California's Bond Rating is The Worst in the Nation
In Sacramento, legislators are struggling to find a solution to our state financial crisis. Meanwhile, on the Jon and Ken Show--dunno who they are, some conservative radio knobs--they are listing Republican legislators who haven't agreed to neverevernonever raise taxes in California, as if they are on some sort of blacklist.
People openly wonder how California can have such a large domestic product and yet can't fill the state coffers. Well, we could raise income taxes. Do you know who raised taxes whilst Governor? Ronald "Kick the welfare bums out" Reagan. He did this during a state financial crisis. Why today's Republicans can't agree to the same is beyond me...but then again, they are today's Republicans.
Another part of this is the squeeze on revenue that Proposition 13 has performed for the past 30 years. Prop 13 has let our gramma keep her house, perhaps. It has also prevented us from buying a house, probably. It has cut property taxes dramatically--and thus, cut the revenue of the state dramatically. Yeah, something had to be done about estate taxes, but the diminished revenues of cities and counties shows, everywhere you go in California.
Predictably, people are blaming this on illegal immigrants, or some other nonsense.
This makes me sad. I love my state, and it's so discouraging to see it run so shabbily.
Will we turn this around in our lifetime, or just mess up California further?