State Budget Crisis Like Sacramento Weather

Mark Twain once commented about Sacramento: "people suffer and sweat, and swear, morning, noon and night…"

Twain may as well have been talking about the budget negotiations, be he wasn’t. He was talking about the weather and Sacramento’s "eternal summer."

The budget morass has become as predictable as the weather in the state capitol.

For the 19th time in the last quarter century, the budget deadline was missed. A clear path to a budget deal does not exist.

The governor says no new taxes and Republicans in the legislature echo that chorus.

Democrats are trying to patch up different approaches and they say they now have a "framework." There’s still a question about how much borrowing and how much in taxes should make up their plan.

Some public unions still think the best thing to do is raise taxes to the tune of $40-billion.

The governor wants to reduce public employee pay to minimum wage until a budget is passed. The controller says he will ignore the governor’s wishes and cut checks for employees’ usual pay. A court will decide this squabble.

We have seen all this before … predictable … like the weather.

What should the leaders in Sacramento do to prevent a budget crisis from counting the crisis by months rather than days? They should already have done a lot and not waited for the last minute.

The way to end this cycle of budget failures is to re-work the way government operates. There should be an emphasis on promoting entrepreneurship and job creation. That alone would go a long way to fill the budget hole.

The governor was on the right track in seeking to reform the tax system. If the proposal from the Parsky Commission didn’t draw support, don’t give up on the idea of creating a tax structure to work for modern times. Change the government’s spending ways. Don’t create programs and benefits that can’t be met and put the taxpayer at risk for government’s faulty practices.

Dare I say it – blow up the boxes!

But, that will have to wait for a new administration working in a non-election year. (Remember those—they use to come around every other year.)

Getting through this budget year is going to be like many that came before, described quite well by Mr. Twain’s comment: "people suffer and sweat, and swear, morning, noon and night…"

Just like the summer Sacramento weather.