Economic mess

[garrula lingua]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I was informed, yesterday, that the State of California released 5,000 prisoners due to the economy (not enough corrections officers).
The County of L.A. has often released county inmates very early, due to overcrowding but, I believe this is the largest release of felony offenders, by the state.

The City of Los Angeles is laying off 4,000 employees. Some police dept. employees were given employment applications for DWP & other agencies to fill out at work ...

The Superior Court System in Los Angeles told its employees it may lay off 1,800 employees.

The Courts are already closed one day a month, and the calendars are backed up.

... I don't know - what sense does it make to release prisoners and lay off cops, paramedics, firemen and court staff ?
Isn't that just going to make the situation worse ??

Maybe it's time to legalize some drugs and start taxing them, as we've done with cigarettes and alcohol.
Maybe it's time to eliminate some less productive governmental agencies ...
Maybe we should start looking at the excesses of politicians - their spending & why GAO isn't/hasn't done a great job.

.... I'm just feeling so bad for all my friends who work their butts off, believe in what they do, care to do a good (& righteous) job -- and they may lose those jobs. It's a terrible loss for all of us.

In the midst of this, L.A. passed a 'no cursing' ordinance. Great.
The paper said they wouldn't enforce it -it's part of a 'neighborly' effort.
However, citations are comng into the police dept. *&**# !!!

[Country Living]

California teachers are getting pay cuts. Some of them have had two cuts so far.

[quincy]

What a genius plan - fire a bunch of people and then ticket them for swearing!

I agree that legalizing and taxing drugs like marijuana makes sense.

Michigan is experiencing the same problems that California is, and there does not appear to be an easy solution.

[tranquility]

While I agree with garrula lingua completely, even doing that isn't even close to what is needed. Taxes have to be raised and spending cut, dramatically, to even have a chance at avoiding default.

The problem with raising taxes first is that the politicians will take that as a go ahead to keep spending up and the problem with cutting spending first is that the politicians seem to cut in places that cause the most pain to the general populace and the least pain to their contributors in order to place the most pressure on raising taxes and the least on the income of those who contribute time and money to them. It's a mess and it's going to get worse before, or if, it gets better.

The anti-business climate and high tax structure of the state is driving business and investment away. If California didn't have the greatest natural resources of sun, sea, mountains, weather and an incredibly rich layer of topsoil in the central valley, it would already be desolate and everyone who could would be on a bus heading out. Go to the city of Riverside. It used to be a jewel, but I visited there recently and it's like a movie set of a science fiction zombie movie just after the virus hit.

The only way to come close to dealing with this is to cut the salaries and benefits of government workers. It is simply unsustainable for those in the public sector to earn more than those in the private sector. I understand there is not an easy way to compare, but, in some ways you can and the difference is astonishing. Pensions must be changed to a pay as you go like a private sector 401(k) rather than a lifetime guarantee based upon a salary they earned on the last day of work. The only good thing which could come from the disaster of the federal medical coverage reform is that, if it does pass, we could put all the government retirees into it and save a bundle. Sure, there are exceptions for the gold-plated plans right now, but the economic and political pressure to put everyone in the same situation will cause merger.

The only realistic way to start the process is to have the endorsement of a public employees union be a negative thing for a politician in the minds of the voters. I am astonished at how a teacher's union endorsement, money and personnel to support a school board member is considered a good thing to voters. Teachers are wonderful people. But, teacher's unions have one focus. And, that focus is not helping the voters get the best deal in contract negotiations. Wild.
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Info edit:Just saw this in an article on how the UC and CS systems are a big part of the problem at [url]http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/03/how_the_megacampuses_helped_ru.html[/url] .

Unemployment in California is still rising. It just went up from 12.3 to 12.5%, nearly three points above an already bad national average. This horrendous figure is the source of California's budget problem. The huge loss of tax revenue is compounded by greatly increased unemployment outlays. If we look at the few other states that have unemployment figures well above the national average, there are obvious explanations. Michigan is at 14.6 because employment in its major industry (automobiles) has collapsed. Nevada, at 13.0, is dependent on discretionary cash at a time when there isn't any. But California is too big to be dominated by one industry, and its plight can only be explained by the state's having grossly mismanaged its affairs.

In 2007 Raymond Keating formulated a Small Business Survival Index, which is a composite of various aspects of the climate for business in a particular state: business and personal taxes, regulations, mandates, and so on. In that index California ranked 49 among the 50 states. Rhode Island ranked just above California, and its unemployment rate is 12.7. At the bottom of the Index is D.C., and its unemployment rate is 12.1.

In the component parts of the SBSI index, California ranks worst of 51 (including D.C.) on top personal tax rates, worst on top capital gains tax rates, 42 on corporate taxes, 43 on health insurance mandates, 46 on electric utility costs, 47 on workman's compensation costs, rock bottom again on state gas taxes, 45 on state and local government five year spending trends, and 47 on state and local per capita government spending. It also ranks 49 among the states on the US Economic freedom index, and it has the highest state sales tax rate too: where some states have an income tax but no sales tax, and others have a sales tax but no income tax, California has both, AND it has the highest rates in both.