How we got into this budget mess...

Here are excerpts from an excellent piece in the Orange County Register (click here) that talks about a state budget being held hostage by our prison system. Here are some of the highlights from the article:

At a time when the state is struggling with its finances, the spiraling costs of California's focus on public safety have tied the hands of budget-makers who want to spend more on education and social services – and have given power, influence and wealth to the state's law enforcement community. Consider:

•California has the most costly state prisons in the nation. But the $8 billion a year system is plagued by inconsistent and outdated policies that have led to severe overcrowding and high recidivism. California's lock-em-up mentality gets criminals off the streets—but New York has cut crime far more by keeping fewer convicts in prison.

•State and local governments are buckling under the weight of generous public safety pensions, which were given to police, firefighters and prison guards without a sufficient examination of future costs. Pension costs have driven one city to bankruptcy and pushed others in that direction. Since the pensions were liberalized in 1999, state pension resources have fallen from a surplus of $32.8 billion to an unfunded actuarial liability of $35 billion last year, according to the state's own numbers.

•California has become more protective of its police than any state in the nation. Police and prison guard unions and other public safety lobbies have secured laws that keep the public from gaining access to police disciplinary records, making it almost impossible to publicly identify offending officers and determine whether they are being adequately punished.

Meanwhile, the services California provides to all its citizens are in trouble:
State spending on primary education is mediocre. A 2008 study by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office found that California spent $7,673 per K-12 student, 25th out of the nation's 50 states. Budget cuts this year could push the state further down the list.

California roads are among the worst in the nation. A 2009 study by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and TRIP, a national highway research group, rated 66 percent of California roads as mediocre to poor, fourth worst in the country.

California has the highest general sales tax in the nation, at 8.25 percent, with local governments permitted to levy an additional 1.5 percent. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., California has the nation's fourth highest individual income tax rate and the highest corporate income tax rate in the West.

You can't blame public safety for these problems, but California would have more money at its disposal if it could more efficiently fight the war on crime.

While it is an extremely complicated discussion, the bottom line is that we spend far more than any other state in the union--and we still have plenty of crime. It is unfortunate that there isn't more intelligent discusssion about finding more cost-effective ways to reduce crime.