

California State Controller: Out of Cash in 50 Days - kvh
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/california-state-controller-out-of-cash.html

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TomOfTTB
The reality of this is that the State Controller has sent several of these
letters and nothing's really come of it. I mean, as a state we're in the
territory of $150 billion in total debt and knowing that full well our
legislature still budgeted for more than we could afford in the current fiscal
year.

Not went over by accident, they actually passed a budget that was more than we
could afford.

I hate to say it but at this point our financial situation boils down to this:
There's no way we can meet our obligations, every part of our government
refuses to take their heads out of the sand and the United States can't let
the state of California fail. So the rest of you are going to end up bailing
us out one way or the other.

Sorry.

~~~
fallentimes
It's OK the National Government is doing the same thing.

The real apologies go out to future generations.

------
helveticaman
Solution: Fire people. Bankruptcy's reality's way of telling a government it
has to get smaller.

~~~
patio11
[http://myprops.org/content/S.F.-is-gonna-be-broke-whether-
yo...](http://myprops.org/content/S.F.-is-gonna-be-broke-whether-you-like-it-
or-not/?ref=patrick.net)

Take a look at the list of San Francisco's top-paid employees. These numbers
ignore benefits and pensions, which are fairly generous.

Chief of Police: $256,000

OK, tough job with major impacts on public welfare, must be hard to find
capable candidates, I'll buy that.

Police Officer III $237,000 Police Officer II $230,000 PD Sarge. III $229,000
Lieutenant (Fire Dept) $225,000 (PD) Inspector III $223,000

Wait a second, guys

There are two major unions with members who do jobs which are quintessentially
blue collar who are getting paid on the same scales that resulted in those. I
love cops, don't get me wrong, but there is no way to justify $100k+ for a
beat cop except through union capture of the budgeting process.

85% of Sacramento's budget is employee salaries.

In Oakland, out of a budget of about $415 million, police cost $212 million,
fire $103 million, and debt service about $40 million. Want to know why
they're in debt? Hint: look what they spent 75% of the money on. Those costs
went wild in the last two California booms as the unions voted themselves
gold-plated contracts, and they've successfully defended most of them even
though the booms have busted.

~~~
iamelgringo
I'm a nurse and I work for a hospital in Silicon Valley. Pretty much all the
hospitals in Silicon Valley are union. The California Nurses Association has
been very politically active, as have the state employees union.

And, it's pretty common for nurses to make 100-150k a year in this region. I
know for a fact that there are a few nurses that work at Valley medical center
in San Jose that make over $200k.

While astonishing, those nurses tend to work a _lot_ of overtime. And, it's in
the overtime that those people pick up the money. The nurses that are making
over $200k are working 16 hour shifts, 6 days a week.

Before people start disparaging unions... The union rules here are really
nice. For instance, this is one of the only jobs I've ever had, where I get a
break on a regular basis. The union contract says that I get 1 hour and 15
minutes of break time every 12 hour shift I work. If get off work at 11:30pm,
and I have to come back at 7am, I get double time. The unions actually force
hospitals to treat their employees more humanely. Silicon Valley is one of the
few places in the nation where there isn't a nursing shortage.

I know that Police work a lot of overtime, too. I'd be willing to bet that
those officers are working 80-100 hours a week. I'm sure their union rules are
similar to ours regarding scheduling, etc... And, while a cop making $100k
sounds outrageous to people not living here in Silicon Valley. Have you looked
at housing prices in San Francisco?

If you want your cops to live in San Francisco, you're going to have to give
them a wage that lets them think about buying a house there. The median home
price in San Fran id $550,000, which means a mortgage payment of about $4000 a
month. So, factor that in to your outrage at public employee salaries.

~~~
helveticaman
You're right, housing is a problem. That is yet another lobby. If you look,
Palo Alto might have a land shortage, but it does not have a volume shortage.
Think of all the space in the air and underground that is not being used
because of ridiculous agricultural zoning.

Also, it's true that unions help make sure that their members are treated more
humanely. But it gets troublesome when they capture budgeting, like the
previous poster said. Definitely an argument with many dimensions and, within
those, sides to it.

But one thing's for sure: if the Cali government is going bankrupt, it has to
either raise taxes or fire people.

