Liberal California is almost broke. Not long ago, the state was forced to issue IOUs at a premium to pay its growing mountain of debt.

The Governor may be good at writing acrostics, but not at was he elected to do. Someone more fiscally efficient than him is needed to govern sunny California.

IOUs aren’t the worst thing. From now until the end of the fiscal year they’re adding a little to the withholding rate of what we’d call PAYE. The actual tax rate isn’t going up so everyone will be refunded, but it’s essentially a compulsory loan. Amazingly little push back from the populace here.

Don’t blame Arnie too much. As others have said, California is screwed by the gerrymandered legislature. Arnie would have been tougher on spending if he actually had any ability to get anything through the legislature. All he can do is keep vetoing the nonsense. The number one thing CA could do is eliminate gerrymandering.

I really really really hope you are right but I really doubt it.

Acrostics are fun!

Despite Arnolds denial,
I suspect that he may have more to say if the
Californian legislature contines to
Kick his bill from the floor.

He hasn’t even tried. It’s in his nature: Key is an appeaser, a compromiser, a ditherer / hesitant, he’s Labour Light at its best.

Key will avoid making the hard calls and will sit idle without ever undertaking the radical reforms NZ needs, which he’s aversed to.

If we are to take a more measured approach, the question is, does the veiled
statement, and it’s discovery, indicate the true state of mind of Governor
Arnold toward the author?

Many seem to think so, but as we can never be sure, is such speculation,
overt or otherwise, actually helpful in solving the problems inherent to the
Republican state government in California? The fiscal mismanagement
of the administration, coupled with a legislative model doomed to failure
needs more than a covert Fuck You to fix it.

What happened in 2006 to cause the balanced budget to go out of control?

The Governor may be good at writing acrostics, but not at was he elected to do. Someone more fiscally efficient than him is needed to govern sunny California.

Unfair. The constitution of California makes it almost impossible for the Gov to achieve this.

They have a direct democracy system of referenda which has increasingly tied the hands of the state govt. Idiot people keep voting that the govt must pay for x, y and z; but limits taxes so it cant be paid for.

On top of that the state budget requires a 2/3 majority to pass. This makes serious reform virtually impossible.

One of the reasons for that is that all electoral districts are gerrymandered – drawn up by the politicians themselves. So most seats are ultra safe, and primary elections can ignore middle-ground voters. They put in ultra-liberals and ultra-conservatives who can never agree.

the chance of 7 random letters spelling GTRYAJK is also 8 billion to 1. Will we get a news story when that incredibly unlikely event happens?

Next you’ll be telling me that there’s as much chance of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 coming up in Lotto as there is of my numbers coming up.

=)

[DPF: Well done. I don't read too much of the GD when I am busy. Someone emailed me the link, which is the best way to get me to notice something]

You don’t send me flowers… any more.