Wednesday, March 24, 2010

It Wasn't as Easy as I Thought

As I was driving home from work today, I heard on the radio about an online game on the LA Times website where, in affect, you were the Governor of California, and it was up to you to solve the states current budget crisis.

I could hardly wait to get home to try it out, and prove to myself, if no one else, how easy it would be. It wasn't as easy as I thought. My proposal (if that's the right thing to call it) involved $15,735,000,000 in new taxes, and $8,665,000 in spending cuts and one time fixes. It's a proposal that will make NO ONE happy, least of all me. But in these tough economic times, sometimes hard choices have to be made now to keep from having to make even harder choices later.

By my plan, I not only eliminated the deficit, I gave the state a $400Million surplus, which I would recommend returning to the K-14 education spending cuts ($5.3Billion) so that the total amount cut from that part of the budget would only be $4.9Billion.

Like I said, I thought it would be easier, but I see now how hard it actually is. I hope some of you will also try that game and let me know how well you did, but I won't hold my breath.

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