The good, the bad and the ugly

The Legislature in Sacramento took a page out of the Clint Eastwood western “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” with the passage of the state’s budget last week.

First the good, because there was little of it. Probably the best we can say is the state passed a budget on time and did not rob cities and counties again.

The bad. This year’s budget is a whopping $4 billion higher than last year’s record budget and it seems the lawmakers threw in every pet project they could. We are certain there are many items in the $125 billion general fund budget we will find fault with, including a lot of money intent on resisting President Donald Trump and his agenda, money which could have benefitted many Californians.

The ugly. The Legislature made only a small dent in the growing pension crisis in this state which some day will cost every Californian. The pension deficit is now approaching $300 billion and the Legislature only threw $6 billion at that. That pension for state employees is guaranteed those employees and backed by, you guessed it, taxpayers. The City of Porterville and local schools are both facing huge jumps in their pension costs, money which will be taken from local projects.

Another ugly part of the budget was the Democrats inserting into a budget provision for veterans cemeteries a plan to make recall of politicians much more difficult. The move was solely to protect one of their own who is facing recall and we laugh at the argument the change is to “restore integrity to the process.” Has anyone felt any political campaign of the past 25 years was done with integrity? We don’t think so.

Another very ugly part of the budget is the lawmakers diverted 30 percent of the money coming from the hike in fuel taxes for things other than road repairs and improvements. So much for integrity.

This current Legislature seems bent on increasing state spending with no regard to the impact on the citizens of California.

Extra money was put into the budget because now every one of three people is eligible for Medicaid.

That is scary when approximately 13 million Californians are not contributing to the revenue our state Legislature is so quick to spend.