What is wrong with California?

[Katy Lied]

There wont be a bailout. Austerity for Greece but bailouts for California? When they basically have the same problem?

[Color Me Badd Fan]

There wont be a bailout. Austerity for Greece but bailouts for California? When they basically have the same problem?

The $800 billion stimulus was a temporary bailout under the auspices of spurring demand. But from now on I predict no bailout of California. Unlike Greece, California will be more than fine after it both sheds its public employee compensation burden and stops having 1/3 of all US welfare recipients within its borders. I presume this because I believe that the inmates aren't yet running the asylum in that state. The inmates being the sizeable contingent on the public dole. I believe even the white libs in the state will be fed up with the reduction of public services that will result from the BKs and trimming of public budgets and call for cuts to transfer payments to the poor.

[Uncle Ted]

I recently saw all these Texas/California facts come across twitter (so you know they have to be true):

• Texas' 2011 cost-of-living adjusted per capita income is $43,895. California's is $33,703.
  
• After tax, Texas's 2011 cost-of-living adjusted per capita income is $40,055. California's is $29,691
  
• Texas's real per capita income growth 2000-2011 was 6.03%. California's was 1.65%.
  
• Net domestic in-migration to Texas 2000-2011 was 3.75% of its 2000 population. California's: -5.8%.
  
• Cost-of-living adjusted per pupil ADA spending in Texas is $12,676. In California, it's $8.346
  
• As of fall 2009, the K-12 student-teacher ratio in Texas was 14.5:1. In California, it was 21.4:1.
  
• The average price of gas in Texas on June 5th was $3.37. In oil-rich California, it was $4.18.
  
• Texas has no cities in the top 20 in the US with the worst air pollution of 2011. California has five.
  
• Texas has no cities in the top 25 with the worst violent-crime rate in 2011. California has two.
  
• 500 CEOs surveyed by CEO Magazine have rated TX the top state to do business seven years in a row! CA? #50.
  
• Tomorrow, a one-way rental from U-Haul (14 ft) will cost $1,346 SF to Austin. Austin to SF? $627? Guess why?
  
• 8 TX cities among 15 fastest-growing in US. 5 of top 6.

[Uncle Ted]

It could be worse for California...

Brokest state: Another dubious distinction for Illinois

Below I linked to a new report by the by the Illinois Policy Institute totaling up retirement-related debts held by Illinois. Those debts are one reason that the state's auditor general deems Illinois in the worst fiscal shape of any state, with liabilities outpacing assets by about $43.8 billion, according to a new report (see chart of all states' fiscal positions on jump page). Some analysts quibble, arguing that their state is in even worst shape. In any case, you probably won't be surprised by the states deeply in the red, according to the auditor's report.

Here is the ugly reality:

[LA Ute]

Walter Russell Mead: “Green” Energy Bias Killing California

...anything that blights California, blights us all. America and the world need California back on line; the Golden State has too much to offer for anyone to remain indifferent to its fate.

[All-American]

It could be worse for California...

Brokest state: Another dubious distinction for Illinois

It was a great year to be looking for a job from the state of Illinois.

[Devildog]

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog, then bites the Governor.

The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.

He calls Animal Control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.

The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area.

The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training regarding the nature of coyotes.

PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State.



TEXAS:

The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.

The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging.

The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is an example of why California is broke and Texas is not.

[Pelado]

Poway Unified borrowed $105 million last year using a form of financing called a capital appreciation bond. The district won’t start making payments on the loan until 2033, and by the time it’s paid off in 2051, taxpayers will have paid back almost $1 billion, or almost 10 times the original loan.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/educa...a4bcf887a.html

[LA Ute]

Peggy Noonan:

What Americans are worried about, take as a warning sign, and are heavily invested in is California—that mythic place where Sutter struck gold, where the movies were invented, where the geniuses of the Internet age planted their flag, built their campuses, changed our world.

We care about California. We read every day of the bankruptcies, the reduced city services, the businesses fleeing. California is going down. How amazing is it that this is happening in the middle of a presidential campaign and our candidates aren't even talking about it?

Mitt Romney should speak about the states that work and the states that don't, why they work and why they don't, and how we have to take the ways that work and apply them nationally.

Barack Obama can't talk about these things. You can't question the blue-state model when your whole campaign promises more blue-state thinking.

But Mr. Romney can talk about it.

[LA Ute]

Hermosa Beach meter maids making nearly $100K?

Like I said, the majority of our state's electorate and leaders are insane.

[Mormon Red Death]

Hermosa Beach meter maids making nearly $100K?

Like I said, the majority of our state's electorate and leaders are insane.

Makes sense to have the biggest revenue producers make good money.

Sent from my SGH-T839 using Tapatalk 2

[Uncle Ted]

California's high speed rail started out as a $9.8 billion dollar project that had 53% public approval. It is now a $68 billion dollar (down from $98.5 billion from a previous estimate) project that 59% would now like to can. It seems that California is banking on the federal government to give them much of the money that is needed for this project.

On the other hand, Texas seems to be just letting private investment build their bullet trains and may be the first to have high speed rail in the US...

IRVING – The leaders of Texas Central High-Speed Railway sound very confident for a company expecting to succeed where scores of state planners, elected officials and private interests have failed.

The firm hopes to have bullet trains moving Texans at 205 miles per hour between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston by 2020.

The bit that has raised eyebrows: The company plans to do it without seeking public financing.

[...]

At a day-long forum on the future of high-speed passenger rail in America, other attendees agreed that Texas was likely to be first out of the gate with a true high-speed rail system, often defined as one with trains that travel 185 miles per hour or faster.

During a presentation on the array of financial and regulatory hurdles blocking the success of high-speed rail in the country, Richard Arena with the Association for Public Transportation said Texas is a possible bright spot.

“You guys are not waiting for things to happen," Arena said. "You’re making it happen."

[San Juan Sun]

Ouch. Comparing Detroit to California is ugly for everyone.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/...ia-new-detroit

[CardiacCoug]

California's high speed rail started out as a $9.8 billion dollar project that had 53% public approval. It is now a $68 billion dollar (down from $98.5 billion from a previous estimate) project that 59% would now like to can. It seems that California is banking on the federal government to give them much of the money that is needed for this project.

On the other hand, Texas seems to be just letting private investment build their bullet trains and may be the first to have high speed rail in the US...

That would be awesome -- would really hurt the airlines but otherwise everybody wins.

The high-speed trains in China are awesome -- totally smooth and comfortable and a great place to get relax or work on a computer. Beats the hell out of flying as far as comfort and just as fast if not faster if you're just going a few hundred miles.

[Surfah]

That would be awesome -- would really hurt the airlines but otherwise everybody wins.

The high-speed trains in China are awesome -- totally smooth and comfortable and a great place to get relax or work on a computer. Beats the hell out of flying as far as comfort and just as fast if not faster if you're just going a few hundred miles.

I have zero faith in a government run train system after regularly commuting from DC to NY on Amtrak.

Maybe the Texas model will be better.