Here We Go!

If anything, these are interesting times.  No one I know is completely happy with the budget, or what is termed the budget, that was passed by the legislators and governor here in California.  As long as there are some things that everyone likes, and some things that no one likes, we are probably ok.  What is most important is getting people back to work, and keeping them in work.  I don’t think it can be built on unrealistic housing expectations, at least not in the near future.  Sometime in the farther off future this whole thing will play out again, as human memory is a short lived thing.  It would be nice if we found more sustainable ways to build the economy.  It’s time for the entrepreneurs to get to work.  It could, and should, be quite interesting.  I’m looking forward to it.

It Took This Long? No Excuse

Looks like the clowns in Sacramento have finally run out of political games to play.  It’s not a done deal yet, but the obvious has been stated: if we are to maintain services, we actually have to a way to pay for them.  Maintaining the various services equals maintaining jobs, which equals a better economy.  Some cuts and frugality in budgets, coupled with, gasp!, new taxes is what we have to do.  It might not be the most fun thing you’ve heard today, or tomorrow, but it is what has to be done.  The most amazing, and dissappointing aspect of this entire episode is that it took our elected officials this long to figure out the obvious.  It’s a good thing, for them, that they weren’t attempting to bypass a skunk.  They’d have been sprayed right after the phony budget was adopted last summer.

Maybe, Just Maybe

The Great Insolvent State of California may be, but only may be, on the verge of having an actual budget.  Of course, this was supposed to happen last July.  Our legislators, being the politicians they are, stuck to ideological idiocy rather than working together to keep us out of the insolvency pit.  Imagine that, working together to pass a budget that works.  It is an amazing thought, one that is difficult to come to grips with, given the nature of our legislators and governors over the last few years.  In the meantime, together with the mess that the financial industry and everyday greedy people gleefully jumped into, our friends and neighbors across the state have been losing their jobs, or living in fear of losing their jobs.  One of the things that drives new jobs is older workers retiring.  As the Boomers head out to pasture, their jobs open up for the younger folks.  This would be in addition to actual new jobs being created in a normal economy.  The rush to retirement has, I think, slowed to a crawl.  The Boomer Generation is having to consider not only the loss of some investment dollars, but whether their children will be employed and able to carry on.  The Bank of Mom and Dad may have to stay open a bit longer because of all the financial turmoil that we are going through.  If we actually get a budget from the loons in Sacramento, we will at least be able to make some plans, from businesses, to schools, to household finances, for the near future.  While crystal balls are admittedly in short supply and questionable use, it would be nice to have an inkling as to what, exactly, we should be able to plan for.  As it stands now, the time-line to a new budget for the next fiscal year has been shortened quite a bit. Not a comforting thought, at least not to me.  Contact your legislators and encourage rational thought for the good of the whole, rather than whatever it is they did this year.  If you have a printable name for it, let me know.