Sad that cuts are made in education. Educating our children is an investment in our future.
Penny wise and pound foolish.
Ralph
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090314/ap_on_re_us/teacher_layoffs
My hours got cut this week too. I’m down to 30 hours a week for now and in June they go down to 18 hours a week. I’m a technology teacher. And we usually work year round (summer classes). But not any more…
Jon.
I would be easy to argue that California’s emergence as an economic powerhouse in the 50s and 60s had a lot to do with it’s extremely good public education system–creating a very large pool of highly educated and capable people to fuel economic growth. Shortsighted and a disaster to let that founder
Recipe for annual fiscal chaos:
The main problem here in CA is our constitution, it has so much mandatory spending added to it during the fat years that the assembly cannot touch let alone modify now in a fiscal emergency that the budget it an absolute nightmare every year. Add in that they thought the high revinue gravy train before the dot com bust would last forever (sound familiar to todays real estate collapse?) so they added tons of spending that they now cannot (by constitution) or willnot (political 3rd rail) touch. Stir in the biggest headache, the supermajority vote requirement which requires 2/3 approval instead of a simple majority like in 47 other states. Now add in the trend to put all major descisions before the voters instead of actually making the really hard descisions, and a Republican party that has vowed to never raise taxes ever again under seamingly any circumstances (if this isnt an emergency to them I’d like to know what outside of a major earthquake is?) it adds up to an absolute mess every single year.
Think this year is bad? next years going to be even worse. Criswell Predicts NO budget agreement AT ALL next year.
Will it ever GET fixed? I doubt it, short of cancelling out everything and starting over from scratch.
mike omalley said:Prop 13 helped kill the education system, we've NEVER really recovered from it, the education system statewide has been going downhill ever since that law past. For about a decade tax revinues available for schools plummeted, I know - I was a student at the time, class sizes got larger, extra cirricular stuff went poof! and the quality of our education went to hell, by the time I was in high school they were just tyring to get us out, a huge difference from the 50'2-60'2 I later found out, in fact I had to spend 2 years in Junior College to learn all the stuff I was supposed to learn in HS. Tax revinue and spending has increased ower the yeears but the damage was already done.
I would be easy to argue that California's emergence as an economic powerhouse in the 50s and 60s had a lot to do with it's extremely good public education system--creating a very large pool of highly educated and capable people to fuel economic growth. Shortsighted and a disaster to let that founder
I dont think Howard Jarvis envisioned the side effects of his tax cut, that it turned a top ten in education states, realing to the bottom of the pile. We’re like 47 now, thanks Howard.
I remember prop. 13
The general public will always vote to lower taxes with no regard to the consequences.
One man’s gift horse is another man’s trojan horse.
Ralph
Prop 13 became a necessity for homeowners in California and was voted in for one main reason; people were literally being taxed out of their homes and the Legislature would do absolutely nothing about it. Property taxes were becoming outrageous and extremely difficult if not impossible for people on fixed incomes to sustain.
The proposition originated for the benefit of large apartment house owners and would never have gotten far had it not been for the deaf ear of public officials to the plight of average homeowners. Once passed local goverments engaged in a most vicious attack on the very people they were supposed to represent. Every conceivable problem was blamed on Prop. 13. City layoffs were focused on anything that could most hurt the general public such as police and fire departments. A friend of mine worked in welfare fraud investigation in Oakland. There were only 8 agents and 4 were laid off. The layoffs lasted only a few weeks and most everyone was called back to work after money was “found”. Curious that they couldn’t seem to find it earlier.
To add insult to injury public funds were used to immediately challenge the proposition, voted in by the taxpayers, in court actions.
As for schools; that too can be dropped at the feet of greedy public officials. We voted for a State Lottery that was supposed to add to school funding. The idea was that the proceeds were to be added to existing school funding to provide a continuous and increased income for education. Instead what happened was that existing funding was reduced and the slack taken up by the lottery. End result was close to a net 0 for the schools. All we did by voting in the “lottery for the schools” was add to the general fund.
For those unfamiliar with the particulars…
Prop 13 stated that property taxes could not be higher than 1% or 1.25% (?) of the home’s value plus payment of any bond issues voted in before or after. Thereafter taxes could not be raised more than 2% per year. Not at all unreasonable in my book. I was paying around 4% of my home’s value in property tax prior with huge increases every year. Remember too that California real state cost was among the highest in the nation so the high rates were applied to houses that could cost easily twice what they would in most other locations. The only questionable part to me was that upon implementation the property tax would be rolled back and started at the rate of a previous year which is what caused the immediate fiscal fallout.
I guess California has a compound problem now with falling home values.
Can’t raise the millage to make up for the losses.
Ralph
Here in Michigan our home values went down again. And they raised the taxes again.
Jon.
Richard has done an accurate job of describing Proposition 13, its origins, and application. The idea that Prop. 13 is responsible for every financial woe in California is a bunch of crap. Doubly so when considering education. I do believe it was a mistake to include commercial property in the taxing restrictions of Prop. 13, but we haven’t seen any serious effort to rectify that mistake.
The real roots of government financial problems in California are two-fold:
First, our state government system allows for the continuous, unfettered expansion of laws, rules, and requirements without any thought as to how to fund these expansions.
The second major problem is with regard to our state education system. The ongoing administration costs are staggering as compared to the total spent on our schools. The cadre of non-teaching administration personnel is huge. They typically occupy the very latest in expensive real estate, with their offices well separated from the students and teachers. The fancy business park offices are truly monuments to the bureaucracy the has been allowed to flourish. When there is a money shortfall, the teachers are the first to go, followed closely by other folks who are actually in contact with the students, including counselors, maintenance and operations personnel. An occasional administration secretary is let go with a lot of gnashing of teeth, but the highest paid administration staffs are virtually never let go.
A couple of examples of how things work: We have many government boards with great sounding names, but with little to oversee or to manage. Look into most of them and you find that they meet once a month or less, and have virtually carte blanche authority to make rules and regulations that costs the state and the taxpayers many millions of dollars. Most of these appointed boards are staffed by ex-politicians, or termed out politicians waiting for their next opportunity to run for office. For their one day / month work, they typically get salaries in the $130,000+ range, plus full expenses and other stipends. They employ large staffs of people who do the actual work of writing and implementing the crap they pass down to the taxpayer, again with high wages and full state authority.
One of these nearly autonomous authorities is the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Those are the folks who mandated putting MTBE in the gasoline. The initial cost of implementing and complying with the MTBE in gasoline mandate was outrageous, but now pales into insignificance when the environmental damage and cleanup costs to get MTBE out of California’s ground water are considered. Meanwhile at CARB it is business as usual.
Another one is the California State Water Resources Control Board. They are currently busy making new regulations that will add at least $75 / year (many inspectors say up to $200 / year) in new mandatory inspection fees for any house using a stand-alone septic system. That is ~75% of the dwellings in my rural county. If a system fails to pass the test, the owner will be forbidden to continue to occupy their property until a new system is installed. The generally accepted estimate for a replacement system is $45,000 / household. There is an additional requirement that any new or replacement system must be over 600 feet from a seasonal drainage. It is estimated that ~10 to 20% of the houses in my county will not be able to be used under the new law. All this is done by a bunch of career bureaucrats without any government control or voter oversight.
These state sponsored shenanigans have seriously crippled our state’s economy, putting industry, education, and even property ownership at risk. And yet, with the current gerrymandering of political districts, which leads to the extreme polarization of the legislature, there is not much hope for any change.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
I read recently that close to 50,000 people are leaving CA every month. And these are mostly well educated, professional, highly paid individuals. One recent example of industry packing it’s bags is Intel. They decided with their plans to expand to do it in other states instead of CA. Intel is a home grown CA company and is just one of many who are looking for a more friendly business environment.
$45,000 for a septic system in CA. ?
Are they using gold pipe for those drainage fields?
That is pretty close to 10 times what the cost is here.
I guess my septic system works pretty well. I haven’t had to pump the tank in 10 years.
I wonder if it would pass the CA. test.
Ralph
Ralph Berg said:Ralph, get your tank pumped! The purpose of the tank is to store the solids. The actual field of pipes is only there so the water can return to the earth. The solids MUST be removed from the tank on a regular basis. The contents of the tank are basically anything that goes down the drain or toilet other than water. How often the tank needs to be pumped depends on how many people are in the house and the size of the tank etc.
$45,000 for a septic system in CA. ? Are they using gold pipe for those drainage fields? That is pretty close to 10 times what the cost is here. I guess my septic system works pretty well. I haven't had to pump the tank in 10 years. I wonder if it would pass the CA. test. Ralph
Oh ya, $45K for a septic is absolutely insane. The average no frills field can be done with two guys in a single day for closer to $3K here in the east.
Jon.
Jon Foster said:Ralph Berg said:Ralph, get your tank pumped! The purpose of the tank is to store the solids. The actual field of pipes is only there so the water can return to the earth. The solids MUST be removed from the tank on a regular basis. The contents of the tank are basically anything that goes down the drain or toilet other than water. How often the tank needs to be pumped depends on how many people are in the house and the size of the tank etc.
$45,000 for a septic system in CA. ? Are they using gold pipe for those drainage fields? That is pretty close to 10 times what the cost is here. I guess my septic system works pretty well. I haven't had to pump the tank in 10 years. I wonder if it would pass the CA. test. RalphOh ya, $45K for a septic is absolutely insane. The average no frills field can be done with two guys in a single day for closer to $3K here in the east.
Jon.
In a properly functioning system the solids break down. We have no garbage disposal so nothing goes into the system that shouldn’t. And with well water I have no problem with chlorine that will kill the beneficial bacteria.
In the last 10 years as many as 10 people haved lived here, two adults and 8 children. Most of the ten years it has been 2 adults and 6 children. Currently down to 2 adults and 3 children.
Even with half the people in the house we used to have, the grocery and electric bill are still double what they were when we had 10.
Ralph
Jon Foster said:Ralph Berg said:Ralph, get your tank pumped! The purpose of the tank is to store the solids. The actual field of pipes is only there so the water can return to the earth. The solids MUST be removed from the tank on a regular basis. The contents of the tank are basically anything that goes down the drain or toilet other than water. How often the tank needs to be pumped depends on how many people are in the house and the size of the tank etc.
$45,000 for a septic system in CA. ? Are they using gold pipe for those drainage fields? That is pretty close to 10 times what the cost is here. I guess my septic system works pretty well. I haven't had to pump the tank in 10 years. I wonder if it would pass the CA. test. RalphOh ya, $45K for a septic is absolutely insane. The average no frills field can be done with two guys in a single day for closer to $3K here in the east.
Jon.
I’ll second that, Ralph, specially with 8 kids living in the house and most of them girls.
Ken Brunt said:The net population of California continues to grow. As Ken wrote, many folks are leaving for greener pastures, but the influx of illegals, along with the higher birthrate in the Hispanic community is keeping up with the departures. In 2000, California's population was 33.9 million. In 2007 it had increased to 36.6 million, an increase of nearly 8%. I can remember reading an article in the mid 1990s that stated California's population "carrying capacity" would max out at 30 million. In my opinion, that estimate was probably correct.
I read recently that close to 50,000 people are leaving CA every month. And these are mostly well educated, professional, highly paid individuals. One recent example of industry packing it's bags is Intel. They decided with their plans to expand to do it in other states instead of CA. Intel is a home grown CA company and is just one of many who are looking for a more friendly business environment.
I’m not certain of the age of the article Ken saw, but Intel hasn’t built or expanded a plant in California for at least 15 to 18 years.
I worked in a very early wafer fabrication (electronic chip production) facility in Mountain View, CA in 1968. It was owned by Union Carbide Corporation. The company decided to centralize their electronics division in San Diego, CA. I was appointed as the facilities engineer for the move operation. The interesting thing was that the fab we were leaving was being bought by a startup called “NM Electronics,” with the “N” being Robert Noyce and the “M” Gordon Moore. About a year later, they renamed their startup Intel.
I actually stood and negotiated with Bob Noyce over whether individual valves, fittings and regulators, along with major air handling units, etc. would stay or go. All the fancy stainless steel and Inconel plumbing parts, along with virtually everything to do with wafer production, were (and still are) very expensive. Union Carbide wanted to take everything they could to equip their new Southern California factory, while NM Electronics was going to use the old facility for wafer production, and was desperately trying to save money.
I’ve designed and constructed lots of semiconductor production machinery over the years, with quite a bit of it going to Intel plants. While their headquarters have remained in California, Intel diversified their production operations quite early in their history. One early reason given for widely spread plant operations were the security concerns as they became the world leader in development and production of microprocessors. The military needed those chips and wanted to make certain they could still be produced after the worst natural or man-made disasters. Terrorism wasn’t a concern in the early days, but that has changed in the last 10 years
Once the microprocessor took off, Intel quickly put plants in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. Those plants have always been the mainstays of their chip production. In later times, it has become a matter of where the skilled workforce and infrastructure is available. In that regard, the Silicon Valley is past its prime. Intel has not seriously considered expanding in California for at least the last 15 years. The last Intel chip production in California was in 2004 or 2005.
Intel currently has 15 wafer fabs in production worldwide at nine locations. U.S. fabs are located in Chandler, AZ, Santa Clara, CA (mask making, not chip making facility), Colorado Springs, CO, Hudson, MA, Rio Rancho, NM and Hillsboro, OR. Off shore plants are located in Leixlip, Ireland, Jerusalem, Israel, and Kiryal Gat, Israel. Two new fabs are under construction at existing sites in Arizona and Israel. They are currently idling a few of their fabs in response to the declining world market, but that is probably only temporary. As usual, some of the older, larger geometry fabs continue to be retired and new, smaller geometry fabs take their place. The high level of infrastructure required for modern chip production usually means that the old sites are redeveloped to meet new requirements.
As to the $45,000 septic systems, that is the estimated price for a mound system where the output of the septic tank is pumped up to an above ground level earth mound. These systems have become popular, allowing the development of properties that according to newer regulations would not have good enough percolation through the native soils. One real problem is that the new percolation requirements would now be retroactively applied to long-time developed property, with tests of 100% of the systems to determine if they meet those new standards. If finalized as law, it is going to be a very costly process, and has the probability of making lots of folk’s houses illegal to inhabit.
BTW, pumping a septic tank is required maintenance. While most solids disappear, items like grease and the cellulose from paper, along with any other non-soluble ‘hard’ particles build up in the tank and get into the leach field. Over many years, the performance of the septic tank and the leach field are degraded. I was at a business conference this last week where some folks presented some new materials that will help prevent this, but even those folks say pumping the tank is something that should be done at least every 10 years.
Happy RRing,
Jerry