EconoMeter panel looks for magic budget bullet

Members search, mostly in vain, for short-term fixes to state budget hole, sans tax hikes, spending cuts

Roger Showley, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Friday, May 18, 2012

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Kelly Cunningham, National University System
Answer: NO
There are no one-time fixes for the budget. It is axiomatic that California government scale back spending to tax revenues. Since 2008 state revenues have fallen 14 percent, while population increased 4 percent. California’s monstrously large and bumbling state government remains the same: seeking ever more ways to fleece the private economy and causing more businesses to flee to other states. Increasingly regulating the private sector while providing “services” few want, the public sector consumes an ever-greater share of money actually earned by those willing to take risks and create growth. Meanwhile, government employees retire at ever younger ages demanding excessively larger pensions.