What surprises me is that for a predictably super-low turnout election, the margin by which the tax hiking and fiddling measures were pounded. Where was the turnout for the unions? The special interests should’a hit this one outta the park. Yet they whiffed it.

When the teachers union and their government worker compadres can’t beat the home schoolers at the polls, that’s signals something.

As an Ex-Californian, I look on the unraveling of that fair state with sadness mixed with an uncomfortable amount of schadenfreude. Considering that Obama won the state so easily, it’s clear that those who voted No on these ballot initiatives can be most easily divided into three groups:

– the traditional anti-tax, anti-big government conservatives
– Obama supporters who were smitten with him and the hopeandchange mantra but, in their own version of a Saul/Damascus revelation are having second thoughts about the size and scope of government (charitably, I’d like to think this group is large, but it probably isn’t)
– Obama supporters who want all the goodies of government but have no desire to have to pay for any of it themselves.

It’s this latter group that has gotten the State into the mess it’s in. Anyone who voted for Obama but Nyet on these ballot initiatives got some ‘splainin’ to do. Who do they think will bail out the profligate ways of the state? Do they expect the citizens of Kansas or Delaware to support your habit? What programs or policies should be cut from the state budget? All we’re hearing from are the traditional ant-tax folks, and the pro-big government-types who voted yes. Well, I don’t really care about the arguments these two groups have because I can cite them without even hearing from them. It’s the flippers I’m curious about.

Then we can get the commissions – like the California Coastal Commission – to work thinking up great new ways to follow Oregon’s brave path forward into a green civilization, uncluttered by the trappings of technology.

My cuts -

1. Cut all State Board appointments and end most state boards
2. Privatize Caltrans
3. Privatize the DMV
4. Outsource or privatize all State IT systems.
5. Dismantle CARB
6. Stop all subsidized car programs and end ‘per diem’ pay for State workers and elected officials.
7. Cut legislative staff by 50%
8. New constitutional amendment to make state legislature part time.
9. New constitutional amendment to cease all government payrolls when there is no budget.
10. Sell more oil leases. NOW!

There, that should just about do it. The next trick is to try to come up with a set of incentives to get businesses to stay in California or cause them to move back. Im thinking that corporate tax rates need to drop to near zero for that to happen.