(Jobs Saved + Jobs Created) - Jobs Lost = A Mess

Courtesy of Veronique de Rugy and the Mercatus Center. The chart breaks down job gains and job losses since passage of the ARRA in 2009 on a state-by-state basis. That is just ugly...

Bury the Sucker

A smidgen of common-sense:

Effort underway to suspend California's global-warming law

The L.A. Times reports:

Conservatives propose an initiative that would delay curbs on greenhouse gas emissions until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, a level not seen since 2007.

Which, the way they've run things in Sacramento means the bill won't ever see the light-of-day.

Our Senator

"Can you do that by Executive Order...?"

The Senate is no place for stupid people.

No end to the Stupidity

There is no end to the stupidity in Sacramento:

A free parking spot is one of life's little perks, and at one free lot, customers told us at a time when the price of everything seems to be going up, free parking is something they can still hang onto.

But in California, environmentalists say all that free parking comes at too high a cost- in greenhouse gas emissions. Environmentalists say if people drove less, there would be an environmental benefit.

With the support of green groups, the state senate passed a plan offering cities and counties financial incentives to slash the number of free parking spaces on the street and in government-owned lots, and to reduce the number of free spaces businesses are required to provide.

Sponsors suggest that will encourage people to walk, take the bus or even ride a bike. Critics say it's just another example of Sacramento Democrats' far left agenda.

My first reaction to hearing this last night, minus the epithet of course, was to wonder what else won't they try and regulate, control or otherwise attempt? This is agenda driven stupidity at it's extreme.

To see semi-local reaction, here is the news report from KEYT out of Santa Barbara from last evening.

Bueller-esque

I got to spend part of my morning at the local DMV office, as today is a day when they are actually open. California long ago adopted the sophisticated 'take a number' approach to handling walk-in traffic and today there was a sizable crowd waiting to be helped when I arrived.

Thankfully, I had planned ahead and scheduled an appointment. About two-thirds of the way through not-resolving my issues our reverie was broken by the sound of the clerk working the far-end of the counter calling for the next number. And the next number. And the number after that.

Finally, in a very uncharacteristic display of humor for a state employee she just blurted out "Anyone with a number...." I didn't see who stepped up to the counter.

Embarrassing

Arnold had a good first couple of years in Sacramento but over the last four years has devolved into a huge embarrassment of a politician. Cue this ridiculous statement.

Who knew he was that Smart?

Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown laments what California has done to itself:

If we as a state want to make a New Year's resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it's time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we've become.


Take the civil service.


The system was set up so politicians like me couldn't come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives.


Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show.


The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.


But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers.


Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.


Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I'm kidding, just look at Vallejo.


Color me dumbstruck.

Our New Lt. Governor

The Good News

My State Senator, Abel Maldonado was tabbed yesterday as the Governator's choice for Lt. Governor to replace California's newest member of Congress, John Garamendi. Maldonado began his political career as mayor of Santa Maria, eventually moving into the state legislature where he hitched his wagon to Governor Schwarzenegger. That loyalty has now paid off...

I have to say that in my 4 years as a constituent of the good Senator, I've not been overly impressed. The good news in all of this as far as I'm concerned is that now that he's moving into a notoriously un-important and un-productive position, he can't cause too much more mischief for the state (Thank you again for the 1% sales-tax increase and the waste of time that was the May special election).

The Bad News

It's not been a very well-kept secret that Maldonado has his eyes on higher state office and this is an easy first-step. As the incumbent Lt. Governor he will have a leg up on the Republican Gubernatorial nomination, a contingency that didn't exist while Garamendi filled the slot.

Question of the Day: Is it a crime when the State steals?

And that is what they are doing:

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You'll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.

Just so we're all clear...you're going to take more than what I rightfully owe as determined under state law based on my W-4 witholdings and you're going to 'apply' it in some sort of accounting gimmick to make your bad financial situation look only slightly worse? Why, yes: The extra withholding may seem like a small amount siphoned from each paycheck, but it adds up to a $1.7-billion fix for California's deficit-riddled books.

And the timing couldn't be better: Brittney McKaig, 23, of Santa Ana said she expects the additional withholding to affect her holiday spending.

"Coming into the holidays, we're getting squeezed anyway," she said. "We're not getting Christmas bonuses and other perks we used to get. So it all falls back on spending. The $40 gift will become a $20 gift."

As a small business owner, I'm especially looking forward to that...not enough when you're in a state that is performing worse than the national economy and a community that is performing even worse than the state. And when you add this on top of the sales tax increase (1%) earlier in the year, I'd say the state has bent over backwards to make life as difficult as possible for small businesses, especially in retail.

Veronique de Rugy noticed this earlier today over at the Corner and asked a question that I screamed out at the computer on Saturday when I first read this; namely, is this legal? She posted a reader response later in the day from, I can only presume, somebody with at least a quasi-legal background:

This is a gray area, and if the right paintiff emerges (probably a large private-sector union local) then it could go to the U.S. Supreme Court. My guess is that there are plenty of justices who would not be readily convinced regarding the coincidence of a state cash-flow crisis and the "discovery" of a need to boost a formula developed to be reasonably related to what taxpayers should owe.

This is just another piece in a mosaic of idiocy that has been sewn together over the last 10 years in Sacramento. If it weren't going to do so much damage to so many people (including my family), I would just sit back and laugh as this state collapses under the weight of it's own idiocy. But it will damage too many far too much by the time all is said and done for that.

As to what to do...I'm sure I don't know. In any just world we'd show up in Sacramento with the torches & pitchforks and pound some sense into their heads.

Re: What California government workers think of you taxpayers

Very I-LouMinatti-ing post that highlights some very contemptuous commentary from some fine California bureaucrats.

If true, these people need to keep something in mind. Those of us in California smart enough to understand what's been going on for the last 10 years have had enough. Should the fools who've simultaneously run the state into the ground and padded the nest of state employees continue down this road folks are going to start showing up in Sacramento with torches and pitchforks.

And it's they that will have the large targets on their back.

Bad Mood Rising

VDH wonders about California's Groundhog day:

Our poor state is $14 billion plus now in the red, and the Governator has promised no new taxes, wise inasmuch as our sales and income taxes are already among the highest in the country. The University of California system is panicking and sending out emails to us alums, to march en masse on Sacramento for redress!

But lost in the furor is any self-reflection, such as why would UC Davis recently pay John Edwards, multimillionaire trial lawyer, $50,000 plus to give a brief lecture on poverty? Such questions are never answered, much less raised, since the problem is always framed as a matter of a shortage of income, never a surfeit of unnecessary expenditure.

We in California, given the past budget implosions, know the script to follow. We expect that police, fire, prisons, parks etc will be threatened with cut-backs and closure while the state-funded "Center for this" and the "Department of that" will remain untouched, since cutting the essential while protecting the politically-correct superfluous is the only way to scare the voter and achieve higher taxes.

At some point we Californians should ask ourselves, how we inherited a state with near perfect weather, the world's richest agriculture, plentiful timber, minerals, and oil, two great ports at Los Angeles and Oakland, a natural tourist industry from Carmel to Yosemite, industries such as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and aerospace—and serially managed to turn all of that into the nation's largest penal system, periodic near bankruptcy, and sky-high taxes.

I suspect that there can be no meaningful compromise in the capitol...not when Democrats in the legislature long to increase taxes and the Governor--for whatever it's worth--keeps saying he won't do such a thing as Hanson points out. So now what?

In the meantime, real estate continues to take it on the chin--the house next door has been on the market for over a year and the owner can't unload it even with a fire-sale sticker of $289,000.

I'm upside down to the tune of $30-$40K on mine, revenues are way down yr-to-yr at work and my income for '07 was down a cool 10% from '06 while the outlook for '08 is no better.

So yes, now what?