Jerry Rigged

An LA Times article makes claims about the irrelevance of California Republicans that seem unpersuasive at first, since they've apparently just killed Gov. Brown's budget balancing plan.

I do see what the reporters, Evan Halper and Michael Mishak, are driving at. As GOP registration numbers decline, Republicans are relegated t0 a seeming structural minority in the state legislature. Those wanting to do more than be obstructionists end up working with the majority, which results in centrist outcomes that conservative purists consider as bad as purely liberal ones -- worse, because they're even more likely to be enacted.

And so with the state facing the prospect of bankruptcy, a few brave Republicans were willing to talk to Brown about massive budget cuts in exchange for an agreement to continue some expiring taxes and put new taxes on the ballot. It's not that these GOP apostates were voting for new taxes. It's just that they were willing to let us do so. Given Californians' recent disinclination to raise taxes, it would've been a pretty safe bet.

But the purists won, and Brown ended negotiations this week. That's where the Times article comes in. Let's see what the GOP can accomplish in the broad public interest with 30% registration, dwindling numbers in the legislature, and no statewide office holder about the Board of Equalization. And folks, it had better be good.

A Mandatory Retirement Problem

The states have promised retired public employees $1 trillion more in pensions and health care than they have set aside to pay for them.

We Collect From The Select

It's all clear to me now. Reads Revelation 7:4:

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

For those who tend to take Revelation as a series of end-time predictions, the idea of that small a group of select usually amounts to something of a riddle. The State of California's budget crisis reveals that while a select few may or may not be treading the golden streets of heaven, they're definitely paving the roads in the Golden State. State finance official H. D. Palmer, appearing on Patt Morrison's KPCC-FM program this afternoon, revealed that 50% of the state's revenue comes in with the top 144,000 returns. The next you meet a rich person, better say thanks.