The Independent

The following column appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2009: Don't Blame Voters for California's Budget Woes Big spending pols falsely claim citizen ballot initiatives have tied their hands. By SHIKHA DALMIA, ADRIAN MOORE AND ADAM B. SUMMERS With the Golden State still struggling to balance its books, politicians from both sides of the aisle have come up with a nifty way to avoid responsibility for the mess: Blame the voters. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, summed it up for his fellow pols recently by telling a reporter: "All of those propositions tell us how we must spend our money. . . . This is no way, of course, to run a state." State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has made similar comments in denouncing "ballot-box budgeting." Their indictment is false. Voters aren't tying lawmakers' hands too much, but too little. Here's the background: For decades, state officials have habitually proposed ...

By Jon Coupal The rapidly approaching impact that state and local debt will have on government services and taxpayers is likely to be as subtle as a suicide bomber's belt of C-4 explosive. Highly regarded political pundit Dan Walters has compared our state's debt situation to both Enron, "which cooked its books to fool investors and lenders," and a "Third World country whose rulers run up a mountain of debt while squandering revenues." The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, estimates that California has more than $200 billion in liabilities that will affect the state's financial health. And this doesn't even include the local debt of cities, counties, special districts and redevelopment agencies. The $200 billion in state debt includes about $35 billion in budget related liabilities -- read this as budget tricks used to paper over the deficit; about $69 billion in bond debt that must be repaid from the general fund; and more tha...