California votes against liberal budgeting

NY Times:

A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year.

The results dealt a severe setback to the state’s fragile fiscal structure and to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislators who cobbled together the measures as part of a last-minute budget deal passed in February.

The measures, which would have prolonged tax increases, capped state spending, earmarked money for education and involved the state in a complex borrowing scheme against its lottery, were rejected by roughly 60 percent of those who voted. The failure of the measures, combined with falling revenues since the state passed its budget, leaves California with a $21 billion new hole to fill, while foreclosure rates and unemployment remain vexing problems here.

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While the governor was a strong supporter of all the measures, he was not the public face of the effort, as he was in 2005 when he took on the budget issues, and well as the state’s unions, in another failed effort at the ballot box. This time the Republican governor let teachers and firefighters do his talking for him in advertisements, and indeed was not even in the state the day of the vote.

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The one measure to pass, which would prevent legislators and statewide constitutional officers, including the governor, from receiving pay rises in years when the state is running a deficit, was approved by more than 75 percent of those who cast ballots, demonstrating the overwhelming disgust many Californians say in polls that they feel toward elected officials in a time of deep budget paralysis.

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The 2005 proposal made more sense, but the teachers unions and other state employee groups defeated it. Now they have a day that forces the government to cut spending and those who opposed the 2005 measure should be hardest hit. Teachers pay will likely take a hit. If they keep it the same and reduce the numbers that would be a mistake. They cannot sustain paying teachers 30 percent more than the rest of the country, especially for a system that is not as good as much of the rest of the country.

Their social welfare programs are also more generous than they can afford.

California has been the test case for the failure of liberalism, but it is unlikely that the Democrats who control the legislature have gotten the message. I expect them to cut police and fire protection as well as releasing criminals from, prison as a way to punish voters who rejected their latest scheme.