Comments for Governor's updated budget spares state parks at http://lakeconews.com , comment 1 to 14 out of 14 comments http://lakeconews.com Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:01:23 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4748 Bad government, bad people making bad choices. Doing every thing to keep the status quo. To keep your eye on their left hand while their right hand is in your pocket. We fall for it every time. Semper Fi - James Fri, 16 May 2008 09:15:38 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4731 Thanks purplegirl, and isn\'t it funny how the ones in power always get us to fight amongst ourselves over what is petty just so that we won\'t rise up in arms over their criminal derailment of our entire economic structure. Opiate of the masses anyone? jmadison-I am not discounting the fact that there are people (strangely in abundance in Lake Co.) that deserve the label \"white trash\", however their ignorance and lack of education will not be our societal downfall. Follow the money, we all know who is really to blame for the mess we are in. You can feel it every time you pay for gas! - firecarp Thu, 15 May 2008 08:33:37 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4729 The last time closing State Parks was proposed was ~1991. The end result of that threat was a new sales tax known as the \"junk food tax\". The ploy has been used several times during the past 40 years... always to prepare the public for a \"less drastic\" tax increase or service decrease. - thekattb4u Thu, 15 May 2008 07:53:14 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4728 I knew that the whole park thing was just a \"scare\" to navigate the masses into the direction the gov. wanted to take. That being said, I have to echo what firecarp said. I find it interesting that it seems we are quick to pick on the less fortunate (I dare anyone that criticizes welfare recipients to try and live on $500-800 a month which many times DOES NOT include food stamps). Yet, we completely ignore the fact that we continue to give corporate subsidies to corporations with record profits. Nor do we question why the CA Lottery money hasn\'t trickled down enough to our schools to bring them into the twenty first century. I just find that interesting. - purplegirl Thu, 15 May 2008 07:41:25 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4724 \"schools and parks saved from the budget axe\", who could have predicted that! Oh, right, it was a no-brainer. Selling bonds to be covered by FUTURE lottery sales? Gray Davis, is that you? More smoke and mirrors anyone? Glad to see that the crazy people budget is getting cut, we really DO need to have more nut-jobs roaming the city streets or behind bars. And we have to vote for this or we get a sales tax increase? Nice choices Arnold! And finally, isn\'t soo predictable that the lowest-paid people doing the hardest jobs are made the scapegoat for our fiscal ills? California would come to a screeching halt without those brown people, the people who don\'t realize our economy is totally dependant on their sweat need to go stand in the corner. - smurf Wed, 14 May 2008 22:20:34 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4723 Sorry to think you have to label yourself \"White Trash\". Whatever happened to the Christian ethic? Take care of the widows and orphans. And, be \"your brothers keeper\". - iamrolivari Wed, 14 May 2008 21:21:25 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4722 Sorry firecarp, There are people in this world that earn the label... \"white trash\". - jmadison Wed, 14 May 2008 20:27:03 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4721 Why is it that the welfare moms and the illegal immigrants always earn the scorn of the righteous but, the corporations receiving welfare and the Bush war machine get ignored when it comes to problems with our budgets. I know, its easier to pick on your neighbor than it is to get off your rotund derriere and ask the right questions of the powers that be. - firecarp Wed, 14 May 2008 20:06:36 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4720 Funny that is exactly what the Gov of NJ instructed their lottery commision to do the other day, increase sales to pay for the budget shortfall! I am sure this is also going on in a lot of other states too. Too bad that this is really a tax on those who can least afford it. I have seen way too many people buy lottery tickets rather than food in the \"in for a buck mentality\" to strike it rich. - kd006 Wed, 14 May 2008 16:46:56 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4719 question. I do, however, know of a very hard working woman, born & raised here in Lake County who had an orthopedic surgeon tell her he had never seen a hip so deteriorated in a person so young. All those years of hard work I suppose, she paid her and her families way. But like many of us she couldn\'t get health insurance. Finally had to go on Medi-cal as she could no longer work with a hip that she was told "could break any minute" and if it broke in the wrong place would make treatment highly difficult. For over a year she got jerked around by Medi-cal and the limited amount of doctors that accept it cause they didn\'t know what the budget would look like either. Had she gotten treatment over a year ago she\'d have been back working and paying taxes 10 months ago. May you never face hardship in your life that you cannot solve on your own. I\'m not sure you\'d feel good about opinions from people such as the one you posted above. And let me guess, you\'re a regular church goer? - Donna Christopher Wed, 14 May 2008 16:30:15 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4717 stats to back up what you\'ve \'heard\'? or is this a page from the \'some people say\' school of debate perfected by faux news? - taxismom Wed, 14 May 2008 14:58:22 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4716 Borrowing against the state lottery: this seems to be at the core of Arnold\'s new plan. As described by the AP: The governor will propose raising $15 billion over the next three years by selling bonds based on anticipated lottery revenue. He will use about $5.1 billion of that for the 2008-09 fiscal year to help erase the deficit, administration officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The other $10 billion would be left in a reserve fund the governor wants to create as part of a budget-reform proposal. It would be intended to ease the effect of year-to-year revenue fluctuations. The revenue proposal - which administration officials refer to as \"securitizing\" the lottery - would require voter approval because the lottery was established through the initiative process. This is is a clever way to avoid the basic issues here - ride it out another year or two and dump the problem onto the 2010 gubernatorial race. Borrowing the lottery funds is designed to ease the need for the most destructive cuts without raising taxes, and the rainy day fund seems to be a clear sweetener for Republicans to along with this scheme. Schools: The AP describes the education budgeting as follows: The budget the governor will release Wednesday backs away from some of the less politically popular proposals in the $141 billion budget plan he released in January, including a proposal to suspend the minimum school-funding guarantee, Proposition 98. Instead, the budget proposal will include a $1.8 billion increase in funding to schools over 2007-08 levels. Schools still will lose about $4 billion in anticipated revenue because Schwarzenegger\'s plan [u]would not include program cost-of-living increases. [/u] This does not necessarily take the 20,000 pink-slipped teachers off the hook. [u]Losing the $4 billion in anticipated COLA revenue will still cause problems for many school districts[/u] - higher ed is likely to face major cuts anyway even if K-12 is somehow spared the worst. [u]In any case, teachers are being forced to balance the budget on their backs.[/u] Here again Arnold has chosen quick fixes over long-term solutions. California\'s educational system was once the envy of the nation. 30 years of tax cuts have reduced CA to nearly the level of Mississippi, and while the January proposals were bad enough, major reinvestment in all levels of public schools are needed for California to ease widening inequality, provide prosperity and jobs, and thrive in the 21st century. The devil is in the details here, so until we see those, schools don\'t seem out of the woods just yet. Parks: The proposed park closures were always a rather idiotic idea. Although parks should be free of charge, as California\'s natural patrimony, it makes far more sense to raise fees than to close parks. Outright closures would have blown an even bigger hole in the parks budget. Remaining cuts: Even with Arnold\'s lottery borrowing scheme there will be $6 billion left in the deficit. Obviously a restoration of the VLF would close that for good, but expect bitter fights over that last $6 billion between Democrats who will want to provide some sensible ways to close the gap with new revenues, and Republicans - Arnold included - who will prefer destructive cuts to sensible tax solutions. While California\'s future is being put in grave jeopardy, the tax cut cult is refusing to close a tax loophole for yacht and private jet owners. Schools closing. Social services slashed to the bone. And right-wing Republicans are letting the uber-wealthy off tax-free on yacht and private jet purchases. It\'s no wonder the California Republican Party has been re-branded as the \"Yacht Party\" - taxismom Wed, 14 May 2008 14:43:12 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4715 Just exactly what does it cost to feed and clothe and school and medicate illegal aliens and welfare moms that have one kid after another just to get a bigger check. I\'ve \"heard\" that it doesn\'t pay as well as it used to but there are several programs that \"we\" are all paying for that pay welfare moms thousands of dollars a month - the more to get pedicures and manicures with!! - helenemw Wed, 14 May 2008 14:38:01 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4194/919/#comment-4714 in finding that our parks will be saved but we will have "deep cuts" in the Health & Human Services area. Using the lottery to create a "rainy day fund" - hello, anybody home? Ain\'t it already pouring? Can\'t wait for the details on this slight of hand. Thanks for the heads up Elizabeth. - Donna Christopher Wed, 14 May 2008 14:25:37 +0100