No Exit for California

Jerry, I think the state's contribution to the UC budget is only about $3 billion/year. See page 2 of:

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/ne...

Thanks... yes, you say $16 billion would be saved by closing UC, and you don't say that only $3 billion would be saved by the State of California, so your article was accurate, but it is easy to be confused.

Your Calbuzz article was a bit too smart alecky for me; I don't know Leland Yee from Adam. But there is a bigger point, that somehow UC is not serving the people of California in the manner they want to be served, or else the budget would not have been cut so much during the past decade. Yee may in fact be grandstanding, but there may be a germ of truth in his actions.

"the wannabes seeking Arnold’s job have yet to say anything that seriously addresses the mess."

That's absolutely not true. Gavin Newsom is calling for repeal of the 2/3 rule, which is the cause (by allowing the minority of Republican wingnuts in the legislature to block sensible revenue increases) of this mess. It's odd that you point out that it all started with Prop 13 but failed to mention that that's because it contained the 2/3 rule. Also on the ballot in 1978 was the other Prop 8, which would have created a split tax roll allowing a higher property tax rate on commercial property and would have given residential property owners the relief they needed in a far more sane way than Prop 13 -- but Prop 13 contained a clause invalidating Prop 8. Needless to say, large corporations, not homeowners, got the bulk of the benefit of Prop 13, which they heavily bankrolled.

"somehow UC is not serving the people of California in the manner they want to be served, or else the budget would not have been cut so much during the past decade"

Non sequitur; in fact, it gets cause and effect backwards.

If the cause is the budget cutting, why does the State Leg cut the UC Budget, JayB?

I'm not a state resident so I hope you will forgive my ignorance, but it seems to me that the crux of the intractability of the problem is Proposition 13 and the onerous 2/3's requirement to pass a budget. Why can't Proposition 13 be repealed?

Tax revenue is created by high wage jobs in industry and manufacturing. California tax policies and fanatic environmental restrictions (e.g. Nava against oil development while jetting to Sacramento) are destroying what is left of the industrial base. Importing more and more poorly educated people while exporting highly skilled and highly educated people who happen to be the wrong demographic is just dumb.

The left says we should be like Canada. Canada uses a points system for immigration that emphasizes education and ability to assimilate. Canada only has a 6% unemployment rate and hasn't had a single bank failure.
Canada is actively developing its oil shale reserves. Maybe we should emulate Canada instead of pandering to La Raza.

Reads like a last minute column to meet a deadline. A few billion in a 24 billion problem sure sounds like a significant amount to me, say 15-20%, not a bad start. I thought the governor was a joke when first elected, but my image of him now that he has centered himself respectably is very high, and would vote for him. California is one of the highest taxing states in the country and has hidden taxes in the form of no break at all for capital gains which is huge. The real issue here Jerry is something that you don't want to seem to address, that of illegal immigration and its huge cash drain on our schools and budget. It is absolutely ridiculous that our schools are focusing their resources on ESL kids to raise testing levels and cutting the budget on GATE and other gifted kids and cutting out arts and music. What a joke. If this souunds a bit angry, it is. I am really tired of paying for "Illegal" immigrants that send their money back home and have no pride or respect for our country. And by the way, I am far from a right winger, just really fed up and your column doesn't address the real issues here, not even close. You'd rather point your finger at the governor and offer political, rather than substantial solutions to the issue.

Bravo to swheeler -- ignoring the illegal immigration problem was a key problem with the old News-Press under Jerry's editorship, and the McCaw News-Press isn't any better. Jerry, talk to some legal immigrants who are not Latino -- you will find many who really resent the enormous expenditures on health care, welfare and education for illegal imigrants and their children. When you add these same children walking out of school carrying Mexican flags, as recently ocurred in Santa Maria, you are just further enraging taxpayers.

It's interesting to me that the governor's threatened too-little-too-late cuts are almost exclusively in areas adversely affecting the less fortunate among us, tantamount to a shrunken family budget that says "Dad gets to keep enjoying his sports car, booze and cigars while Mom won't have to break a nail appointment but sorry, kids, you'll all still be wearing last year's shoes. Grew out of them? More's the pity..."

As long as corporations and fat cats fund our legislature we'll have government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. Clean, fair, and transparent elections, funded with public money, are a must, followed by a plan to pay off the deficit with new state taxes based on well thought-out wants and desires.

And what was the News-Press under Jerry Roberts supposed to do about "the illegal immigration problem"? The News-Press was — and still is, albeit a sorry one — a newspaper.

Wow, so Republicans are to blame for 7 of the 10 bad things on that list.

Wouldn't it be easier to just ban Republicans?

*sarcasm*

State government is so bad that it cant be revised or fixed. I'm with Nordquist and Maldanado. Drown it. Drive it off a cliff.

All Republicans are EVIL! Hogwash! Democrats want BIG GOVENMENT, Republicans love small GOVERNMENT but republicans are more libral than they were some 20 or 30 years ago. We have large, hungry government plus a huge imigration problem coupled with imigarnts with voting power to sway the vote in their favor. Obama was elected because of WHITE guilt and shame. White's voted for him and others because they want to right the wrongs of a Nation shrouded in shame for enslavement of blacks. I didn't vote for Obama because I have NO white shame. My family NEVER owned a slave but had been enslave throughout time by other powerful Countries, Russia, Germany, Norseman, Persia, Rome, Greese. State Government was corupted way before the Goveanater took over, kick-backs from the Power Companys, Big Industrial Bussiness, Oil Companies, etc..
No matter who takes Arnold’s place the economy in California is doomed. There is NO silver bullet, No magic wand or spell to make this problem disappear. California has had way too many thiefs taken from the State Coffers and the more the economy goes bad the more people who need Government monies to survive. Besides, Arnold, doesn't draw a State Pay-Check, the next guy will.]
dou4now