Many people do not recall that the opening song in the movie The Poseidon Adventure was “The Morning After,” a rather ironic choice for a disaster film. Today, Californians have finally told their state legislature “Enough!” in a series of referendums that attempted to get their consent to raise taxes to cover a disastrous $23 billion deficit. Those voters, already suffering the sixth-highest tax burden in the nation, declined to go for the gold medal by almost 2-1 margins on each bill.
When was the last time two-thirds of Californians agreed on anything? It was in 1848, when approximately that percentage thought gold was a mighty good find.
Although now a Minnesotan, I lived in California most of my life, and the significance of this defiance could easily be underestimated – and overestimated, too. Californians have spent money like the gold rush was still on for four decades, regardless of which party designation followed the governor's name, and not just through a legislature controlled mostly by one party over that period of time. California voters became active participants in the spending spree. Each election brought new bond bills, which are nothing more than IOUs for spending, and almost every time, voters approved them. They built prisons and schools with IOUs for decades while demanding more services from the government.
At the same time, Californians kept pushing back against the tax hikes. We started a tax revolt in 1978 with Proposition 13 that put two constraints on California government. First, it limited property-tax evaluations from increasing dramatically except after a sale, after the state abused its assessment power in an attempt to get more money from property owners. It also forced the legislature to get a two-thirds majority in each chamber to raise taxes, which put the power in the hands of the minority – and at least occasionally kept the legislature from hiking taxes.
Today, finally, The Morning After has arrived, and just before California capsizes from the bad leadership of its elected officials and the irresponsibility of its voters. Tax revolts are mighty fine, just like gold rushes, but not when the same electorate insists on spending money on IOUs and demanding a nanny state on the cheap. Californians have to come to terms with their own bad choices as well as a political class that lacks the courage to say “no” to more spending, let alone cut the current level of spending to any great degree.
California voters need to practice what they've preached in this election. Bond issues need to go down to defeat. If the state doesn't have the money to build prisons, schools, or any other facilities it needs, voters should demand that Sacramento find the money in the general fund and not from issuing bonds that will eventually have to be repaid anyway – with interest. Perhaps California civics lessons should start including a specific unit of instruction on what public bonds are, as one way of making this point stick.
Next, California needs to start dismantling its aggressive nanny-state agencies, especially those that overburden business. People come to California for the weather, and they leave from the lack of opportunity. High taxes, regulatory burdens, and oppressive worker-comp laws incentivize flight for those businesses able to relocate. California has to learn to compete for those investments, not by offering one-time breaks to companies looking for a new operations base but by making the state business-friendly to all.
More, though, Californians have to stop looking for government to manage what they should do for themselves. The state did not need to spend $6 billion on stem-cell research, for instance, as it did when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to upstage George Bush and buy himself some popularity. The state needs to start getting realistic about the resources it spends on illegal immigrants as some critics demand, but also on its own citizens.
If Californians demand and produce that kind of change, then perhaps they can avoid capsizing the Golden State. If not, then yesterday's effort was nothing more than a petulant tantrum thrown while deciding to remain in the doomed ballroom, dancing on the chandeliers, content with the notion that they have no need to rescue themselves from a capsized and sinking ship.
Edward Morrissey's Bio
Ed Morrissey writes for Hot Air, where he also has a daily political talk show. Ed has written for the Washington Post, the New York Post, the New York Sun, and has made numerous television and radio appearances. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, son, and two granddaughters.
Posted
05-21-2009 9:00 AM
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