Liberals Whine That California Voters Won't Pay More for Bad Government

The San Francisco Chronicle has a bad case of the whines today:

California voters are a surly bunch. They don't think an overhaul of state government is needed. They don't want to make it easier for the Legislature to approve a budget. And new taxes to patch a $20 billion shortfall? You can pretty much forget about it.

This angry outlook comes from a disturbing Field Poll released this week. Disturbing because voters are dismissive and furious over the state's political and budgetary gridlock, and they're in no mood to help Sacramento solve the crisis. The results are also a failing report card for government reformers, who are going nowhere in their bid to rewrite the state's decision-making rules.

A string of prior Field polls on the state's direction and political leaders have found much the same sour mood. Voters don't like elected officialdom and don't want dysfunction handed back to them with ballot-box fixes. In this latest poll, respondents show the same fed-up defiance: Sacramento needs to solve its monumental problems on its own with the rules and requirements it already has. Stop the whining, get together and don't ask for help, respondents say.

But the poll - with its blunt choices and five-question format - takes the argument only part way. Half of the respondents want to solve the $20 billion budget shortfall either completely or largely via budget cuts, the poll finds. But do these voters realize what will have to go? With a state's general fund kitty totaling $100 billion, are these voters willing to lop $20 million off the top?

The problem is not in the general fund, it's in the various entitlement programs, not to mention the various commissions and committees that such up money while producing no actual results.

California has given its governor the line item veto. He needs to use it until the ink runs out in the pen and then go get another pen. The state has property it can sell off, and it has been doing some of that. There's really no reason why the state should own the Orange County Fairgrounds, but it does. There are lots of other places just like that which could be turned into real money. Just do it.

Of course, they always threaten to cut education, parks and emergency services first because they know they'll get an emotional reaction from the people that way, and they hope they can scare the voters into approving all kinds of new taxes and borrowing. Well, those days are over. As the title of the Chronicle colums says: Fix the Shortfall Yourself, Sacramento.

Oh, and you need to get more people to smoke and drink. It seems that every new program that came along in the last few years was funded by taxes on tobacco and alchohol. Let's get Californians smoking and liquored up (and least with the liquor they might not notice how bad our legislature and governor are).