It seems everyone is talking about it. Sacramento still has no budget, and the cost of inaction alone is steadily approaching half a billion dollars. It's big news, with blame being cast on both sides. In a prime example of the definition of partisanship, our elected leaders can't seem to make up their minds. Granted, the decisions to be made are tough - stemming from a stagnant economy. But this in of itself isn't the big picture. It doesn't even address the crux of the issue. The entire arg... epicism StevieGee 2009-07-31T15:00:36Z 2009-07-31T15:00:36Z

You're absolutely right. My dad used to manage an EDD office. When there was low unemployment he would have a surplus of money and, at the end of the year, would scramble to spend it all so his next years budget wouldn't be cut. There is no incentive for saving money in fact there is incentive to spend extra money.

StevieGee 2009-07-31T15:00:36Z TCSP 2009-07-22T04:45:48Z 2009-07-22T04:45:48Z

A side from the waste, partisanship and duplicity of State government there is also their accounting "practices"...if we at home did our budgets like they do, with pots of money that can't be touched, we would be in the same mess...all monies the State has need to be in one pot to draw from...then the State needs to have a priority on their spending...the higher the priority the greater chance of funding...what we have now is a mess...high speed rail when we can't pay our bills??? It's more of the nonsense of politics...

TCSP 2009-07-22T04:45:48Z Casey Kirk 2009-07-21T20:26:20Z 2009-07-21T20:26:20Z

Fabuloussotr, Kathleen. Great job comparing the budget to real-life scenarios to help readers relate and understand the budget a little better. The "Budgetary Elephant" couldn't be a better way to describe it

Casey Kirk 2009-07-21T20:26:20Z Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z

The housing bubble hid flat wages, as personal debt rose and savings fell. The housing crash has boosted savings, depressed wages and expanded under- and unemployment. The outcomes are gluts of workers, goods and services. Tax revenues fall in downturns. Government spending can bridge the gap in production and consumption. However, President Obama’s stimulus spending is a fraction of what we need to do that.

Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z Kelly Krehbiel 2009-07-20T23:02:59Z 2009-07-20T23:02:59Z

I definitely agree - the flip side of 'reversing inherent penalties associated with saving money' is to enact measures that penalize departments that spend more than their share. Taking accountability to the department level should have largely positive effects, allowing them as individual departments to plan for what may ail them in the future. I just hope that more discussion begins to revolve around this very crippling problem. None of the solutions either party is talking about implementing will work under the current system until this issue of waste is addressed.

Kelly Krehbiel 2009-07-20T23:02:59Z SmartGuy 2009-07-20T22:28:42Z 2009-07-20T22:28:42Z

The budget process, so named, encompasses all influences of political organizations, trade unions, federal and local governments and is influenced externally from natural events, legal issues, the economy to name just a few. Rather than focus on spending, I would focus instead on attracting/retention of existing business. In 2008, California lost 257,000 jobs (more than any other state). With this loss comes the resulting loss of tax base and revenues shrink. There needs to be oversight of what agencies are doing with these revenues during 'good years', socking money away to see them through the dark times, rather than (as you describe) spending the excess funds in a 'use it or lose it' orgy of waste or on extravagent CEO getaways. Finally, why not institute a bi-annual budget process?

SmartGuy 2009-07-20T22:28:42Z Dale Kooyman 2009-07-20T19:57:32Z 2009-07-20T19:57:32Z

Very astute analysis. "This means there is no incentive for individual departments to save money, only penalties for not spending it." This is totally correct. Any department manager knows this well. This flaw is the key to saving or waste in all levels of government and is the primary reason for foolish spending and government waste. Federal, state, county and city legislative funding bodies regardless of political party affiliation are all guilty. It is also true in some large corporate bureaucracies, contributing to their inefficiencies and waste as well..

Dale Kooyman 2009-07-20T19:57:32Z