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How many California state employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?
We’ll find out soon enough.
A recent analysis of the state’s general fund conducted by the San Jose Mercury News found that government growth in California had exceeded the growth in population plus inflation by a whopping $10.2 billion over the previous five years.
That’s a 35% increase – in just five years - causing California’s fiscal house of cards to collapse last year, opening a $24 billion hole in its upcoming budget.
In an effort to save a nickel – or rather, $1.4 billion worth of nickels – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last December that state employees take two days worth of furloughs each month, an idea that was roundly rejected by the state’s government unions.
What impact, precisely, do furloughs and other government layoffs have on the services currently being provided to California taxpayers?
Obviously, there are those who claim the budget shortfall will result something akin to the state falling into the Pacific or deteriorating into a third world wasteland, but those doom-and-gloom pronouncements were roundly rejected by California voters last month when they declined to approve billions of dollars worth of tax hikes... [snip]
Take the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has seen a dramatic increase in customers taking advantage of its online services in the wake of the recent furloughs. Rather than be “adversely impacted,” Californians simply went online to conduct their business – which begs the question of whether or not some of those furloughed DMV employees should have jobs in the first place.
And what of the state’s park system –which could easily be privatized instead of draining hundreds of millions in tax dollars each year? Sure California’s parks are lovely, but are they an essential government responsibility?
Sadly, common sense assessments like that don’t seem to factor into the decision-making process in Sacramento... [snip]
California is the world’s eighth-largest economy. Frankly, it’s about time its leaders started running the state more like a business and less like a pyramid scam.
[Not if we keep returning the same crew to Sacramento.]
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