A BANKRUPT CALIFORNIA, A BANKRUPT AMERICA

"California is a trendsetter state," Christian Probasco wrote in a 2007 magazine article.  "Every Californian fad eventually makes it way over the Sierras."

The latest fad comes next week (Tuesday, May 19), when those Californians who choose to go to the polls almost certainly will guarantee California will be the first state to go bankrupt.

In February, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature "solved" a $42 billion budget deficit with a mixture of (real) tax increases and (mostly cosmetic) budget cuts.

But the deal was contingent upon voter approval of five ballot measures to extend tax increases, and to permit the state to raid funds set aside for early childhood education and mental health services.

Polls indicate all of the measures are trailing, four of them badly. If the voters say no, California could run out of money as soon as July, the chief budget analyst for the legislature warned May 7.

If the measures fail, he’ll close prisons and lay off policemen and firemen, Gov. Schwarzenegger said.  As wildfires rage in California, the governator is planning to cut 602 full time and 1,100 seasonal fire fighter positions, the San Francisco Chronicle reported May 5.

An opponent of the ballot measures said the governor was just trying to change votes.  "It’s all about fear," says Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "It’s a classic ploy – the Washington Monument syndrome – where you threaten the most popular programs with cuts.  Next, they’ll threaten school closures."

California isn’t in financial trouble because the state hasn’t had enough money to spend.  According to Adam Summers of the Reason Foundation: "if California had simply held spending to the average population growth plus the average increase in the cost of living during the past three gubernatorial administrations…the state would have been sitting on a $15 billion surplus."

Though state spending has soared, the quality of the public services Californians care about most has deteriorated. 

California‘s public schools were once among the nation’s finest.  But in a 2004 report, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation said: "huge numbers of schools fail to hire and keep qualified teachers, far too many students lack textbooks and other essential materials to use in school or at home, many classrooms are severely overcrowded, and large numbers of schools are infested with rats and cockroaches."

Infrastructure is crumbling.  In 2006, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave California‘s roads a D+ grade.

But the salaries and pensions of state employees are among the highest in the nation.  California‘s budget has exploded chiefly to feed the avaricious appetites of public employee unions.

"Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third," notes columnist George Will. " In Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent."

"Everyone has a story of a state or county employee friend who is retiring at 55 with a guaranteed life pension of $75,000 or more plus gold-plated medical benefits," writes Los Angeles radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

It costs a lot to keep bureaucrats in the lap of luxury.  California‘s sales and income taxes are among the highest in the nation.

High taxes aren’t the only reason people and businesses have been moving out of state.  Few states impose more regulations on business and property.  A high state minimum wage and an excessive workers’ compensation system also contribute to a cost of doing business in California that is 20 percent higher than the national average.

One of the few genuine cuts the legislature made in February was to reduce the state’s contribution to the pay of home health care workers.  But President Hussein Obama, acting on behalf of the Service Employees International Union, has threatened to withhold $6.8 billion in stimulus funds unless the cuts are restored.

Pay attention to what happens in California.  It’s a harbinger of things to come everywhere.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.