California's Election Implications

My friends on the Right have lately sent me many republished opinion pieces lamenting the return of a former Governor to his old office in Sacramento.  They are aghast at the prospect of higher taxes.  I am more sanguine. 

Whoever was elected would have to close the Golden State's budget gap somehow.  Folks, it's gonna be either higher taxes or much less spending.  A lot of people will howl either way.  I say cut spending, especially the big white elephant known as unionized babysitting education.  The techers' lobby will fight that and they'll probably win, so everything else will be cut.  Welfare recipients will lose all of their present benefits and then some because they don't have a well-funded union to lobby in Sac-town, so they'll have to shape up or ship out. 

Repealing extra car taxes was a dumb move.  Californians need to be weaned from their addiction to suburbs and long driving commutes so Peak Oil doesn't destroy us, and the car tax was one way to do it.  Those taxes will return. 

The state will cut its pension plan contributions.  The math is unavoidable. 

One conservative columnist mentions California's oil reserves and lack of full-length three lane highways in the same paragraph and doesn't see the irony.  He's never heard of Peak Oil.  My modest riposte is to sequester whatever oil is left in the ground until high-speed rail is built.  Recoverable reserves are civilization's insurance policy. 

The return of a political dynasty is not a cataclysm.  California will still exist long after any of its leaders alive today are gone.