An Open Letter to Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) January 13, 2011

I hope you all enjoy this.

Gov Brown.

First things first.
1. I did not vote for you

2. What you allowed the Nurses Union to do to Meg Whitman was the the iconic show of how low a politician will go to get a vote.

OK now on to the the budget.  Read this sentence over and over again.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to spend millions of tax payer dollars on a special vote to ask taxpayers for millions of dollars.

Let me repeat that.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to spend millions of tax payer dollars on a special vote to ask taxpayers for millions of dollars.

That my friend is absolutely the dumbest thing I ever heard of. Especially when the taxpayers already told Sacramento NO in 2009.
The Tax and Spend Liberal Marxist Socialists in power in Sacramento now have all but destroyed the business climate in California.

I’ll save you the millions of dollars on a special election for a tax extension.  THE ANSWER IS NO TO THE TAX EXTENSION.

OK then what should you do? A lot of people always complain about what the politicians are doing wrong but never offer a solution as to what they should be doing.
Eliminating Cell Phones and getting rid of unnecessary state vehicles…….Nice bandages. But the those motions are only short term and will be over and done by the next fiscal budget expiration date.
Here are my suggestions:

1. There are going to be thousands of California State Workers that are in line to get huge golden parachutes in the form of pension payments for the rest of their lives and free or heavily subsidized health care for the retirees and their families for the rest of their lives. These entitlement programs are unsustainable as by shear statics of there not being enough taxpayers in the future to fund this future financial train wreck.
What should be done in the future?  Simple. All new Employees of the state starting July 1 will not get a pension, instead they will get a matching fund 401K just like any other company.  When a state employee not longer works for the state either by early choice or retirement, they get their 401K at the end of employment and the state owes the ex employees no more money after termination date.
So now you are saying But what about all the pensions that are intact now.  This is easy, well sort of. The state Comptroller will have to figure out a formula for what each pension is worth today for every state employee.  That is the hard part…or maybe not.
Then by let’s say January 1 2013 all employees will have their pension rolled into a 401K. Again the long term fix is elimination the legacy costs for ex state employees or retirees. This is the long term fix. Not a bandaid like cell phones or state vehicles.

2. SEIU cannot hold a gun to the State Government for future entitlement programs. The same solution above applies to all State Union Workers.

The problem with Government entitlement programs is that it give a false sense of hope to the employees by eliminating the responsibility for the employee to be responsible and save for their own future retirement.
In addition to a Government matching 401K the government should also promote that the employees contribute to a personal IRA in addition to the 401K. No they cannot take the IRA contributions as a tax deduction as long as they are contributing to a 401K, But in the end they will have a comfortable savings so they they will not have to depend on tax payer dollars for the rest of their lives to live on.
The same condition with baby boomers will also apply to Social Security and Medicare. There simply will not be enough people to subsidize those entitlement programs in future years with payroll taxes.
Keep in mind when FDR came up with the entitlement program of Social Security People were only living to maybe 65 or 70. So FDR was betting that after a life time of contributions to Social Security an individual would not live long enough to drain the Social Security System. Social Security turned into a Huge Ponzi Scheme that now when people want to get paid for their investments there will not be the money there to pay back the people that are part of it when they live to 80 or 90 years old.

3. Illegal immigrants.  I know the unions and illegal immigrants voted you in.  What do you think that not one illegal immigrant voted for you?  LOL they either did with false documents or highly influence legal voters to vote for you. The State of California has to stop funding people that enter this country from all over the world illegally.
The state of California has to discourage more people from entering the US Illegally. The State of California can no longer be safe harbor for people that disregard the laws of the United States.  You really need to follow in the foot steps of AZ Gov. Jan Brewer.

4. Lower sales tax to 5% so people can start to spend money again on goods and service. More jobs will be created in the PRIVATE SECTOR.

5. Lower Corporate taxes by at least 20% to entice companies to expand or even start in California to create jobs.

6. Lower the maximum personal income tax bracket to 6%.  Again if more people spend then more jobs will be created.

7. Here is the most important role you can play to get California financially stable again.   You have to become California’s Business Ambassador to the world. Your job it to entice companies to start or expand businesses here in California to create jobs with generous, permanent tax break incentives.

Jerry, if you want to fix the financial condition of California you have to get the unemployment rate down to 5% or less.  If you continue the bad business attitude that Sacramento has had over the years then everything you do, all the bandaids that you put on the wound will not help the wound heal.

8. Finally it is sad that the majority of people that voted you in either were not born yet or did not even live in this country during your last time wrecking the economy in the State Of California.

If you don’t do the things mentioned above then you will be as ineffective as Arnold, Gray and Pete were.  I hope you do not want that reputation to follow you.

I wish you the best in these hard decisions.
RJ
PS incase you are wondering.
I am a Libertarian and I follow the small government, personal freedom, and the opportunity to be everything good that I can be without big government intervention creed.
RJ

Socialism: A Failed Social Economic Business Model. January 11, 2011

December 11, 2011

It is now time to pay the piper as they say.  California and Illinois have the worst credit ratings than any other state in the Union.

Both of these states have been dominated by Liberal/Socialist/Democrats for years that are pro union and anti-business.

Gov. Jerry Brown (D. CA) has announced draconian cuts to welfare related entitlement programs through out the state (I. E. Greece and Ireland).

This will affect the poorest of the poorest in the state that the  Liberal/Socialist/Democrats proudly tout in campaign speeches to represent and protect so that these economically challenged people will vote them back into office year after year.

Even though Jerry Brown is proposing these draconian cuts he is not planning on cutting the HUGE Government/SEIU entitlement/retirement costs that at least California suffers from.

Here is a hardcore fact. There are thousands and thousands of “Baby Boomers” that work for the State of California as well as other states.  Starting this year (2011) Baby Boomers turn 65 and are starting to retire.  When they retire they are going to collect sometimes up to 80% of their salary for the rest of their lives along with health coverage that is 100% funded by tax payer dollars.

This is unsustainable going into the future. Simple math. A growing number of “Baby Boomers” retiring and a dwindling number of people paying taxes compared to people collection pension money and healthcare from the state.  Keep in mind this same scenario that exists at the federal level.

This employee pension time bomb. is going to force two things.

1. California declares bankruptcy that will make all government and Government Union contracts Null and Void.

2. The Fed starts to print money (Inflation that will not lead to new jobs subsequently not generating a new tax base.) to prop up California’s economy.

This will put California’s financial burden on the US tax payer.  That means that someone in Vermont,
Massachusetts etc. are paying to bail out California and maybe Illinois.

The poor get massive cuts and the government employees and government unions are allowed to be paid the crippling entitlement programs that are the biggest costs in running California Government.

Here is Jerry Brown’s Plan, Ready for this?: Jerry Brown wants to spend millions of dollars for a special vote in June to ask taxpayers for millions of dollars in tax increases.

Does that make sense to you?

Jerry Brown has been Governor before for two terms.  The majority people that re-elected him were not even born then or did not even live in this country during his last term of Governor.

So they have no idea of the damage that he did the last time.

Here in California we have a very unusual proposition that was passed on June 6, 1978.  Proposition 13 helps home owners to able to afford and keep their homes.

Jerry Brown states that he has no intention of dismantling Prop 13, however he wants to attack the subsequent affects of Prop 13 to allow local counties and cities to collect additional taxes to shift the tax burden from the state to county and local municipalities. What exactly does that mean?

People are losing their homes and could be subject to additional property taxes that will further exacerbate the rate of home foreclosures in the state of California.

So instead of being an ambassador to business and courting businesses to start and expand businesses with tax incentives in California creating jobs to increase the tax base,

Jerry Brown has decided to punish poor people with entitlement cuts and even worse punish the responsible working class with tax hikes to pay the unions and fund the state pension train wreck.

The bond rating for California has dropped significantly,  Reason? You need taxpayer dollars to payback municipal bonds. When a municipal bond is issued it has to be backed by tax payer dollars to repay the bond when it is due. If the state is broke it can either raise taxes, issue municipal bonds or cut government spending. Those are the choices. There are only bandaids in the interim  to temporarily patch the fiscal budgets of the state of California.

Stay tuned to what happens in California. As they say “As California goes, so goes the rest of the country.”

ST Marie.