Wednesday, May 20, 2009

So, This is What a Failed State Looks Like





Surprisingly, all of the budget related ballot measures in last night's special election did not pass. The only measure that passed was the "stick it to the man" measure that denies raises to the state legislature if the budget is not balanced. I'm sure the legislature will find ways around that: cost of living increases, stipend/per diem increases, all that good stuff.

Maybe people are finally waking up in California. Or maybe they're just tired of being taxed to death. Or maybe they just blame our Republican-in-name Governator for the mistakes of his liberal predecessor, the liberal voters of the past, and the current liberal legislature.

While I'd normally be quite please about this, Arnie is now threatening to take "drastic" measures to make up for the lost monies. He's talking about laying off 5,000 state employees, including 3,000 corrections officers. He's also talking about releasing 38,000 inmates from the state prison system.

I'm sure there are going to be tax increases as well. Property tax revenues are down since the real estate bubble burst. State property taxes are 1.1% of the property's purchase price or last appraisal. We have some built in protection that caps how fast the taxes can go up, but no protection on how fast they can decline. My own property taxes dropped over $1,000 from 2007 to 2008. I'm expecting 2009's property taxes to be even lower, but in 2010 they will probably be double what they were in 2007. Not that I think my home's value is going to rebound, but I think that the state is going to triple or quadruple the property tax in order to pay for its youth indoctrination public school program.

Our sales tax went up as a "temporary" measure on 01 April of this year. I'm sure that there will be an "emergency" extension of it in the coming weeks, if not another "emergency" increase.

Our vehicle registration fees also doubled on 01 April of this year.

Our unemployment rate is 11.5%. If I remember correctly (and I'm too lazy to research it) back when times were "good" it was projected that at 7% unemployment the unemployment program would pay out more money than it took in by 2013. If this high rate holds up, it will probably be in the red by 2010 or 2011. I'm expecting the unemployment withholding to either skyrocket or for the unemployment checks to stop getting mailed.

We already stopped mailing welfare checks once this year. That will probably happen again.

All of this makes me want to re-check my pantry and re-count my ammo.

I guess I'll be re-reading a lot of FerFAL's old posts.

The hell of it is that I'm pretty much stuck here. It seemed like a good idea to buy a house in 2005. I could probably sell it now for less than a third of what I owe on it, which I'm not willing to do.

I wonder if Texas would accept me and my family if we claimed political asylum.

Edit:
It's not that I don't support the state layoffs (other than law enforcement), unemployment cuts, and welfare cuts. I'm worried about what the people who feel they are entitled to their jobs and my money might do when they no longer have them.

2 comments:

  1. I'd sure get out of there if it were humanly possible. I don't see any way the state is going to be able to keep paying "entitlements" on the scale they have in the past, and I don't think the recipients are the kind of folks who will sit quietly at home when the check doesn't come.

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  2. Barry will cut us a check so that the rest of the nation can pay for our socialist state. "Too big to fail" and all.

    The only real fix will be for us to go BK, have a state constitutional convention that puts teeth into the balanced budget provisions, and limit our government to vital services.

    It'll never happen. Not until the whole nation crashes under the weight of our debt.

    Yep, fill up the pantries...

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