They always say, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” And California’s going bankrupt.
How could the ninth largest economy in the world go so wrong so fast? Here’s how RealClearPolitics.com sums it up:
“Ultimately, any honest assessment of California’s plight must assign responsibility for the state’s fiscal crisis – not to the taxpayers who voted for Prop. 13 three decades ago – but to the politicians who have subsequently exploited them without mercy. Indeed, if spending had simply reflected average population growth plus the average increase in the cost of living since 1991, there would now be a $15 billion surplus. After adjusting for inflation, the state now spends nearly 20% more per capita than it did 18 years ago; even as California’s tax revenues increased by 167% during that period, state spending exploded by 189%.”
We’d say they spent like drunken sailors, but we don’t want to insult any drunken sailors.
Source: RealClearPolitics.com
