Font ResizeDemocrats won't stay within financial plan
I seriously doubt that the state government can live within Gov. Jerry Brown's budget.
Most of the news regarding the budget tells me it is financial fiction and wishful thinking.
Giving more tax money to Brown and the Democrats is like feeding more meat to a carnivore, hoping that it will become a vegetarian.
Brown and the Democrats have an insatiable appetite for tax money to be used for vote-buying programs. Their philosophy of governance is problem management, not problem solving. The reason should be obvious.
Edward Zawatson
Concord
Taxes will be raised to fit the 'budget'
Of course, the state of California will live within its budget as presented by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Why? Because the budget will keep changing and lawmakers will keep raising taxes to fit their "budget." Why would we think anything else? After all, this is the same "budget" they backed into through delayed payments and bogus economic, investment-return and tax collection projections, even after getting their tax hikes.
The problem is that we'll never know it because the press won't report it as such but rather continue to provide cover and excuses for their fiscal and moral malpractice. And the beat goes on.
Al Moffatt
Welfare for immigrants is a hidden expense
Gov. Jerry Brown's budget is an exercise in ignoring reality for political expediency.
There is a hidden expense that is ignored in the hope that no one will notice or it will magically go away. That expense is the ever-increasing amount of taxpayer money that goes to support welfare for illegal and legal immigrants in California.
Historically, this expense has totaled $10 billion annually in the (for all intents and purposes) bankrupt state of California. The prediction of a surplus resulting from Brown's budget is spurious. Even if it actually existed, it would quickly be absorbed by the immigrant welfare expense and the machinations of the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which has no restraints on its documented propensity to spend recklessly.
Furthermore, let us not forget the service on California's state debt of $167 billion that is, conveniently, overlooked by politicians and bureaucrats. If that isn't sufficient for torpedoing Brown's budget, remember he also continues to push his unpopular dream of high-speed rail and the Peripheral Canal, now known as the Twin Tunnels Project.
Ernest Hampson
Pittsburg
Legislature is addicted to frivolous spending
No way can the state live within the budget presented by Gov. Jerry Brown. Why? California is addicted to spending.
Furthermore, California is controlled by unions, the EPA and, now, by a supermajority of dysfunctional legislators who are also addicted to frivolous spending.
This is the problem, not the lack of revenue.
Wait until taxes commence, reducing your paycheck, and wait until prices increase on groceries, energy, utilities, lumber and property taxes. Thank those who voted for Proposition 30, who by doing so gave Brown and Sacramento a blank check to our pocketbooks and those of our grandchildren.
There's no such thing as a temporary tax. Still no jobs, only a fragile budget.
Rudolph Jimenez
Newark
Must get everyone to follow the budget
I think so, if the budget is followed, but Gov. Jerry Brown has made major changes to how pensions are figured, and that involves the double dippers.
Apparently, CalSTRS is refusing to follow this budget. How can a state agency refuse to follow the budget?
D. Scott
Oakland
State has a woeful record with priorities
Why not? During the past 20 years, this state has a woefully poor track record of proving that it can control its spending or manage its priorities.
Daniel Tracy
Fremont
