California’s state payroll soars as other areas receive massive budget cuts.

Supervisor Antonovich has declared war on the California budget system, stating that it is “a mix of tax schemes and band aids that only delay the inevitable”.

Antonovich’s recommendations include:

• The elimination of state agencies with duplicative responsibilities
• A two-year budget to prevent the annual budget negotiations crisis and interrupted revenues to local government and schools
• A part-time legislature like 46 other states that enables citizen lawmakers to bring valuable professional experience to the legislative process
• An end to term limits that restricts the will of the voter and has produced a “musical chairs” system of inexperienced legislators controlled by consultants and lobbyists
• We need to bring our civil service system into the 21st Century.

Those who live in California, especially in Los Angeles County, know that we have some of the highest nuisance tax rates in the country, including sales tax, gasoline tax and business tax. With the recent boom years in real estate, property tax revenues jumped significantly as well, going from $6.4 billion in 1981 to a whopping $43 billion in 2007.

So where does all this money go? In a 10-year period (1997-2007) the California state payroll grew by 24%, from 719,000 to 895,000 employees. Fat paychecks are in abundance as well, with over 15,000 taking home salaries in excess of $100,000 per year, and over 1,000 employees take home over $200,000 per year. As of November 2003 there were only 8 state employees making over $200,000. Talk about a huge cost of living increase!

Antonovich also recommends copying Nevada’s successful methods to encourage business to stay or relocate to California with business-friendly incentives. Proposed incentives would include reduced taxes and regulation as well as an innovative marketing campaign.

I’m not normally an Antonovich fan, since it seems he’s often ignoring the issues we see here in Santa Clarita, but this message from him does make sense. I agree that the Governor’s office and the State Legislature should be contacted to let them know that having the state go into bankruptcy as a result of this blatant overspending is not an option.

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