California fiscal disaster to cost taxpayers billions

Advertisement */ */ Due to the financial hurricane hovering over California, many cities have or intend to file for bankruptcy as a method to escape over-promised trillion-dollar union pension payments and failing public school bureaucracies. Just how dire is the Golden State’s financial woes? Bad. Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, openly added yet-to-be collected revenue from Facebook’s IPO to the state’s tax ledgers. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the Facebook bubble busted, leaving the state with even more debt. Enter the Poway Unified School District. Once a prized public school system, the district entered into a risky $105 bond to cover ongoing K-12 expenses. The interest payments for the questionable bond will be $877 million. Adding insult to injury is the insane payback details; Poway will push the cost of the bond onto children that aren’t even born yet! The San Diego school district will not begin to repay the bond until 2033, giving a whole new meaning to the term loan sharking. The “capital appreciation” bond has recently gained popularity in California because the taxpayers don’t see an increase in taxes, and current school administrators don’t have to take a “haircut” or dramatically slash yearly budgets. Even Democrats are slamming the budget gimmicks and warn taxpayers that impending doom is on the horizon if they do not vote themselves a tax increase. “One person’s gimmick or unpopular budget strategy is another person’s genuine effort to avoid deeper and deeper cuts to education, “ said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). One would think California lawmakers could recognize California’s $15-20 billion deficit is unsustainable. Sadly for the California dreamers, fiscal calamity has reached a fever pitch and Sacramento lawmakers appear hell-bent on building a $60-90 billion high-speed train to a government-made dust bowl that has become a Central California ghost town. For more stories; http://www.examiner.com/homeland-security-in-national/kimberly-dvorak © Copyright 2012 Kimberly Dvorak All Rights Reserved.