Election Post Mortem
By now, I'm sure everyone is aware that the State's feeble attempt to address a portion of its budget deficit has failed miserably at the ballot box. No doubt, we in local government will have $2 billion extracted from us in the form of a loan. School Districts and Counties will suffer far more than we will. We'll also indirectly suffer from the State releasing tens of thousands of prisoners early--many of which will be essentially unsupervised due to the cuts that State parole will suffer.
So what is next? And why should those of us in local government care? We've attempted to insulate ourselves as much as possible from the state budgetarily. However, we can't fully insulate ourselves from their dysfunction. As noted above, our local schools will suffer, our county safety net is going to suffer and our police officers will have no way to incarcerate many offenders. Our local unemployment rate will suffer as the schools and the county are forced to layoff local workers. Our businesses will suffer as the government employment ranks shrink and the schools, the state and the county directly purchase fewer items.
Our world economic crisis is now fully hitting home. The end of the bubble economy has also drained the coffers of a bloated and inefficient state government. Now is the time for all of us to demand fundamental changes in the way our state functions. Every aspect must be reviewed. I'm talking term limits, 2/3rd budget approval, legislative district boundaries, and most importantly in my view--the ballot initiative process that allows our State's constitution to be gutted on an annual basis. The system is now broken and beyond repair. The insanity in Sacramento won't end until we come up with a better way to run the state.
Certainly, those of us at the local level would prefer a lot less state control. Cities, counties and schools would be better served to have less interference from Sacramento. But that is just one of many issues that needs to be resolved. The time is now for all of us to demand change. We don't have any other alternative. Now I'm going to shut up. Thanks for listening.
John Myers has blogged an excellent election post mortem. Click here to read.
So what is next? And why should those of us in local government care? We've attempted to insulate ourselves as much as possible from the state budgetarily. However, we can't fully insulate ourselves from their dysfunction. As noted above, our local schools will suffer, our county safety net is going to suffer and our police officers will have no way to incarcerate many offenders. Our local unemployment rate will suffer as the schools and the county are forced to layoff local workers. Our businesses will suffer as the government employment ranks shrink and the schools, the state and the county directly purchase fewer items.
Our world economic crisis is now fully hitting home. The end of the bubble economy has also drained the coffers of a bloated and inefficient state government. Now is the time for all of us to demand fundamental changes in the way our state functions. Every aspect must be reviewed. I'm talking term limits, 2/3rd budget approval, legislative district boundaries, and most importantly in my view--the ballot initiative process that allows our State's constitution to be gutted on an annual basis. The system is now broken and beyond repair. The insanity in Sacramento won't end until we come up with a better way to run the state.
Certainly, those of us at the local level would prefer a lot less state control. Cities, counties and schools would be better served to have less interference from Sacramento. But that is just one of many issues that needs to be resolved. The time is now for all of us to demand change. We don't have any other alternative. Now I'm going to shut up. Thanks for listening.
John Myers has blogged an excellent election post mortem. Click here to read.
Labels: State
posted by City Manager @ 6:32 AM
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