Summing Up, Part 1

As I begin my last week of sabbatical I thought I should start to wrap up some of the many lose ends of this blog.

California Budget: The State of California is in the final stages of setting up the smoke and mirrors that they call a budget. In about three months the crisis will begin again. All those furloughed employees will be making less resulting in less income tax receipts. The cut backs will result in less income for businesses that provide materials and services to the State, so their tax contributions will be less. Everybody making less money will result in people spending less, driving more businesses under and lowering tax receipts further. With less money coming in mortgage defaults will increase putting pressure on the banks and increasing demand for State services. Come October the State leaders will wake up to the budget hole and start on the new budget to address the problem. Having sold off everything of value and crippled the public sector, the next round of cuts should finish off any pretense of the State acting in the future best interest of the citizens.

Furloughs at the State Universities: The California State University faculty (8,800 of the 22,000) voted 54% to 46% to enter into discussions on furloughs. This does not mean that there will be furloughs, but the time is getting short to finalize the issue. The faculty have not been told as yet how furloughs would work, but most expect that workloads will increase and pay will decrease. The CSU folks I know are hunkering down for even more cuts next year. The resumes are being polished.

Next week I will focus on wrapping more local things and happier thoughts.

T.S. Hall