The California Mess

I totally agree with the sentiment Proposition 13 is ultimately to blame for the state's financial woes:

I really don't think that California should be bailed out, at least without making them pay. California voters need to learn the harsh lessons about the wisdom, or lack thereof, of voting for abominations like Proposition 13.

It permitted the Republicans to whip up childish anti-taxation sentiment to such a weird level that they actually enshrined it into their state constitution the notion that, not only can the state be prohibited from assessing higher property taxes as the assessed value of the property itself increases, but that ANY tax increase or new tax must receive a two-thirds majority in BOTH houses of the state legislature. It didn't even take inflation into account. This is just stupid and California is paying the price.

Now, I don't mean that this should cause such a calamity to fall on the most innocent among California, its children, whose medical care under Medicaid is being curtailed in the wake of the state's budgetary woes. I think that maybe the Federal government might take over some of this, and subsidize their public (exclusively their public) educational system under the bailout package. But in return for this Federal largesse, all California property owners -- JUST the property owners -- should have a SERIOUS surtax, perhaps 30%-40% or maybe even more of their Federal tax liability -- added to their Federal income taxes until the onerous anti-taxation initiatives they passed into their constitution are repealed. The rate of the surcharge should be based on the ratio between the property tax paid and the current assessed value of the property owned -- the greater the disparity, the greater the surtax on a steeply progressive scale.

Such irresponsible behavior on the part of Republicans and their extremely sophisticated PR apparatus that resulted in these outrages being enshrined into the California state constitution should be punished. They shouldn't just be allowed to get away with it and have the rest of us cover it.

Of course, we could say the same for the executives and shareholders of the financial and insurance corporations that created this mess, and indeed I have said the same, and will again.