re: #288 doppelganglander

Nothing that can be done to balance the budget? There’s plenty that can be done, but there’s no political will to do it. IIRC, Arnold can’t run again anyway. The only explanation I can think of is that he is desperate to be liked by his fellow liberals and is willing to sell the state down the river to do it.

Oh, and “no good Republicans have ever come out of California?” The Reagan fans here will beg to differ.

States often try to “balance” their budgets by leaving in place ALL the same services they provide, but cutting back on the number of state employees who provide them, with some cute statement like, “We must do more with less!”, or “We need to figure out a smarter way to work!”. And of course what happens is things slow down, the public gets angry with those pesky “state workers” who are very often working in substandard conditions with substandard equipment and supplies.

The legislators seem to FORGET that they are the ones who passed the laws and regulations and requirements that state employees are required to enforce or deliver on.

What needs to happen is a state needs to determine which services it believes are critical to provide, fund those services so that they can be provided efficiently and effectively, and DO AWAY WITH EVERYTHING ELSE.
But of course, there’s a political price to pay for that.

Louisiana at one time had a driver’s license office in just about every little podunk town. They would often serve maybe one or two people a week. Every time the DPS suggested that some of these offices should be shut down, you wouldn’t believe the hue and cry. It took years and years before the DPS could finally shut down some of these offices.