Comments on: California Budget Mess Goes On

By: Patrick E

Patrick E — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:25:39 +0000

As I said in my column I do think that waste needs to be cut and major reforms need to be made. But saving 0.5 or 0.6 billion is a drop in the $ 15 billion dollar deficit.

As to the issues of Asian businesses, I'm not sure where that came from but I hope the obvious answer is wrong.

By: richmck

richmck — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:06:59 +0000

Why not start on the deficit by cutting waste first?

Fixing the broken parole revocation process would save about $.5 to $.6 billion annually. Our very high rates are the direct result of the county jail bed shortage. Previously, technical parole violators were held in jail while the parole agent developed a local program, such as placement in drug treatment and changes in parole conditions. The jail bed shortage required immediate transfer of technical parole violators from jail to prison. Once in prison, there is almost no chance a technical violator will be released without serving a revocation term. Each technical parole violator adds about $12,000 to prison operating costs.

The State could release Requests for Proposals for correctional beds to hold technical parole violators. Only about 4% of the California prison population is held in contract facilities compared to 9% in Texas. In addition to saving a lot of money, the state could avoid spending any of the $6.5 billion in AB 900 funds for construction of more prison beds.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:05:12 +0000

This is a good example of what politics will look like in the future. Even though one political party dominates California, they try to blame the irrelevant Republicans. And even though California has some of the highest taxes in the U.S., the state is running a huge deficit. I thought high taxes meant surpluses and a high level of government services.

Maybe it is the fact that the high taxes along with a high service government coupled with illegal immigration is forcing the middle class to leave the states. I also wonder how much tax cheating is going on with the Asian owned businesses who only employ family members.

By: California Budget Mess Goes On

California Budget Mess Goes On — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:26:59 +0000

[...] Original The Moderate Voice – Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, original reporti… [...]

By: California Budget Mess Goes On

California Budget Mess Goes On — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:56:18 +0000