So how can this situation be changed?

More proof that populism is rather bad for your health.

Lodus:

Couple ways. Most obvious (though still just a band aid) is getting a two thirds majority in the state legislative houses. Democrats are actually surprisingly close to this (2 or 3 seats for each); it'll be hard to reach, but it's possible, especially as California blues while state Republicans are reduced to its most extreme sects. A ballot initiative pass that will have a non-partisan agency draft state-level districts, so that should make them more competitive all around, as well.

Long term, rewrite the Constitution to fix all of this ridiculous stuff. That, however, also requires a two thirds majority, iirc, so it's not happening before.

Well, according to Ezra there is nothing to be done.

Look, the reality is only a small percentage of the spending is ballot initiative and the vast lion's share is the legislature. CA's huge minorities and the willing white liberals, of which there are many, demand lots and lots of expensive state services for "social justice" and other debatable reasons....even for the illegal aliens.
And then there's the list of tax credits as long as your leg. Each new administration gets one passed for the crisis du jour. One year it's breast cancer and the next, it's something else. Pretty soon, they talk of raising taxes because they're not collecting enough.

Bottom line is I have never, EVER seen California try to cut spending...not once. They now have their hand out to the federal government to save them, but no one talks of cutting services.

Nice apology, though.

Well, according to Ezra there is nothing to be done.

Basically, yes. Californians have the system that they voted for. They benfit from very low property taxes and an institutional inability to raise taxes. The tradeoff is that the state budget is always in crisis mode, and the legislature suffers from an almost permanent inability to get things done. You'd think that this would be a conservative's dream-world. I don't see what they're complaining about.

The real answer is to chuck the constitution and re-write it from scratch. Once again, however, that would be a big violation of conservative principles. For any given individual, it's much easier to simply move someplace else: meanwhile, there are a large number of people even more interested in moving to CA.

Reduce the two-thirds majority required for a tax hike and require that any initiative that increases spending also specify the revenue source.

Or this could be used as a pretext to deprive Californians of the initiative - and leave the budget power entirely in the hands of the monomaniacally anti-tax state legislature, which will certainly turn out better.

For any given individual, it's much easier to simply move someplace else: meanwhile, there are a large number of people even more interested in moving to CA.

Californians look for the exit

Having grown up in San Joaquin county an important fact needs to be stressed.

California Republicans are indistinguishable from Texas Republicans. We are talking the craziest of the crazies.

It's been a while since I've lived there, so their support may have changed, but as I remember they enjoyed considerable support in their home districts.

From the article:

"California's loss is extremely small in a state of 38 million. And, in fact, the state's population continues to increase overall because of births and immigration, legal and illegal."

Oh, well.

I'm sure I read that story before: oh, yeah, it was in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst. They must keep a template on file.

It's not as if the Texan Tosspot gives a fuck about California anyway, other than to feed his prejudices and assert the supremacy of the first-runner-up.

zed's comment is correct.

If California Republicans were all like Arnold (though he's far from perfect, of course), the give and take required to make progress with the 2/3 requirement would be much easier.

But because of California's very large size and high level of heterogeneity, you don't get state level politicians representing two tails of the same bell curve. You get two bell curves, one sane, representing a large proportion of the population, and also rather corporatist and top-down, and another smaller one, representing the tail end of the nutty curve.

I always say that Bakersfield is Oklahoma and Redding is Idaho. People not from California (or those who have lived in California while keeping the barbarians in the backwoods out of mind) think I'm exaggerating, but I mean it in a very literal sense.

Kern county (home county of Bakersfield, pop. 670k) votes MORE Republican than Oklahoma on a Presidential level. Shasta (home of Redding) votes more Republican on the Presidential level than Idaho.

These are not insignificant rural counties you can find in any state. They, in conjunction with the Inland Empire and San Diego, comprise the California Republican Party. Imagine dumping Trent Lott and some of his peers in the MA legislature and giving them veto power over any action taken. That's what California is dealing with, and why nothing ever gets done there.

it's worth noting that the 2/3 vote requirement for raising taxes came in a recent initiative.

Progressive bona fides intact, I have to take to task CA's legislature and the Democrats for this.

If what Ezra says about ballot initiatives is true than it is LITERALLY the people's fault. They're willing co-conspiritators in this mess.

There is a P&L. A strong politician communicates this to the people. More programs means higher taxes PERIOD. And we can only tax the rich so much before the rest of us have to chip in.

k1
ryanculver.blogspot.com

Brien, as opposed to the elitism that brought us poisoned dog food, deadly children's toys, and diseased vegetables!

Go Elitism!

California does need a genuine leader. The Democratic Party is sorely lacking in them. Any state level politician inevitably ends up relying on calcified Party institutions in order to win and govern. A politician doesn't get close to statewide office in a state the size of California on sheer personality and vision.

One thing that I think a lot of people felt attracted to by Arnold is that they thought he could shake things up as someone detached from the brittle Democratic institutions and not really a member of the nutty Republicans. It was obvious from before he was elected that that was unlikely, but I still can view their votes with some sympathy. The alternative is always boring apparatchiks like Brown and Garamendi--both fine and upstanding people who are smart and capable executives, but people who are, in the end, just manifestations of the machine.

Any Democrat who voted for Arnold is rather clueless. And there were a lot of Dems who helped this disaster of a governor get in power. Shame.

"Mono-maniacally anti tax" are you deaf blind or simply just stupid- California boasts the highest taxes in the Union- The problem is that we spend too much- including education- historically, we have thrown more and more money at education which has only resulted in poorer performance- record speaks for itself- Raising taxes through a marxist and socialist program to only perpetuate long established problems will only prolong the real solution -school aged population is down 30% , budget is up 60% and yet we do not have enough money -

Wow, marxist and socialist? Usually a gentle fellow, I find I have a powerful impule to see lackwits like you live in Stalin's Russia for a while.

We'll see how long before you come begging to live under the Eisenhower Republicans who run California.

My bet? Three minutes.

On topic, we do in fact get the government we deserve. That helpful initiative to redraw districts merely enshrines political bantustans in law (read the damned thing and think for a second about how populations are actually distributed, please). The solution here runs down two parallel roads: one, CA fires enough of the crazies that the Ike R's can pass a budget, or two, CA elects a governor who sticks a fork in the CA GOP so that even Kern County starts to think twice about it.

California boasts the highest taxes in the Union-

Please let us know where you are getting you data from. Last I checked, alifornia's taxes, as a percentage of average income were just about in the middle. If you look at raw dollars in taxes per capita, California ranks pretty high, but that's because Californians are richer than people in other states.

we have thrown more and more money at education which has only resulted in poorer performance

Once again, I'm curious where you're getting your numbers from. As far as school spending, California's school spending per pupil is below the national average.

I'm sure that California spends a lot of money on post-secondary education, but then is has the most comprehensive system in the country with many of its universities having a national reputation.

If you look at raw dollars in taxes per capita, California ranks pretty high, but that's because Californians are richer than people in other states.

Tyro: I'm on the side of people saying California's problems are lack of taxes (not excessive spending). However, I was doing some numbers crunching yesterday, and according to my calculations California's combined state/local spending (as a percentage of gross state product) appears to be the third highest in the nation (23.9%) after NY (26.2) and Alaska (I forget the figure for Alaska). Again, being a friend of robust government, I don't think that's a problem. But it is fair to say California has a good deal more government than the national average (my state, infamously liberal Massachusetts, only comes in at a surprising 20%, which is just about the national average).

However, I was doing some numbers crunching yesterday, and according to my calculations California's combined state/local spending (as a percentage of gross state product) appears to be the third highest in the nation

Hm. That's an an interesting statistic I didn't think to look up. Where'd you get your numbers from? I wonder why it seems to diverge from their rankings in terms of % per capita income. Maybe the tax foundation was looking at end-user taxes while capturing spending as a percentage of GDP captures corporate and other taxes? Or maybe the % per capita income taxes doesn't capture money spend on projects that require selling bonds.

Tyro: I provided the links and the site appears to be holding them for approval.

Everything Ezra said is true, but he left out one other serious structural problem in California politics: it takes a 2/3 majority not just to raise taxes, but even to pass a budget. This is probably the most important reason that our budgets never get passed on time. Even if the legislature can manage to figure out a reasonable budget without full control of spending or revenue, it's guaranteed that there's going to be theatrics trying to find the votes to get a 2/3 vote for that compromise.

How do we hold my legislators accountable? Darned if I know. If the problem is caused by the most unreasonable 1/3 of the legislators, and if you don't live in the district of one of those people, your options are pretty limited. And if you don't follow politics very closely and don't have a very clear idea of which legislators are at fault, so you've got some kind of ill-informed free floating anger at politicians as a class, then you could just vote against your representative out of reflex -- but it's hard to see what difference that'll make, since the replacement will have the same constraints.

I don't think California politicians, or Californians at large, are any stupider than the rest of the country. We've just got a terrible constitution.

California basically needs a new Constitution, what with all the problems it has. These aren't limited to the budget and initiative idiocies as well; Schwarzeneggar finally managed to get a Proposition passed that takes away the power of electoral districting from the legislature, so you might actually start to get some competitive districts sometime soon.

What I'd do is get a proposition going that changes the requirements of a prospective Constitution to replace the current one in California to be super-easy, then get a Constitutional Convention going in the state. Among other things, I'd then require

1. All propositions must state their source of funding, and require at least a 60% vote. Anything that amounts to changing a State Supreme Court interpretation of the Constitution with regards to legal rights and so forth requires a 2/3rds majority to pass.

2. No control over re-districting in the hands of the Legislature. People shouldn't be able to adjust the conditions under which they win their jobs in a legislature. In order to change this, you need a 75% vote in both houses, plus 75% approval in a Proposition.

3. No term limits, or longer ones allowing for more than two terms in an office.

4. Salaries of legislature officials will be withheld for every day, week, and month that a budget isn't reached after the deadline.

5. Budgets now require a 60% majority, not a two-thirds majority.

California is a harbinger of the brave new world the left has been preparing for us all: A permanent Democrat majority through unbounded expansion of government; corruption at ever level of public and private life; widespread welfare dependency; treasonous pandering to illegal immigrants; destructive collaboration with labor unions; a pervasive atmosphere of political correctness that silences all critics; and an overarching hard-left mentality that poisons popular culture, high culture, and public policy.

The good news-this California nightmare cannot possibly endure. It undermines all human instincts for responsibility, productivity, creativity, and community-i.e., it destroys the human drive for civilization. The Golden State is headed for a fall, one which can no longer be stopped. At best, we can limit the impact of its self-immolation and strive to ensure that the rest of the these United States do not follow in its wake. To survive in these dark times, we must ask much of ourselves and our society and our government. Our first aspiration must be not to become California. Be better than that, O you miserable humans! Be better than that!

California is a harbinger of the brave new world the left has been preparing for us all

The eighth largest economy in the world, one of the richest states in the Union, several world-leading universities, the birthplace of the computer revolution and of half a dozen other cutting edge industries... where do I sign up?

ajay:

Just pay the bazillion dollar entry fee for the bailout fund...and you're in!

Answering El Viajero's question? Um, I know it's your blog and everything, but why feed the trolls? And since it's this troll in particular, maybe I've been wrong all this time, but it is the one who used to comment as Fred Jones, right?

What I'd do is ... get a Constitutional Convention going in the state. Among other things, I'd then require

1. All propositions must state their source of funding, and require at least a 60% vote...

As long as we're talking about changes we'd make at a constitutional convention, why keep the proposition process at all? Sure, there's an intuitive appeal to interventions by direct democracy, but at least from where I sit it seems pretty clear that they don't work well.

treasonous pandering to illegal immigrants

The entire comment by Ozzie S. oozes idiocy, but this part really astonishes. I wouldn't have thought it possible to pack that much nonsense into five words. Bravo, sir!

If Ozzie S.'s comment is typical of the CA GOP, then you see the problem: reach out a hand in bipartisanship to *that* and you'll pull back a bleeding stump.

California is now experiencing the "unsustainable" part of the speeches fiscal conservatives have given for years. Unbounded growth of government, unbounded growth of social programs to achieve liberal objectives, unbounded growth of those dependent upon the government for their most basic of needs. Allowing non-Californa citizens such as illegal aliens to receive these benefits....

What do you do when YOU"REj broke? Do you cut your spending or do you continue to expand it and cry to others for help?

California has a lot of intractable problems, but the truth is those predicting some kind of imminent implosion of California are not much different that rapture fantasists or other people waiting for the apocalypse.... their fantasy is fed by the joy they look forward to feeling at watching those hoity-toity uppity liberal Californians "get theirs."

New York in the 70s faced even more dire straits ("Ford to NY: Drop Dead!" went the infamous headline when the feds wouldn't bail the city out), and it's still a popular place to be an a major economic and cultural hub.

Everyone's quite clear about what California's issues are. To a degree, I think many people have no illusions that their political system encourages these problems (ElV, shouldn't you be happy that a government is on the verge of bankruptcy every year, rather than awash in cash to spend on whatever it wants?). The difference is that some people look at these problems with glee, while others aknowledge their reality as part of the structure that has been created. The latter group is more reality-based, as the former is simply looking for more fodder to feed into their fantasy-ideology, and a budget crisis in California feeds into the apocalypse/revenge fantasy.

It's not glee. It's amazement that liberals believe the laws of economics are suspended if the cause is needy enough.

It appears that the more densly populated liberal states are the ones in trouble and the conservative states...not so much.
It's the politics.

and the conservative states...not so much.

"Your state, sir, is in a fiscal crisis."

"Ma'am, and your state is Mississippi. And tomorrow my state's economy will recover, while yours will still be Mississippi."

El V, a lot of our spending is for K-12 education (which is supported by conservatives as well as liberals), and prisons (mandated by tough on crime initiatives pushed by conservatives). And no, it isn't a matter of illegal immigration-- take out all the illegal immigrants from the K-12 and prison budgets and they would still cost us a ton, because we have so damned many people living here with small children and, unfortunately, plenty of citizens and legal residents in our prisons.

Further, I don't understand why race-baiting conservatives blame California for its illegal immigrant issues anyway. The federal government sets immigration policy. Californians found that out when Proposition 187, which they voted for, was thrown out by the courts.

At bottom, a lot of conservatives want to make California into a case study about brown hordes. But it isn't that. It's exactly what Ezra says it is-- a place where the public has enacted constitutional provisions that demand a free lunch-- low taxes and high spending.

No bailout for Calif. The other 270 million of us don’t want to pay for the graft and waste and utter insanity that is endemic to the Left Coast. Calif. is not economically or politically or culturally or even environmentally viable—it doesn’t even have enough water to support both its agribusiness and its teeming, selfish, violent masses, white or black or brown or blue. No, not one goddamned extra penny for Calif., nor any extra water either. If Obama and Pelosi and the other thieves try to rob the rest of America to subsidize the completely preposterous monster that is the Golden State, then things may well get serious: How about a general strike by people across America who are trying their damnedest to earn a living and pay their bills and support their families? There’s a good use of nonviolent resistance against theft and oppression, a general strike.
California esse delendum.

The federal government sets immigration policy.

Errrrr...didn't San Francisco, one of the largest cities in the state, have a policy of not following the federal immigration laws as they don't follow the federal marijuana laws?

How can Dilan make that silly statement with a straight face? California is not interested in following even the weak immigration policies we already have.

El V, I'd bother to correct the record, but you're not worth it. You are a troll and you don't care about the truth.

If you want to learn about the reality of California, stop relying on right-wing talk radio and news sources for your information.

The Third Reich…world’s second largest economy. One of the wealthiest societies in history. World renowned universities with more Nobel Prizes than almost anyone. Most highly educated population ever. Musical and literary and architectural heritage of global significance. Almost no unemployment at all. Leadership in most high tech industries. Big growth in the arms sector. Glittering new infrastructure like superhighways, stadiums, barracks, parade grounds. Clean, safe streets and fine housing. Great socialist safety net. Warm feelings of national community and collectiveness and destiny. The world’s most perfect society? You all are free to sign up to live there….

Shorter Dilan: "Don't confuse the issue with facts."