(credit: SacBee.com)
In our region, we face parcel fees for firefighting, the dismantling of redevelopment agencies and park closures (see analysis and details below).
For all of us, car owners will pay $12 more per year to register their vehicles, and the state would attempt to force online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect sales tax on purchases by California residents.
Universities, courts, social welfare and programs for the elderly, blind, disabled and poor all face cutbacks.
With no bipartisan deal, the state sales tax will drop one percentage point and the vehicle license fee half a percentage point on Friday.
Here are some comments I found telling:
•”I thought we were getting close, but as I look back on it, there is an almost religious reluctance (by Republican lawmakers) to ever deal with the state budget in a way that requires new revenues,” Gov. Jerry Brown said.
•Tax extension initiatives are expected to be put before the voters in November 2012, when Obama will be up for re-election and more Democrats can be expected to head for the polls.
•The “gang that chooses not to govern,” the Democrats term for the GOPers who sat on the sidelines thumbing their noses at political compromise, will still get paid now that a deal is reached.
The best articles I found were here (Los Angeles Times), here (Sacramento Bee) and here (San Francisco Chronicle). The original proposed budget, in detail, is here. Nothing of substance in the local media.
Here’s my regional analysis:
•Fire fees of $150 per parcel for rural homeowners for escalating fire-fighting costs. This has sparked a heated debate — in some cases along the coastal-rural boundaries that increasingly divides our state down the middle. (Forget the NorCal/SoCal, Dodgers/Giants-type rivalry anymore).
The controversial bill, ABx1 29 (Bob Blumenfield, D-Van Nuys) is here. “This is a fair way to deal with these high costs,” argue proponents such as Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego).
Opponents counter it “fleeces” property owners whose property taxes already go to fire-fighting efforts. They also point to “zero” added services.
The opposition by the Regional Council of Rural Counties and the California State Association of Counties is here.
•The budget continues supporting Gov. Brown’s plan to starve the state’s redevelopment agencies. This will greatly impact foothill towns, such as Auburn and Grass Valley, that depend heavily on the money.
“The bills don’t so much kill redevelopment as attempt to starve it to death,” as one report observes. “The first bill eliminates the program and the second bill allows agencies to reconstitute themselves if they dedicate some of their property tax revenue to schools.”
Redevelopment boosters have threatened to sue.
•State parks such as Malakoff Diggins State Historical Park are slated for closure. The list of announces closures are here. Reminder: We had a chance to pass an extra $18 fee per vehicle to keep state parks open. It was defeated, however.
Brown’s budget update from earlier this month — before the new budget deal — is here:
Filed under: Uncategorized
Jeff,
Good update as usual: Just a few quick additions or tweaks.
There is a danger that the “Amazon tax” could cost California revenue if they carry through with their threat to cut off California based agents.
Also, that “half percent” reduction in the car tax is actually a reduction of one-third, so a struggling family with two modest cars would pay $200 starting next week rather than $300.
And finally I suspect the folks on this list will really like the parcel tax for fires because they support increases to our property taxes
John
Over on his local blog, Barry Pruett (the spouse of a McClintock staffer and tea party advocate) is praising Dan Logue and Doug LaMalfa for doing nothing. It’s good work (and pay) if you can get it. Heck, McClintock is a “double dipper” when it comes to government benefits. LOL.
Dear Barry: Nobody Cares. Especially and most importantly Governor Brown.
Kate
Jeff,
The young family that goes out and buys a new Honda on Friday, saving $250 on the sales tax and another $125 on the registration might be happy that the Republicans stood firm.
John
John, buddy, hey the only thing your going to do over here with statements like that is get people p’d off. We aint the Hannity or Bachmann chumpsters over here. Don’t even think about trying to play us for fools. Save the shallow nonsense for the Faux Noise crowd and the tea baggers.
Steve W.,
Maybe you should come down out of the ivory tower occasionally and talk with some of the average folks who struggle to pay such bills.
John
Yeah until their child gets sick and needs Medical, then they die because we can;t afford to treat them. Or until they realize that their kids are in schools with 32 pupils per teacher and are too stupid to earn a decent living in 2050.
Then they will be kicking themselves and saying, hey if everyone in California had just been willing to pay an extra 1% sales tax and 33% VLF maybe things would have been different.
THis is what I call the baby state. I WANT my services, HATE my government, and don;t want to pay for anything.
Steve,
Everyone agrees on the priorities: What I think is happening is that average folks are starting to realize that $11,000 per student should be more than enough to provide a decent K-12 education and that $42,000 per prisoner is WAY TOO MUCH to spend.
As for those “social” services, how about we go with the program that San Diego put in place that stopped 20-25% of the welfare claims before they started because of fraud or miss-information? Implement that statewide and then we can talk about whether folks need to fork over a little more money to register their cars so essential services can be provided.
In fact, EVEN the tried and true “we need public safety and fire protection” is wearing a little thin as folks find out that the average pension for firemen in San Francisco is $108,000.
John
John,
The private schools that our elite (D and R) send their kids to costs way more than $11,000 per kid, and have about 17 kids per teacher. Check out the prices of any elite day school. If it wasn’t for the 32 kids per class problem, that piece of data would indicate that the public schools are a bargain.
As for the prison system, it is simple. Drop numbers to a point where the overcrowding does not send costs spiraling. The biggest driver of costs in the prisons is California’s reluctance to respond to repeated court decisions that conditions there are unconstitutional “cruel and unusual” punishment. The band-aid to this has been enormously expensive court-ordered medical care to treat the conditions the crowding exacerbates. Treat the problem, and the bandaid won’t be necessary.
You’ve just unwittingly provided an example of incrementalism John. So ‘lil family’ saves a C-note on a car to take gramma to chemo, the medical demands and collectors of which causes her bankruptcy that causes her to lose her home, thus they lose their legacy and future and they all get to sleep under their Honda or a bus where republican wingnuts wanted them in the first place. Hey, but they have a f%&kin C-note John…and 1 penny more in their pocket as of June 30. Is that the hilt of assinine insanity you want people to applaud? Get real. Get right. Kate
No Kate, it is one small example of slowing down the incrementalism!
John
john, your one small example is really quite pathetic in the larger scheme of things that have been gutting away middle class life styles for thrity years. Its a shallow example in the big picture. John, your a joke!
Steve,
I will grant you that the middle class has been gutted for the past generation, but the cause is the unholy alliance between big government and big business.
John
Todd Juvinall, who likes to throw around his friendship with Jeff Ackerman, is having another bad hair day:
” Even local leftwingnuts bloggers continue to portray the democrats as “victims” of those naysaying Republicans. Doug and Dan will not sacrifice their principals so Jerry and Darrell can fund another welfare program and supply money to more unions. Sorry libs, we have honorable representatives. If the Legislature continues as is, the State of California will become a suburb of Nevada.”
Don’t these folks understand the county is changing, along with the need to embrace compromise among growing diversity. Even moderate GOPers can do that! Best they retreat to the very southern tip where Tom McClintock is headed or the flatlands of Yuba/Sutter County. Northern Nevada is probably too liberal for them, with a university and all. Or maybe they could climb a tree like that “lib” did at the UC Berkeley football stadium and refuse to come down until we all changed back to the “old ways.” LOL.
What hair…
Balking–is what children do, not adult legislators. But, Brown has learned the “pig” principle firsthand because of it–you can’t teach a pig to sing, (or legislate)…it hurts your ears and annoys the pig. So now, California has to eat some veggies…take our government out of the bathtub before Grover Norquist and the klan tried to drown it for a decade and provide adult supervision for our state. I know if I were Brown and those working on passing the budget that everytime someone, anyone, opened their mouth to yowl about it I’d have a ready phone list of all of them that so gleefully and maliciously sat on their hands while making money hand over fist…Kate
Kate,
Here is a question to ponder:
Not six months ago we had a MASSIVE $25 BILLION deficit that required new taxes to handle. Now there is a budget to sign and the only gap left is the $4 billion IF the revenues do not increase. What happened to the other $21 billion?
John,
The $21 billion came out of the future in the form of increased class sizes in K-12, fewer classroom days in K-12, increased tuition at public universities, cuts in aid to the poor, cuts in basic and vocational education at CDCR, layoffs of municipal employees, deferred maintenance to highways, and so on.
This means that the tomorrow’s workforce will be less productive, fewer children will graduate from high school and be educated at the universities, and recidivism rates will be higher.
Unlike what our parents and grandparents we baby boomers are not leaving the state better than when we found it. But hey, at least our houses are bigger than theirs!
Tony,
with both of your responses the assumption is that more money equals a better education: Yes you must have some money, even if you chose to home-school, but the reality is that many private schools get by on $5,000 to $7,000 per student and give kids a better education.
If you want to consider just the government schools, everyone would admit that we gave a better education a generation ago and the cost per student was much lower back then by any way that you would care to measure it.
John
Last night Steven Colbert asked Grover Norquist if all the senior citizen grammas in the USA were being stung to death by fireants and the only way to save them was to raise taxes what should the GOP’s response be? Grover Norquist’s replied with, “We always have pictures of our grammas”. The audience literally gasped. Then booed…Loudly. Think of little psycho Grover and all the corporate lobbying on capitol hill…and how he holds the GOP by the neck while they dismantle the middle-class to provide workers for their new, senior-less third world. Kate
Kate,
Don’t you think that silly questions require silly answers?
John
John,
The only schools that get along on $5000-7000 per kid are religious schools where teachers teach out of special religious calling. This is an effective subsidy from the teachers who accept a lower salary. Quality education, the kind the Obamas, Bloombergs, Schwarzeneggers, etc., buy their kids is in the $20 k per kid range. And like the religious schools you mention, they do not need to deal with special needs. Like I said above, sounds like the $11 k per kid the public schools get is a real deal!
I don’t assume more money means a better education–obviously it depends on how it is spent. But large classes lead to a poorer education as the Obamas and Bloombergs know.
Tony
I find it rather “interesting” that the Tea Party Darling Bachman personally received $30K in a agriculture subsidy…..
Now isn’t she for less subsidies?
I gotta try to understand that one…..
More like 300k Brad…and Bachmans husband collected about 140k in Medicaid fees for his christian counseling business…go figure. I’m so not shocked…Kate
Opps, silly me as I forgot a zero (just like her credibility, as it’s a zero too!)
Hey I see a lot of (red) states that suck more than California…..
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41666602?__source=yahoo|topstatesva|&par=yahoo