Time To Vote Again

The media is saying that tomorrow's CA Special Election voter turnout will be at historic lows. This may be true for the physical go-down-to-the-polls-and-punch-the-screen group, but many of us have already turned in our "absentee" ballots.

Whatever category you find yourself, please vote by tomorrow.

As to how to vote, that is another issue all together. It may be that voter sentiment is off because they are tired (I know that I am) of all of this foolishness. We spent millions of dollars electing officials who cannot get along and come to any kind of compromise or meaningful idea for improvements and thus we have a HUGE mess that they are asking the voters to fix by voting on propositions that are so convoluted and confusing that most voters are throwing up their hands in disgust and yelling, "I'd move to Nevada if I could sell my house!"

In my most humble opinion and based on my understanding of law and finances, this is how I suggest that you vote -- NO. That's right, the whole mess is trying to be fixed by robbing Peter to pay Paul. The mess that Sacramento is in today has a lot to do with debt and being able to finance that debt. So instead of raising taxes and fees (which they are doing as well), they are asking to be able to borrow from future gambling revenues (and just who are they borrowing this from?) and to redirect monies fixed by the voters for certain purposes to go to the General Fund to just be thrown at more waste. Yes, they will kill school programs in the end. But the propositions will do that too, so there is no difference. These propositions fix nothing, but only shove more money down the hole.

My question, and the one everyone should be asking, is this: if CA has one of the largest GDPs in the world, where is the money going? I know that a great deal of it is going towards the debts that were incurred in the past (the piper WILL be paid), but that doesn't count for everything. Is it just a bunch of little things adding up or are there places where savings can be made? I know of a few crazy tax credits that CA has on the books that maybe could produce some income, but then I'm not in the rice straw business, so I naturally think that credit is crazy (a rice straw farmer would probably disagree with me). And don't tell me that this is the fault of people not paying their taxes. Yes, there are some who owe the government and some of them could owe significant amounts, but the fault is not the revenue side (again, one of the largest GDPs). The fault must lie in the spending.

They call it a budget and yet they constantly overspend. If I overspend on my budget I have to make up the difference by either cutting back somewhere or getting another job. The same thing applies here. But instead of cutting back on wasteful spending, I see essential services being cut and taxes being raised.

Maybe we need a real cut-throat accountant in Sacramento to sort this mess out. No one would like him. No one would invite him to parties. He would have to be independent of everyone -- corporations, politicians, voters alike. And then have him cut to ribbons the CA budget, killing programs that do not produce results and raising taxes when all else fails.

But too much power in one man's hands is too dangerous. So we have committees and sub-committees and politicians and statesmen and lobbyists and unions, etc., etc., etc.

I guess the only true answer is an omnipotent, omniscient King. And He isn't saying when He will return to claim His throne.

Thus, in the meantime, study the issues, think carefully, pray, and then vote. It is the best we can do for today.