SACRAMENTO — In this economy, every state is hurting. Unemployment is in double digits, tax receipts are taking a dive and deficits are piling up. But, once again, California seems to be in a class of its own when it comes to financial dysfunction. The problems here eclipse those elsewhere.
California has the distinction of being the only state that is constantly running out of cash. California is the only one pleading with the federal government to backstop an emergency borrowing plan. California is the only state that never completely closed its deficit from the last economic downturn -- the one that began in the beginning of the decade -- with the hangover from that neglect hobbling efforts to solve the latest crisis.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, May 25, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 52 words Type of Material: Correction
California budget: In Section A of the early Sunday edition, an article that outlined ways to improve California's fiscal efficiency said the rule requiring state budgets to be passed by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature was established in 1978. The rule was added to the California Constitution by voters in 1933.
The state has become a laboratory for what not to do when it comes to managing finances. The online news journal Stateline.org, which state government wonks look to for news on the latest policy trends, recently published a guide of sorts for bureaucrats and analysts who want to keep their state from becoming another California. Rest assured, the piece advised, most states are not likely to find themselves as troubled as the Golden State any time soon.
Size is a factor. "You are talking about the eighth-largest economy in the world, so the numbers involved are just so monumental," said Sujit CanagaRetna, a senior fiscal analyst with the Council of State Governments in Atlanta. "The largeness of the problem makes it more intense."
But there is also so much more.
The oft-cited waste and abuse is a problem, but the deficit is bigger than the entire state bureaucracy.
California could fire every state employee -- including well-paid prison guards and university professors -- close every government office, stop all travel and even cease the purchase of paper clips without closing the budget gap. The government would be gone but the deficit wouldn't.
"When you have a budget gap of $20 billion plus, cleaning up waste and abuse just isn't going to fix it," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the nonprofit Pew Center on the States.
The runaway spending is caused largely by an ever growing group of Californians making use of basic state services as the cost of those services escalates. Since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office, for example, the amount the state spends on Medi-Cal health insurance for the poor has grown more than 40%, from under $10 billion annually to more than $14.4 billion. Spending on community mental health services has nearly tripled, and the state's program that provides services for the disabled leapt from a $1.6-billion annual expense to nearly $2.4 billion.
