After all the hoopla and to-dos about the how the non-politician was going to find us a new, un-special-interested way out of this mess, Governor Groper has decided that the best way to pay for the state budget deficit and his $4 billion car fee slash, is to....
push a $15 billion bond measure!!!!!
Not only that, he wants to cap government spending at the rate of inflation plus a formula tied to inflation and population growth.
So, that was really hard and courageous.
Quite frankly, I don't need my state government to shift from credit cards to a line of credit. I can do that at home! This solves absolutely nothing. As for the caps, the governor supposedly has a top financial advisor in there, but I guess this expert doesn't realize that government expenditures don't move in conjunction with inflation (though I do grant that they do move with population growth). But since most government expenditures have to do with paying full time staff, healthcare costs are a much bigger percentage of the budget than they are of the consumer price index. Add in your annual or semi-annual unfunded mandate, another giant forest fire, and voter-approved budget set-asides (the biggest one being K-12 education), and we're going to be in big trouble.
Recall, anyone? Vermont, anyone? Canada, anyone?
Oh, that's right, we're supposed to be more creative about our new country of choice. I'll go with Dan Quayle's choice: Hawaii.