It just keeps getting worse in Cali

Instead of a $21 billion deficit, we are now looking at $24 billion. Ughhhhhh. Not many good choices at this point and it is guaranteed to get ugly. Here's a snippet from SFgate.com of what's being cut:

On Tuesday, the governor's finance officials released the following details on how the governor would cut $5.5 billion through June 2010:

-- $750 million from the University of California and California State University systems, bringing the total reduction over two fiscal years to nearly $2 billion.

-- $10.3 million - Eliminate all state general fund spending for UC Hastings College of Law.

-- $173 million - Eliminate new Cal Grants.

-- $70 million - Eliminate general fund support for state parks, potentially closing 80 percent of them.

-- $247.8 million - Eliminate the Healthy Families program, which provides health care to nearly 1 million poor children.

-- $1.3 billion - Eliminate the CalWorks program, which primarily helps unemployed single mothers find jobs.

The fact that we are now eliminating programs that help unemployed single mothers find jobs is like revoking the reduced bus fares for war widows (Simpsons reference).

Cutting two billion from the University system and eliminating Cal Grants is mortgaging the future of our state. Similar to when companies slash R&D spending- it might temporarily help the bottom line, but it is a disaster in the long run.

Governor Arnold rode in to office saying how we could roll back the vehicle tax and happy days would be here again. Hasn't quite worked out so well. But it is fun to look back at his campaign commercials:

Special Election...Yawn

Here in California, we are having a special election today, but in reality it is not all that special. Governor Arnold's diminishing clout has become more apparent every day and it will be emphasized in the next 24 hours. The man who came rolling in to office promising reform and to blow up the boxes of government....well, that guy must have snuck away in the last 6 years.

It looks like all of the propositions except for 1F, will go down to defeat tomorrow. Politicians are whining that failure to pass the measures will leave us with a $21 billion budget gap. That's a complete cop-out. Our elected officials are elected to handle these exact sorts of things. We've gotten in to a vicious cycle in California- we can never pass a decent budget, out come a bunch of propositions, most don't pass, the props that do pass hamstring the budget even more, repeat.

Barbara Boxer looking good for 2010

The latest polling shows Boxer with commanding leads against all her potential 2010 opponents in the Senate race:

Boxer: 54 percent
Schwarzenegger: 30 percent

Boxer: 55 percent
Carly Fiorina: 25 percent

GOP primary:

Schwarzenegger: 31 percent
Fiorina: 24 percent
Assemblyman Chuck Devore: 9 percent
Undecided: 36 percent


With previous races against Bruce Herschensohn, Matt Fong and Bill Jones, Boxer never seemed to draw the GOP's best. Or, come to think of it, maybe she did given the state of the modern day GOP in California. Arnold looked to be her most serious challenger, but she is up 24% over the decreasingly popular Governator. And I've never been one to think Arnold was really going to run for Senate. He likes to be in charge, to be the hero of his own movie. Governor is an executive position that appeals to those instincts. Being 1 of 100 Senators, debating arcane provisions of Senate procedure, is just not something I see him being interested in.

Arnold's popularity going.....

Down. He's managed to successfully alienate independents, Republicans and Democrats. I'm guessing that Barbara Boxer isn't having many sleepless nights thinking about Arnold running against her for Senate.

The California budget mess

If we don't get a deal soon, Arnold is threatening to fire 20,000 state workers.

From the Chronicle:

The state's leaders also are considering setting a limit on state spending that would be calculated in part by using the state's revenue figures from the prior 10 years, according to sources who were briefed by Democratic budget staffers.

Additional revenue collected beyond that limit would go to a rainy-day fund.

I love the talk of the rainy day fund- seems to me like we are in a freaking monsoon already.