In case you missed it, California finally has a new budget for the fiscal year. A compromise was reached this week and the new budget should be in place as I type this blog. Looking at the deal makes me wonder about the job our (California's) elected officials are doing. Never mind the fact that the budget legislature was about 50 days past due. The proposed budget is anything but "balanced". Even after the govonator makes his permitted executive slashes to the budget the state will not be in the black. Nothing shocking there. What really irks me about the budget agreement is the innovative accounting used to make ends meet. Not so much the use of "surpluses" that do not exist but the diversion of funds from public transportation to the general fund (in the amount of $1.3 billion!).
That's right, the state intends to CUT $1.3 billion from the public transportation fund. Now that is politics. Nobody likes public transportation, I quote Homer J.Simpson: "public transportation is for losers and lesbians." Constituencies may not care for public transportation expenditures but many of them depend on the services-albeit limited-public transpo provides. The real irony is that the state of California considers itself a leader-not just in the United States but the world-in environmental policy. The state still intends to reduce its carbon emissions while decreasing its public transportation. WTF? That makes no sense but then again, when was the last time democratic policy made sense and worked?