California Is In Big Trouble. 1. What Happened?

Background

On May 19, California Taxpayers Said Enough is Enough—No More tax Hikes

Political abuse of the public and public trust has led to a push back on taxes for at least 3 decades. From Proposition 13 to protect private property in 1978 to the resounding “no more taxes” in 2009, taxpayers have been sending a message. It has yet to be heard. If Obama can keep his big nose out of California and not tell us “it is too big to fail”, then perhaps California can recover. A federal bailout will spread the cancer like wildfire. It will also mean the end of state sovereignty and the end of the republican form of government in America.

While not conclusive in and of itself, the following article on Blue States and unemployment rates support similar findings which have been coming out and reported for years. For example, see here which is also reviewed at the link as summarized here:

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Classics professor Hanson is also, like generations of his family before him, a fruit farmer in California's central valley. He has employed immigrants, seen them flood his community during the last 30 years of mass flight from Mexico, and endured the crime associated with illegal immigrants. Hanson is immensely sympathetic to poor Mexicans, however, and the most powerful chapter here outlines the harried life of the illegal alien. But he hates to see the ordered culture in which he grew up drowned by an alien inundation whose undeserving beneficiaries are Mexico's kleptocratic rulers, for whom an open border is a safety valve expelling the potential for democratic change. The four solutions to the mess that Hanson enumerates include continuing de facto open borders but insisting on rapid acculturation; patrolling the border effectively and reducing legal immigration; imposing "sweeping restrictions on immigration" and ending Mexican chauvinism in the U.S.; and allowing present policies to make California increasingly mirror an unreformed Mexico. Hanson thinks that the U.S. "still need not do everything right" to prevent social collapse in the Southwest and that the totalitarian uniformity of valueless mass culture may soften that collapse. He also sees very clearly what has brought this crisis on: the American globalist ideology's lust for cheap labor and emphasis on "raw inclusiveness" instead of "standards and taste." Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Hanson's 'Mexifornia' is that rare book that combines scholarship with personal experience to provide genuine insight into a complex issue." -- Linda Chavez, author of An Unlikely Conservative

"Victor Davis Hanson brings a lifetime of experience in California's Central Valley to this indictment of multiculturalism and mass immigration." -- Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies

Unemployment and Liberalism

An article in WND source points out the correlation between unemployment and liberalism.

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
'Blue state' unemployment 20% higher
Latest jobless figures in Democrat states bode ill for administration

Posted: May 23, 2009
12:00 am Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Unemployment in April remained 20 percent higher in so-called "blue states" won by Democratic candidate Barack Obama in last fall's presidential election than in "red states" won by Republican candidate John McCain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics released yesterday.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate went from 8.5 percent in March to 8.9 percent in April.

WND previously reported that if unemployment numbers in the blue states do not begin improving soon, the Democratic Party may face the prospect of 2010 mid-term election losses in both governor races and in Congress.

A national telephone survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports has found significant Democratic Party losses and Republican Party gains over the past year in a generic congressional ballot.

Currently, the GOP and Democratic Party are vying at 40 percent to 39 percent for leadership in the Rasmussen-conducted generic congressional ballot.

Over the past year, Rasmussen has reported that Democratic support has dropped from a high of 50 percent and Republican support has risen from a low of 34 percent.

Please see these for more on unemployment.

California after the Taxpayers Said No to Tax Increases on May 19, 2009 source

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The day of reckoning that California has been warned about for years has arrived.

The longest recession in generations and the defeat this week of a package of budget-balancing ballot measures are expected to lead to state spending cuts so deep and so painful that they could rewrite the social contract between California and its citizens. They could also force a fundamental rethinking of the proper role of government in the Golden State.
SNIP
The governor's cutbacks could include ending the state's main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, shortening the school year by seven days, laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, slashing money for state parks and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished.

"I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives," Schwarzenegger said. "This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington — we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have."

He also has advocated selling state assets to raise cash, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and San Quentin State Prison.

The Democrats who control the Legislature do not want major spending cuts, but so far they don't have a plan for closing the deficit. And if their solution is higher taxes and more borrowing, they will probably not have enough Republican votes to get the two-thirds approval needed for passage.
SNIP
The gap has two primary causes: The state has been living beyond its means for years by spending generously on all sorts of programs that the voters, the politicians and the special interests wanted. And the recession has hammered California's economy.
SNIP
The crisis also has prompted talk of a complete overhaul of the way California government operates.

A group of business leaders and good-government groups has begun the process of calling for a convention to rewrite the California Constitution.

A separate commission is expected to release a proposal to rework the state's tax structure, which is vulnerable to booms and busts in California's economy because it relies heavily on high-income earners. The state also has few limits on what state government can spend and a small rainy day fund that can easily be raided by the politicians.

With the above statement “A separate commission is expected to release a proposal to rework the state's tax structure, which is vulnerable to booms and busts in California's economy because it relies heavily on high-income earners.”, I end Part 1 of this article.

Part 2 will focus on what really caused California’s problems and where the future might be taking them, and unfortunately, the rest of us.