California!! It's Another Country!!

[jamiebk]

We drink more water than we did in the 1860's - maybe we can stay ahead of the storm .

LOL....
but on a more serious note, there has been a considerable amount of subsidence in the central valley, thus elevations have been reduced (sunken land masses). This would exacerbate any flooding scenario.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2300
Historically, extensive pumping of groundwater from the San Joaquin Valley aquifer system caused groundwater levels to decline, resulting in as much as 28 feet of land subsidence. The importation of surface water to the San Joaquin Valley in the 1970s reduced demand for groundwater, resulting in a recovery of groundwater levels and a reduced rate of land subsidence.

[Shapley]

There's no reason a 1000 yr event cant occur 2x, back to back. Be a nice long rest after that, I 'spose.

We drink more water than we did in the 1860's - maybe we can stay ahead of the storm .

We've had three 100-year floods since 1993.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I'm sure the orange groves planted over the San Andreas would march their west halves northward, from the earthquakes, by six feet or so.
Oh Wait!!! They already did that!!! Y'all missed it?

Seriously. Southern California has had about nine Hundred Year Storms in the second half of the 20th Century that I was there for: the best one was when the Santa Ana river got water in it and the sand washed out from under the end of the extension of the Norton AFB runway, and the extension snapped off into the riverbed, kaplink! Then there was the SANDAG Drought Management meeting that had to be moved to a different venue, as the original conference room had been flooded by rainwater. We won't count the times the underpass from Fashion Valley to Mission Valley got flooded, but the Union-Tribune presses got swamped at least twice that I can remember. And there are some nervous condo owners dwelling between Friars Road and the riverbed this winter.

There was a humungous earthquake in Alaska: seismologists predicted giant tsunamis all the way down to Venezuela. It was maybe 16 inches here.

There was a good-sized earthquake up in Jamie's neck of the woods: the upper deck of an earthquake-safe freeway fell down on the lower level and squished a bunch of unfortunate commuters. It also damaged naval installations at Alameda and Mare Island and Oakland and Treasure Island and the Praesidio and rang the death knell for the Bay Area as a USN center.

The only thing you can guarantee about climate or storms or seismic events is that they won't conform to your models and you won't get what you expect. If you expect a disaster, and prepare for it, this will be a good thing.

[Haggis@wk]

California declares fiscal emergency.

Related: Facing $360 million deficit, San Francisco pays city workers $170 million in bonuses.


I am so glad I no longer live in CA. Selma reminds me of a joke I use to hear. What do earthquakes, avalanche, flash floods, fires and wives in California have in common?

Sooner or later one of them is going to get your house.

[Haggis@wk]

State of the State: Brown cites unrest in Egypt to make his case for budget vote

Because they are rioting in Egypt California needs to raise taxes.

I’m sorry Califormia but you deserve everything you voted for

[Giant Communist Robot]

According to this article Texas' budget shortfall is actually larger than California's.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Here's some choice quotes:

Texas officials have been able to conceal the bad news until recently because they pass a budget only every two years, so they got a free pass in 2010. Now, facing a $27-billion spending gap (about a third of the budget)

...and that 2009 budget?

. Perry also likes to rail against the federal economic stimulus program even though his state only managed to balance its budget in 2009 with the help of $12 billion in stimulus grants.

and there's this:

It is undeniably true that it's easier to find a job in Texas, with an unemployment rate of 8.3%, than in California, at 12.5%. But an awful lot of those jobs are the sort of low-paying posts you'd expect in a state that ranks No. 42 out of 50 in per-pupil education spending. Among wage-earners in Texas, one-third make too little to stay above the federal poverty line for a family of four, roughly double the percentage of such low-wage Californians. Businesses certainly are attracted to places with low taxes, but they also need an educated workforce and functioning infrastructure. It's questionable how much longer they'll be able to find that in tax-averse Texas.

[Haggis@wk]

You can always tell whom the MSM is truly fearful of by examining who they attack. Although he has been quite forceful about it, some in the MSM are fearful that Perry will run for President.
Texas model is low taxes, fiscal restraint, and regulatory reform.

Somehow Texas is a hypocrit for taking stimulus funds?

here's the real reason why Texas is being attacked. Caifornia is losing 100,000 citizens a year; Texas is growing 150,000 a year.

The cost of living is so low in Texas that In December 2010, the Texas foreclosure rate was one in every 805 mortgages. This was substantially better than Nevada’s one in 71, Arizona’s one in 179, California’s one in 198, and Florida’s one in 323.

Gov. Perry will make the State of the state address today and I can guarantee that the budget will be balanced by the end of the 110 days of legislature without raising taxes or going into debt. We currently have a $9BIL rainy day fund but Perry has said we won't need it to balance the budget.

I forgot, how large are Hawaii's and California's "rainy day" funds?

The MSM cleverly projects a "shortfall" as a "budget deficit".

Texas doesn't owe anyone for our "shortfall", California owes almost everyone for their "budget deficit".

As for low paying jobs, I'm not sure where they get the numbers but if you Google "job growth texas" you'll see that three of every four jobs created in the U.S. is created in Texas.

I suggest you Google "Doctors moving to Texas" you'll run accross this

[Giant Communist Robot]

Somehow Texas is a hypocrit for taking stimulus funds?

A hypocrite? Well, I dunno...is this factually wrong?

WASHINGTON, DC – Gov. Rick Perry used federal stimulus money to pay 97 percent of Texas's budget shortfall in fiscal 2010--which is funny, because Perry spent a lot of time talking about just how terrible the stimulus was. In fact, Texas was the state that relied most heavily on stimulus funds, CNN's Tami Luhby reports.
"Even as Perry requested the Recovery Act money, he railed against it," Luhby writes. "On the very same day he asked for the funds, he set up a petition titled 'No Government Bailouts.'" It called on Americans to express their anger at irresponsible spending.
Thanks to the stimulus funds, Texas didn't have to dip into its $9.4 billion rainy day fund. Still, now that the stimulus is spent, Texas, like many other states, is facing severe cuts--$31 million must be carved from the budget.

I forgot, how large are Hawaii's and California's "rainy day" funds?

Did someone hold up either of these two states as some kind of model or something? I didn't.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Here's an interesting approach Texas is taking:

But the budget does propose millions of dollars in new fees. For instance, state employees and retirees who smoke would pay a $30-a-month "tobacco user monthly premium surcharge"

A tobacco user fee. What next? How about billions cut from education?

`'It's a catastrophe. No financial aid for kids to go to college. No pre-kindergarten for kids to learn their numbers and their letters," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. `'No Texan can be proud of this."

...and here's something interesting:

The plan would eliminate 9,600 state jobs over the next two years

followed by

While almost every other state agency would see a reduction in employees, the average number of full-time employees in Perry's office over the next two fiscal years would go to 132 from an average of 120.

See? Perry's a guy who knows how to get things done! This is too easy.

[Shapley]

`'It's a catastrophe. No financial aid for kids to go to college."

Given that college tutition no longer seems to be worth it, cutting there seems to make a lot of sence. No sense sending kids off to college, at state expense, if the product isn't worth the investment...

[Giant Communist Robot]

`'It's a catastrophe. No financial aid for kids to go to college."

Given that college tutition no longer seems to be worth it, cutting there seems to make a lot of sence. No sense sending kids off to college, at state expense, if the product isn't worth the investment...

According to the plan, several two year colleges will be closed.

[Haggis@wk]

Gov. Perry’s State of the State address

Contrast Gov. Perry’s words with California’s Gov. Jerry Brown, who tried invoking Egypt’s unrest to justify raising taxes, and the Democratic leadership in Illinois, which is raising income taxes 66%, and it’s not difficult to see why businesses are flocking to Texas, bringing jobs with them

Did someone hold up either of these two states as some kind of model or something? I didn't.

Nope, just pointing out that despite the handwringing about the state of Texas' finances we have a substantial rainy day fund.

Texans, for the most part, especially the Republicans, are committed to living within our means, if that means cutting funds to schools and roads and especially cutting state employees then so be it.

Look, I've had to tighten my budget and go without some things I might have considered vital several years ago and Texas will face the same crunch. Texans, at least, realize that tough economic times results in tough economic choices. How many other states are willing to face up to that harsh reality? Not many.

A hypocrite? Well, I dunno...is this factually wrong?

Nope, if Obama wanted to give our money away at least we used it to reduct our deficit. California used it to pay off the teachers and other unions and have nothing to show for it. We are on our way to a Constitutionally mandated balenced budget.

Once again I point out that Texas creates more jobs, have a lower cost of liiving and is apparently doing something right compared to other states.

All in all, I'd rather be in Texas today than California and I've lived in both.

California’s bond status is now barely above “junk” although many of California cities and counties have already achieved "junk" status and the only thing Jerry Brown can think of is more tax hikes. Since he won the election I assume Californians are fine with that; Texans aren’t. It really is that simple.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Texans, for the most part, especially the Republicans, are committed to living within our means

Except for that 27 billion dollar gap in the budget. And the last budget, too, which would have been in the red if not for the Federal bailout. Maybe Austin's looking for another bailout?

[Giant Communist Robot]

According to the plan, several two year colleges will be closed.

Those kids could head to California and get one of the lowest cost college educations in America, or they could stay in the Lone Star state and learn to flip burgers. After graduation they could get one of those high tech jobs that aren't leaving the state, or they could go back to Texas and learn to flip...well, you know.

[Haggis@wk]

Texans, for the most part, especially the Republicans, are committed to living within our means

Except for that 27 billion dollar gap in the budget. And the last budget, too, which would have been in the red if not for the Federal bailout. Maybe Austin's looking for another bailout?

You apparently did not read his SotS address. The Texas constitution requires that the budget be balanced and state leaders and many of the new super-majority of conservative legislators elected in November have vowed not to raise taxes. Plus, the $27BIL number being thrown around is mostly claptrap. Unlike Washington, the Texas Legislature prioritizes spending based on available revenue, not from an infinite wish list of earmarks and automatic spending increases, which is where that $27BIL figure comes from. Texas has $87BIL to spend this year and will budget accordingly.

With more than half of this year’s $87 billion state budget dedicated to education and health care services, those areas are likely to sustain the most severe cuts; thems the breaks and me and the MRHYN will personally feel the pain as our in home physical thearpy and vsiting nurse for my 94 y.o. invalid MIL is going away. We've already been told that.

People living in California and Illinois will, eventually, face a much harder decision than Texas now faces.

The shortfall will be the driving force behind almost every decision the Legislature makes when it convenes for the biennial, 140-day session. It is going to be painful and most Texans are aware of that. But most Texans agree that, unlike most other states, going into debt is not the answer nor is raising taxes.

Fortunately, the legislature has a Republican super-majority so those Democratic whiners in Austin will have absolutely no say during this go around.

[Haggis@wk]

Texas Open For Business

While many states have been struggling through the economic downturn, there's been a giant neon sign hanging over Texas that says "OPEN FOR BUSINESS." In 2008, 70 percent of all the jobs in the country were created in Texas. In 2009, all of America's top five job-creating cities were in Texas.


More recently, "Texas created 129,000 new jobs in the last year -- over one-half of all the new jobs in the U.S. In contrast, California lost 112,000 jobs during the same period," according to "Texas vs. California: Economic growth prospects for the 21st Century," a new report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation released in October.

Texas is home to 64 Fortune 500 companies -- more than any other state in the union. (California has 51 and New York has 56.) For five years in a row, Texas has topped Chief Executive magazine's poll of the best state to do business.

Meanwhile, California is ranked dead last in the Chief Executive's survey. California state treasurer Bill Lockyer even went so far as to pen a Dec. 20 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times denying "the claim that we have a hostile business climate."

So why are businesses flocking to Texas and fleeing California? Well, as a recent headline from The Economist put it, in California "They paved paradise and put up the parking taxes."

Texas has no personal income tax. With a top rate of 10.3 percent, California has the third-highest state income tax after Oregon and Hawaii.

The tax advantage goes much deeper. The Tax Foundation cites California as having the 33rd highest corporate income tax topping out at 8.8 percent -- much higher than Texas' modest 1 percent gross receipts tax on business.

California's capital gains tax is the highest in the country, whereas Texas levies no tax on capital gains. California's sales tax is the second highest in the nation and its energy taxes are the highest in the country.

And as California's taxes have gotten higher, the state's revenue has become more unstable.

"When you're taxing income that high you're not taxing wage income, your taxing capital gains and dividends, which is tying you to the most volatile form of taxation -- the corporate income tax," Kail Padgitt, economist and author of the Tax Foundations' annual State Business Tax Climate Index.

"That's the problem for California -- boom-time budgeting. Texas is more dependent on property taxes and stable forms of taxation and Texas' two year budget cycle requires more planning, and that's helped them."

The result is that California is inordinately dependent on taxing the wealthy, which has proven to be a poor economic strategy. The decline in tax revenues from households making over $200,000 accounts for 93 percent of California's total decline in tax revenues since 2007.

When states tax wealthy earners too much, they often get up and move to where the tax burden is lower -- such as Texas.

While high-tax states like California are foundering, not-tax states are thriving. From 1997 to 2008, Texas and the other nine states with no personal income tax created 89 percent more jobs and had 32 percent faster personal income growth.

The lessons learned from California's progressive taxation apply to the whole country. A 2008 survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found "taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States" -- even more so than socialist Europe.

If there are benefits of having high progressive tax rates, California shows that economic stability and job creation aren't among them.

[BigJon]

Unlike Washington, the Texas Legislature prioritizes spending based on available revenue, not from an infinite wish list of earmarks and automatic spending increases,

How enlightened! Can you send 400-odd Texas politicians PA way?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Since he won the election I assume Californians are fine with that; Texans aren’t. It really is that simple.

No, not really. We knew Gov. Moonbeam was a limp failure already. But the other candidate was an obvious crook. I wrote in "Donald Duck".

Would've been nice if there'd been more choices. Might have to move.

[Haggis@wk]

But the other candidate was an obvious crook. I wrote in "Donald Duck".

Might have to move.

Sometimes a tame crook is better than a inept honest man.

Texas is ready when you are. Prices in Plano run about $69 a sq. ft. and most houses sell for less than $200K. No stat takes, lower sales taxes than CA, no capital gains taxes in TX and the price of living is much lower than most of CA. Besides, people in Texas are just friendlier!!!