California's Budget

by Missy Bain

Our budget situation in California is incredibly ridiculous, and the main problem with it is that there are so many problems no one really knows where to start. From the ballot initiatives dictating how much money goes where and providing a cap on taxation, to extreme party polarization of the people writing it up, it seems our budget troubles will never end. It seems to me that the allocation of our state funds is one of the most trying tasks a CA legislator will ever have. After all, the people already tend to allocate all of the available funds to poorly thought out services that pull on heart-strings, leaving nothing left for our most important, most taken for granted services like, policing, infrastructure, education, health-care, etc. Instead of logically thinking through our irrational spending, we keep on irrationally spending and blaming our government for the huge deficit. In response our government tries to make up for the deficit by proposing new taxes, but wait! We have put a cap on taxes, thrusting ourselves into the black hole that is our budget problem.

As I have said many times before, everyone wants everything, but no one wants to pay for it. I am a firm believer in services and that our government should be responsible for making sure that its citizens are able to survive. We desperately need funding for schools, health-care, and infrastructure among many other things. But we have to be able to decide which services we see as most crucial to the survival and success of the most people and do a better job of making sure the funding actually goes to the appropriate things. For example, school funding goes towards much needed books, supplies or desks not an extra candy vending machine for the teachers lounge.

I believe that if we reform our initiative process and work towards electing more moderate, rational representatives, we will be able to start fixing our current budget issues and make sure the headache isn't so big the next time around.