California is just screwed.
Gerrymandered districts and term limits result in inexperienced, untested party hacks in office. They represent the extremes of their party, because they don't have to appeal to the center to get elected.
The 2/3rds rule requires really means that 1/3rd of the legislature can prevent a budget from passing, which means they get more leverage than their numbers would allow.
The state can't run a deficit, which is the economically respsonible thing to do during a recession, so long as you run surpluses during expansions.
Prop 13 limits the state's reliance on property taxes, which are relatively stable across the economic cycle. That means California raises a higher proportion of its revenue from sales and income taxes than mosts states; revenues from those taxes vary a lot more with the economy.
Many other propositions carve off portions of the budget from the legislature, giving them much less room to work with.
So when the economy falters, a disproportionate drop in tax revenues results in a deficit too big for the dysfunctional legislature to deal with.
I am starting to hope that the recall election results in a constitutional disaster big enough that we can wipe it all out and start over from scratch.
Posted by dpassage at July 27, 2003 11:10 PM