The California Budget Game- My Entry

So pretty fun and educational excercise everyone should try in the LA Times that let's you play the "Governator"...Gives you menu of options to balance the budget.

I picked all the hard choices I could and actually came up with about a 5 billion dollar surplus. Some examples of things I did?

• No increases in marginal income tax rates for individuals and corporations. Too many businesses and individuals are leaving the sate as is and marginal rates are much higher than other states. However, increases on cigarettes and alcohol and broadening he sales tax I added.
• The Gasoline Tax. Raising it by 32 cents gets you 5 billion dollars or a HUGE part of the deficit right there. Frankly, I would rather have 64 cents which would probably get you another 3-4 billion and force people to drive a lot more efficiently. That would allow you to scale back on some health care cuts.
• Early release of non violent prisoners (too many people in jail), and deporting non citizen prisoners (this should be done anyway--prisoners are too expensive).
• On one hand, I raised the gas tax, on the other I allowed off shore drilling. Why? The lower the price of oil, the higher I can raise the gas tax. Better tax revenue in the coffers of California than in the mullahs of Iran don't ya think?
• Furloghs---I pretty much maxed this out.
  
• All the one time gimicks to borrow against future revenue I used. Gives the state time to figure out if tax revenues will start to come back.

All that said, I am a big supporter of folks who want a constitutional convention to give California a big giant reset. You can play the game here.