Jerry Brown signs budget; California government 'actually working'

[alp227]

Source: LAT

Gov. Jerry Brown signed California’s new $156.3-billion budget on Friday, ensuring a permanent source of state funding for construction of the bullet train he has championed.

The budget, which includes a $108-billion general fund, $7.3 billion larger than last year's, also increases welfare payments and expands preschool for children from poor families.

Brown and state lawmakers also included a long-term plan for eliminating the shortfall in the teacher pension fund, one of California’s worst financial problems. The state, schools and employees will contribute more money into the fund, with schools bearing the brunt of the costs.

The governor hailed the budget as another step forward for a state that was infamous for financial mismanagement and dysfunction.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-signs-budget-in-san-diego-20140619-story.html

[LibDemAlways]

1. An adult is back in charge and the state is

on the right path. Hope the bullet train comes to fruition in my lifetime. Sure would like to see something comparable to what much of Europe and Asia takes for granted here in Calif.

[Live and Learn]

9. +1 nt

[C Moon]

11. I've never understood those who are so against the bullet train.

I sure hope to see and use it, as well!

[Bigredhunk]

12. I've read various opinions on why people oppose things like this

One of them, and I don't doubt that's it's true, is that conservatives don't like communal transportation (or communal anything really). They don't want people being together. They want people apart, divided...everyone sitting in their own car hating the other drivers. Makes sense given their love/use of wedge issues. They don't like it when we all come together. They need to keep people mad at each other. If/when we come together, most people realize they have a lot more in common than on which they disagree.

[LibDemAlways]

13. I think it has a lot to do with Conservatives not

wanting to pay for something they might not use. My husband knew a guy in Seattle who hated paying tax dollars for the ferry system because he never used it. It's a selfish mindset.

[Bigredhunk]

14. Yup

That too.

That's one of the things they HATE about a Medicare-type system (everyone puts in/everyone takes out). They're obsessed with the idea that they're paying for somebody else. They're obsessed with the idea that someone got/took/used it more than they did. As a liberal, I don't give a tiny rats ass. I don't have kids. A portion of my tax dollars goes to educate kids at public schools. It's for the common good. Just because I'm not using it doesn't make it bad.

[DBoon]

15. As George Will said

To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.

Time was, the progressive cry was “Workers of the world unite!” or “Power to the people!” Now it is less resonant: “All aboard!”

Yes he really said that...

http://www.newsweek.com/will-why-liberals-love-trains-68597

[truthisfreedom]

2. I've been on China's bullet train

More like bb train, only goes from the airport to downtown Shanghai. Maybe 15 miles? Japan is better.

[olddad56]

4. Japan's bullet train was a success when I lived there in 1968.

[Tikki]

3. There is so much construction going on around my part So Cal it's like it is rebuilding....

itself.

Tikki

[Iliyah]

5. There was a prop that asked Californians to approve higher taxes. . .

It was approved, and therefore we are in a plus. I recently read that Americans are given up their citizenship and leaving the USA. So be it. Lets rebuild what the USA Constitution envision.

[alp227]

6. I don't get your post nt

[ProgressiveJarhead]

7. English

Is probably their second language. A few million people left the US while Bush was in office for various reasons. The poster is saying there is hope (at least in our state). I was born here and spent time in South Carolina along with foreign deployments. I had culture shock when I finally came home. CA has its issues, but it is home and worth trying to salvage. I actually kissed the ground when I arrived in San Diego.

[Tikki]

10. Tons of Californians, native born and immigrants, speak two ( or more) languages in California...

It is kind of what we do here.

I haven't kissed the ground in San Diego yet...but it is an amazing and important part of California.

Welcome Home...

Tikki

[Dawson Leery]

8. kick