Yesterday was a day of big announcements in Sacramento. The holiday gifts that have been given out this year are more proposals for massive spending. But this isn’t surprising. More spending has been the theme out of Sacramento all of this year, and we’re closing out the year on the same note.
Yesterday the Governor proposed a massive spending program (over ten billion dollars) to build prisons to deal with our overcrowding problems. The FlashReport is concerned that this proposal for more massive borrowing should have been made before the November election so that voters could have considered whether they still wanted to approve the tens of billions in borrowing that they did on that ballot. We also feel that these proposed new bonds should be taken to the ballot for a vote of the electorate. As they are proposed, these bonds would supposedly be paid off by revenue — so someone will have to explain to us what kind of revenue is generated by a prison? Also of concern in the proposal is a Sentencing Commission who, it seems, would have the job of lessoning the sentences of convicted criminals. Clearly action is required as the over-crowding problem is a serious one, and an activist Judge in Sacramento is threatening to take control of a solution if politicians cannot figure it out. It will be interesting to see Republican legislators have to battle their inner demons. The ‘tough on crime’ side of each Republicans legislator would make the massive borrowing to build more prisons a necessity. But many of the arguments that have been made by GOPers about California’s structural deficit are right on target, and more borrowing will only make the situation worse.
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