November 15th, 2009 01:51pm

Welcome to the lull before the latest train wreck

by PeteGolis

For Californians hoping that state and local government could stop the bleeding, there is more grim news. On Saturday, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the state’s budget deficit – worst case -  could reach $25 billion next year. Twenty-five billion dollars.  Translation: That’s 29.5 percent of the current $84.5 billion general fund budget. This may explain why California’s finance director was quoted on Friday as saying that earlier this year … Read More »

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November 8th, 2009 08:43am

Hometown government is broken

by PeteGolis

For Sonoma County people who value the services provided by hometown government, another dispiriting week has come and gone. Local agencies continue to be hammered by budget shortfalls, and the latest financial updates offer no reason to be optimistic about what will happen next year or the year after. In the beginning, local government may have escaped the adversities being visited on the private economy, but it was only a matter … Read More »

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November 2nd, 2009 08:38am

Who would want to be governor?

by PeteGolis

“Few vying for state’s top job,” reads this morning’s headline, and I’d wager many readers had the identical response. They thought to themselves: No surprise there. Who would want to be governor anyway? By now, the futility of California government has become the story line of our time – an era marked by partisan paralysis, chronic budget deficits and a general ineptitude when it comes to responding to the state’s most … Read More »

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