Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials and lobbyists familiar with the plan.I'm all for drilling off the coast, but that'll never happen, especially if his boss Obama bails them out. In fact it'll never happen so long as the obstructionist Democrats are running California (into the ground) and Washington. Why have energy independence while we can be submissive to the eco-nuts from the EPA? Eliminating CalWORKS is also a fantastic idea, but that's also a total fantasy.
If Washington does not provide roughly $8 billion in new aid for the state, the governor threatens to severely cut back -- if not eliminate -- CalWORKS, the state's main welfare program; the In-Home Health Care Services program for the disabled and elderly poor, and two tax breaks for large corporations recently approved by the Legislature, the officials said.
Schwarzenegger also will propose extending a cut in the state payroll that is scheduled to expire this summer. That cut has translated into 200,000 state workers being furloughed three days a month, the equivalent of a 14% pay cut. Lawmakers would have the option of extending the furloughs, imposing layoffs or some combination of the two.
California's problem is onerous taxation and overzealous regulation have driven many of the producers out of the state leaving everyone else footing the tab. When you have a massive welfare state it eventually collapses. They have no choice but to beg Washington for a bailout but with the current public mood and backlash to Washington growing by the day, can the Democrats afford that? No, they can't afford anything they're doing but since they're spending us into oblivion, bailing out California is chump change compared to where we're heading.
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