I cannot see how this proposed action by the Governor is any different than me turning to my neighbor and taking his cash, when I am in need of money. By what right does the State arrogate this action, other than that of being the biggest bully on the block?

I know that this will not balance the books, but I believe that neither the Governor, nor the Legislature, have earned their pay during this Budget debacle, and they should lose it ... not postpone it. This should be the case during any year that the Budget is not in place by the time called for.

I agree that this is outrageous but remember that cities are creations of the state:

Dillon's Rule
An 1868 court ruling (named after the judge) that local governments are creations of state governments and/or constitutions, and have no standing under the U.S. Constitution (i.e., they have no inherent sovereignty).

Furious no doubt. But I've been just as furious the last several years when I've seen the city give away the farm to the police, fire and city workers unions.

The chickens have come home to roost folks. The city and state just want to raise your taxes. Never do we find them trying to lower costs. That would be unthinkable. They have an insatiable appetite for other people's money.

Correction: Dillon's rule only applies to California's non-charter cities. Since Mountain View is a Charter City (home-rule), Dillon's rule does not apply.

Karma is a b***h!

If you have voted for a good percentage of the state bonds over the last two decades, you are not allowed to complain about the budget. I agree that the legislature has shown themselves to be a weak entity over this, but blaming them for this crisis is akin to blaming mommy and daddy if they make you pay them back when they take care of your credit card bill.

"The city and state" does not "just want to raise your taxes." The politicians just want to keep their jobs and the structure of state government gives special interests - unions and big businesses - the power to kill the careers of politicians who oppose them. The Governator spun the defeat of the propositions in an election only a quarter of registered voters bothered with as a mandate to cut services to the bone. (Were the props intentionally made so confusing that people wouldn't know how to vote so they didn't?) (Before you ask, I did, and voted yes.) This year's state budget will be a disaster whatever it's final form. We need to change the two-thirds rule to 55% for passing revenue and budgets, institute open primaries, require spending propositions to provide funding sources, and limit the influence of lobbyists on legislation. We need a Constitutional Convention, and soon.

I kept telling everyone that CA's liberal policies were going to bite everyone in the a** one day. We need to go back to our roots and learn to live without credit. We cannot keep buying goods and services with IOU's. We the citizens should have let the system crash when it had the chance to back in the end of 08, and then maybe right now we could have been on our way to rebuilding the system instead of trying to repair it, which is costing even more to American tax payers. It seems to me like the bailouts set the precedent of not letting our big corporate brothers fail when infact it is their own greed that let us down this disastrous path.




We don't need leaders to guide our everyday liives. When we learn to cope with everyday problems without having the gov't intervene, then maybe that will be the day we can have a democratic goverment working for its people and not the other way around.