal and her school is going to have to let go teachers for a second straight year and cut the hours of many others...that will also raise the number of students in a class for all the remaining teachers. They have been told that the 2010-2011 school year will actually be even worse. This year they predict that 30,000 teachers in CA will lose their job or have their hours drastically cut back. The administrators are affected as well. My wife will have to take unpaid furlows this year (they have not been told how many yet...hopefully not a lot).

I have a part time job with the North Orange County Community College. I teach an older adults music class at various nursing homes in Southern CA. I had one of my classes canceled and this next years calendar has 4 extra weeks of unpaid vacation on it. That is a huge cut from my salary. My full time job is writing music for movies...the projects are still coming in but they are only offering a fraction of what they did a couple of years ago (and many filmmakers are wanting the composers to work for free and say they will get paid on the back end if the film makes money....which means the composer will never get paid).

I'm not compaining...my wife and I have food to eat, a place to live, and lots of family and friends. If it gets so bad that we lose our jobs and homes we will be fine. Those are just things and can be replaced. Hopefully, this will make people become more fically responsible...on an individual level as well as on a government level.

[Derek]

Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried, since he first entered office, to reduce CA's budget. However, the democrats who control the state gov continued to shoot down everything he proposses. The Dems answer is to always raise taxes. You only can do that so many times. 4 years ago the state was in a crisis (not long after I moved here) and the Governator then said time after time....for every dollar you have you can only spend 1 dollar. He slashed funding to education, road construction, police, etc and he was blasted for it. He said we simply do not have the money to mantain everything at the current level. He was warning that things would have to change or it would get much worse. Well, here we are and it is much worse.

My wife is an assistant principal and her school is going to have to let go teachers for a second straight year and cut the hours of many others...that will also raise the number of students in a class for all the remaining teachers. They have been told that the 2010-2011 school year will actually be even worse. This year they predict that 30,000 teachers in CA will lose their job or have their hours drastically cut back. The administrators are affected as well. My wife will have to take unpaid furlows this year (they have not been told how many yet...hopefully not a lot).

I have a part time job with the North Orange County Community College. I teach an older adults music class at various nursing homes in Southern CA. I had one of my classes canceled and this next years calendar has 4 extra weeks of unpaid vacation on it. That is a huge cut from my salary. My full time job is writing music for movies...the projects are still coming in but they are only offering a fraction of what they did a couple of years ago (and many filmmakers are wanting the composers to work for free and say they will get paid on the back end if the film makes money....which means the composer will never get paid).

I'm not compaining...my wife and I have food to eat, a place to live, and lots of family and friends. If it gets so bad that we lose our jobs and homes we will be fine. Those are just things and can be replaced. Hopefully, this will make people become more fically responsible...on an individual level as well as on a government level.

Ahh...a fellow traveler....I've played bass for about 20 years. Music has been a big part of my life for a good while now.

And big time respect for trying to teach it to older folks, they can be pretty hard headed sometimes. My grandmother is in a nursing home, and she gives my mom fits some times.