State Controller John Chiang announced today that his office would suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state’s cash crisis.
Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state’s nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.
Perhaps there will now be an exodus of illegal migrants, since the checks have stopped coming in. That would be a huge relief for California. The entire infrastructure has been strained beyond capacity because of all the illegal migrants. Their prisons are swelled between 1/3 and half with criminals who were illegal migrants as well.
Time will tell.
And all this while commercials show on tv with the Governator saying:
“Come to California! It’s a great place to live!” 🙄
Highest sales tax, highest state income tax (maybe New York is slightly higher, I can’t remember), highest gas tax – oh yes, let’s tax so that government can be the answer to all our problems. Trouble is, more people are leaving the state than coming, illegal immigrants drain resources, the Democratic legislature, beholden to the teachers’ union, etc., refuse to cut, and the Governator (RINO that he is) just wants something to pass so that he can get this off of his plate, even if it means increases taxes substantially (so that more people with money leave). In a few years when we retire, we are definitely moving elsewhere to lower our cost of living and increase our quality of life.
[blockquote]“Come to California! It’s a great place to live!” [/blockquote]
Or would be, if any productive activity wasn’t immediately set upon by the political class like a pit bull on a poodle.
One wonders if the politico’s perks and salaries are going to be cut – how about that state owned car and the driver to drive it – perhaps various and sundry discretionary funds…are they taking the hit too? Is it just the poorest of the poor?
how about that state owned car and the driver to drive it
Depending on the circumstances of the job, a state car may be less expensive than paying mileage for state employees and officials to drive their own cars. It’s even possible that a driver might be an efficiency, if the person being driven is thus enabled to do productive work. It’s not unlike a friend of mine in private business: he often flys when he could drive more quickly and cheaply. The company reasons that his time waiting in the airport and on the plane is productive, while time driving is not.
About 15 years ago, the comptroller of the state of Texas came up with a list of money-saving ideas that sounded reallygood, but ended up costing more money than they saved. One I remember was to give incentives for older employees to retire, then hire young people at lower wages. The problem was that the young people didn’t have the experience, knowledge, or wisdom to do the jobs, so the retirees got hired back as “consultants”.
It’s easy to pontificate on wasteful government spending, but another thing to come up with solutions balance efficiency with effectiveness.