Brown tosses tax plan to voters

I have to admit, I am lost in the blizzard of California politics and World Politics, and the contradictory information I get when I go to one of these “money converter” Web sites where you can compare the American dollar to that of other countries.

While California is whining about how broke it is, the dollar appears to be holding its own. And lets face it, California has more wealth than any other state. So, why is everyone broke?

For all the complaints about Obama, it was Obama that sunk money into California–seven per cent –of that 700 BILLION dollars that he spread over 50 states to keep their local governments solvent. Only problem is that, in exchange for California getting so much more than almost all the other states, California was supposed to tighten its belt come 2011-2013.

That California got seven percent of the ARRA money meant that California got more than its fair share of bail out funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In fact, 57 BILLION DOLLARS got paid into California’s Educational system, which is about 87% of the state’s General Fund. And that money did not just come from “the middle class,” or “the rich.” It came from the little guy, as well because who do you think is paying rent on your mortgaged second homes and rental units?

Poor people pay higher premiums for insurance because they can’t afford to pay annually or semiannually, so they pay monthly and they pay more money per month for that privilege. They are poor because they are often taken advantage of, for example, by owners and employers who cheat and don’t actually pay their half of workman’s comp, and who don’t pay the full amount of the withholding tax that they take out of workers’ paychecks.

Some people have jobs because they have screwed their better educated, or better skilled co-workers out of their jobs. Instead, the boss gave the job to his relative, girlfriend, boyfriend, in-law, or anyone less likely to compete for his job.

A certain percentage of unemployed means you can still work. A lot of unemployed people are ready and willing to work, but God forbid a job in California should go to someone from some place else.

It’s almost as if California is suffering from the delusion that it is not part of the United States. Get real.

You’re being floated by the Federal funding you get to take care of your elderly and your medical bills–and this includes supplimenting your own insurance when it doesn’t cover the whole bill. The poor who are ticketed up the cazoo for driving old cars, or being homeless and thus “loiterers” or “drunk in public” are paying for your public safety and your court services.

They are thus paying to repair your roads, and your “infrastructure” after an earthquake, flood, fire, tsunami, windstorm, sandstorm, or riot by you know who. It’s not like you’ve split off from the rest of the piecrust and gone floating off towards Fiji. Not yet, at any rate.

Your problem is, your state has to get a hold on how much it pays its bureaucratic deadbeats, such as bureaucrats who make hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime and perks when they are not worth the money that is spent on them.

Not all agencies are worthy of such disrespectful aspersions. But I can think of a couple of state and county agencies who definitely fit the M.O.

The Employment Development Department is not one of those agencies. Social Services is not one of those agencies.

Your local Public Health Dept.? Now that could use a little work.

Your Administrative Office of the Courts? They could use a little belt tightening.

The union in charge of the buses that run through the Five Cities area? A few of those supervisors “should walk the plank.” Riding some of those buses is like paying two bucks to be verbally abused by the bus driver. (Sorry, Will, but it had to be said. Trust me….from one NY’er to another….)

It’s overpaying for supplies, poor accounting and management practices, taking expensive trips to confrences just so you can get a paid vacation.

It’s tooling up the coast in your gas-guzzling monster trucks while the “poor” get blown to bits in countries with their infrastructure bombed into oblivion.

You want more money? Take the bus, if you can actually catch one in San Luis Obispo. Taking two hours to get 15 miles between Grover Beach and the County Govt. Center doesn’t help you get to work. And the $12 MILLION dollars that LAFCO got for public transportation did not–miraculously–result in more bus routes. So quityerbitching! Okay?! Try making work NOT A CRIME in this state! Now, there’s a thought!

Geez….I shouldn’t blog on an empty stomach…..