Cal Budget: Shut Down Prisons

Yeah, that union is so powerful (and corrupt... no union would be so antagonistic to the interests to other categories of workers) that they got their pay raised to $75,000/year before overtime - and they get a lot of overtime because they deliberately leave positions unfilled. Look in the SF Chronicle archives for stories on how they paid to have legislators vacation in Hawaii last month on their bill. And indeed, prisons are one of the only categories that don't have big cuts announced yet (and they've only announced $10 billion of the total $34 billion that will have to be cut from the state budget). The CCPOA under Don Novey throws money for or against politicians so they totally punish any legislator who dares look at them wrong. Also, ask yourself why California has a redicivism rate nearly twice that of some other states? It's because they instituted these intricate rules of parole that aren't used in other states where a parolee will be tossed back in if they leave the county that they committed the crime in. If there happen to be no jobs or housing for them in Santa Clara county, for instance, but they have a mother in Hayward, if they are caught living there rather than going homeless in Santa Clara, they will be put back in jail.

>>> In addition to increasing the progressive income tax on the rich, those who make over $200,000 per year ... <<<

California already has the HIGHEST income tax in the Nation. How much further do you think we can raise it before people just start moving elsewhere? 40,000 people in a State of 30 million (1/10 of 1%) paid over half of the state budget. Now you're saying they should pay even more?

Plus, our supposedly "progressive" income tax puts the highest rate on anyone making over $35K a year and this is never adjusted for inflation. The average salary in the state is now well over $40K a year. How progressive is it that an "average" person has to pay the highest state income tax rate in the nation.

For what?!? Our per-capita school spending is in line with what other states spend, plus we have to educate a lot of illegals which costs money that they never contribute back.

Our gas taxes are among the highest in the nation yet the roads here are not appreciably better than anywhere else, in fact, they're worse.

Don't even get me started on electricity, water, etc. One of the basic functions of government is to make sure infrastructure needs are met. Davis blew it big time.

I've been on the edge about leaving the state and a lot of people here will probably be glad to see me go but, if enough people like me go, who will be left to pay for all of the government's hare-brained schemes?

Government spending under Gray Davis has grown more than at any time in the State's history. Why didn't we save some of the extra money we were raking in a few years ago? Why is it always necessary to spend every cent?

SFer, you miss the point. The way it works is this:

When the government takes in a lot of money, they start new programs.

When tax receipts fall, they raise taxes.

When tax receipts increase again, still more new programs are started.

When tax receipts fall again, taxes go up again.

This is why 40 years ago people paid 5-10% of their incomes to all forms of government for taxes, and now they pay 40% or more. Eventually, the socialists will "win" because the government will take it all.

According to today's Chronicle, the deficit is $1,000 for every man, woman and child in California.

So, let's make everyone pay their "fair share", i.e. a one time tax of $1,000 on *every* California resident, payable in 12 monthly installments of $83.33. Since everyone living here supposedly benefits from our giant government, it's only fair that everyone should have to chip in and pay.

allpay, could you come collect from the homeless person who sleeps under the eves of my building? Actually, maybe SFer could bring him along to the Midwest where he probably comes from. I bet the police in the midwest gave him a bus ticket here.

OK, you say that the maximum penalty for any crime should be 5 years. So you think that guy Stayner that killed 4 women should be back out on the streets in 5 years? You're crazy!

So you think that anyone over 60 years old should not be in prison? Why?

Ohh, that's so MEAN and UNFAIR to imprison people older than 60 years old! Even if they rape a three year old girl? Yeah, I agree, we should let out everyone over 60, sure. We'll just move them in, next door to you, your Holy Leftwingretardedness.

Where did you get the idea that job training will help people who go haywire enough to be among the most violent of our criminals? Do you think that a dayjob will take away their desire to see people die, painfully?

Once you go off the deep end far enough to get your kicks off of seeing people die- serving up hamburgers at McD's or working in a factory ain't gonna cut it for you anymore.

I've got a suggestion for you: go visit a prison, from the inside, for a few days- hell, even low security, and see if you think that everyone in there is reasonable and capable of rehabilitation.

On the other hand, I do believe that we need to have less people in there for drug posession/use and other non-violent crimes. We need treatment programs for a lot of those people in jail.

But there are those who need to just plain rot and die in prison. If you disagree, then I hope you never have to learn the truth, first-hand.

So, we have this situation where we seem to be overtaxed, yet even *before* cutting the budget, all our institutions seem really stretched - the Eastbay express has covered how a lot of emergency rooms have closed, the schools suck-the k-12 students are scoring at 49th in the nation even though other states have a higher % of immigrants or poor people, there are all sorts of mentally ill wandering around, welfare benefits are being cut off for the 5 year lifetime limit and many left earlier (so a smaller % of people are on welfare than 10 years ago) - and this month we have to cut the budget about 30%!! So basically, I'm wondering what the extra government programs are, other than the $75,000 prison guard pay (average UC tenured professor is paid $73,000). We have to pay $5 at state parks, which we didn't before.

Add to this the fact that despite the fact that California teachers are supposedly near the top of the national rankings for pay, why do we have a big teacher shortage in this state? If teachers are really being offered so much, why do newly certified teachers look to other states, and why don't ones from poorer states come here?

The answer is simple. It's the cost of living - state workers like teachers, construction workers, transportaiton employees don't want to be renters all their live or live in a district that is in the bottom 10% in school rankings like Oakland. One would have to be paid a sum that would make you rich in another state to be able to afford a condo here.
And the ultimate reason for this is that California ranks near the bottom in the % of people who are 'middle class'. It's true! If you visit other states and compare to here, we have an earning pyramid more similar to Mexico.
Give me a list of 'middle class' cities or communities in California or the Bay area. I would say maybe certain parts of Sacramento, the Richmond side of el Cerrito, Concord, the nicer part of Vallejo. Almost everywhere else like SF, Berkeley, all the South Bay, tracts of LA are super wealthy (most of the top 100 wealthy zip codes are in California), and then you have extremely poor areas, but there is no middle. This is why the tax structure is so whack. Visualize the huge transition between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto. Oakland, Berkeley flats, and Hayward vs. the Hills in those areas. There is an infinitesimal acreage which constitutes the middle. In other states like Minnesota, Ohio etc. it seems like most areas are middle class, and more people can have a regular job and not be either paying more than 50% of their money in rent, vs rich, and they have good schools without stress.
Communism is not the answer.
Overpopulation is not the reason for this because even though humans are inflicting damage on the earth, California would not be the only place to have this problem. Other states are more dense and are more evened out. Hong Kong and South Korea are very dense and are wealthy, and trade for agricultural goods. They are much wealthier than nearby Thailand and Indonesia which are also dense because the latter two had 'free trade' inflicted on them, while Korea, Japan and Hong Kong are very protective of certain industries and don't let foreign countries manage them to their detriment, and none of them have vast numbers of poor. I think that having an undemocratically managed system that let's the gov't make decisions that aren't in their favor leads to Haiti, Indonesia, centrla America to have similar rich vs. poor earnings pyramids develop where you would have to spend half a year's wages to enter a kid in school. Simple problems with legal systems are often the root of big problems that affect everyone.

Incidentally, it's a big secret to many people who vote Republican in California that it is actually the republican legislators who promote unregulated immigration of farm workers. Their farm owners in the valley need this or they would fail - they even want to set up a system of guest worker slaves where they people would be sent back at the end of the year, and never collect social security. Right now they have to pay federal and state taxes and never collect, but they also don't leave. Democratic legislators are allied with unions and unions don't like lots of people coming in competing at the low end of the wage scale and driving down wages. - this is just like tech workers who spite the special visas for computer programmers which contributed to a higher level of unemployment in that sector after the bust. I'm not exaggerating to say 'slaves' above either. There are plantations in Florida that have workers who have been documented to be slaves just like in the old times, where the owner keeps making up charges that are higher than what he says he owes them in pay, and they are beaten and not allowed to leave if they have debts. This is being tacitly permitted to go on - and while the typical floridian might not be any more aware than the typical german knew about concentration camps, enough people do know what's going on in their state.

That's quite an outrageous claim you made about slaves in Florida. I think it's possible, but the "tacitly permitted" part I think is highly implausible. I'd like some reference on that claim. Where'd you hear about it?
This link indicates that such intolerable practices do occur, but are followed up with legal action.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=394

That's quite an outrageous claim you made about slaves in Florida. I think it's possible, but the "tacitly permitted" part I think is highly implausible. I'd like some reference on that claim. Where'd you hear about it?
This link indicates that such intolerable practices do occur, but are followed up with legal action.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=394

There is an anti-slavery campaign going on as part of the Immokalee workers campaign. Have you ever heard of boycotts of Taco Bell over the conditions of the tomato pickers? That is the Immokalee campaign. see:
http://www.ciw-online.org/1-aboutciw.html
<quote>
"Anti-slavery campaign " - The CIW's Anti-Slavery campaign is an innovative worker-based campaign to eliminate modern-day slavery in the tomato fields and orange groves of the East Coast agricultural industry. In 21st century slavery operations based on debt bondage, workers are held against their will through violence and threats of violence, ranging from intimidation to beatings to pistol-whippings. In the past five years, the CIW has uncovered, investigated, and assisted the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in prosecuting in three large, multi-state slavery operations based out of Florida, and acted in as consultants on two others. In those few short years, our efforts have resulted in: freedom for thousands of workers in debt bondage, the successful prosecution of various agricultural employers, the education of local and federal law enforcement, the development of a growing base of aware and committed worker activists, and stronger federal laws against trafficking in human beings. <http://www.ciw-online.org/5-photo1.jpg>

This campaign, launched during the 1996-1997 season, began with a 500-worker march to a local crewleader's house to protest the beating of one of our members here in Immokalee. Since then, it has evolved into a nationally-recognized program focusing on the elimination of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields.

Here's another good site on slavery, which draws from multiple news sources: http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/trafficking.htm

STOP COURT CORRUPTION! Judicial Abuse steals from us all.

http://www.jail4judges.org

Come to the Judicial Accountability conference:
http://www.icsn.info

“In addition, imprisoning people over age 60, disabled people and sick people is criminally insane and must end now.”

I wonder if this theory still holds true in light of the recent news about Kenneth Parnell whom is 71 and wheelchair bound?

Shut down prisons... Yeah.. that sounds like a good idea. Let's just let the animals out of their cages.

Good point about Mr. Parnell.

The court system is pretty doggone lenient with the average offender. If you are the criminal typeand you just don't fit, but you can commit almost any crime a few times before you get some time to serve. And then, you get a slap on the wrist, compared to what you deserve. ( Take Manson, who should have been tortured to death, long ago, in all fairness - what the heck is that maggot doing still alive). You get internet, TV, food, medical attention, and free love. So. By the time you get to prison, you probably really, really deserve it . Tear the prisons down? Those low-lifes have it easier in there than they deserve out on the street.