California’s Budget Shortfall

Governor Jerry Brown seems to have his hands full, especially with the deplorable state of California's fiscal situation. He credits himself with a credit upgrade after the state had been on the brink of collapse. In an address to the people of California Jerry Brown talks of his past accomplishments in being a take-charge leader who's honest and is not afraid to do what's necessary in asking the help from his constituency.
This time Governor Brown really stepped into something deep. Somehow, some way California's budget is experiencing a shortfall of $16 billion. With all the spending cuts and all the rhetoric, the state has failed to even come close to being within the vicinity of manageable. Of course, Governor Brown blames that on one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression and the federal government's rejection to aid California.


What Governor Brown doesn't mention is clear as the light of day; the state government's sheer incompetence. How is it possible that California has a shortfall of $16 billion which is greater than the actual projected estimate of $9 billion? Who was the genius working up the estimate for the deficit that they couldn't even guess within a range greater than the estimate itself? This is just a reflection of the incompetence of California as a whole. The state's education system is one of the worst in the nation. It's police force is an abomination. And now the governor wants to sell the loss by going straight to the voter guaranteeing that California never gets out of debt by guaranteeing increased spending on public safety. Governor Brown wants to accomplish this by increasing sales tax a quarter of a percent for four years and increase taxes on the "rich" by up to 3% more.
The governor has become a caricature of himself; he's like the godfather of all necessary evils. That's how he got elected. People trusted his experience and his bold rhetoric that was about-face. Except the nightmare is continuing and poor Jerry Brown is still having to talk about a recession that passed more than fours ago-when is he going to be able to address the people of California in the present tense?