California 'Hell-Hole' to Run $7 Billion Budget Surplus

[DrScholl]

Are there any conservative states that have a surplus? It's amazing that blue avatars are finding a way to turn a surplus into a negative. California has problems, but it still is more fiscally sound than other states with lots more jobs.

[DrScholl]

When people complain about zoning laws I always go back to how that fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploded and wiped out an entire neighborhood. You do need zoning laws for public safety.

There are some cities in California with overly restrictive zoning laws, but plenty of hardcore conservatives support them and have even written some of them, so it's not a partisan issue. Most areas don't even have rent control and the real issue with housing is that developers choose to build luxury housing as opposed to affordable. There was also the loss of the redevelopment agency that hurt the state's ability to build affordable housing.

[DrScholl]

Rent control isn't in effect in most municipalities, yet developers still refuse to build it. The state is starting to put more pressure on cities to raise density. But none of that was the topic of this thread. The topic was about the state having a surplus, but thread was turned into an "I Hate California" topic.

[DrScholl]

Completely misleading for the reasons dead0man said. Also if it's so great how come there are homeless people everywhere and people leaving the state because they can't afford it. Not to mention the fact that Newsom has an approval rating in the 40s and the state legislature has an even worse approval rating than that.

The truth is we have massive bond debt and a massive pension problem that gets overlooked because muh surplus.

Overall the state isn't a hellhole. However major cities have a tendency to be, because they are filled with homeless people living on the street. I no longer take BART in the bay area because you're likely to get robbed or a homeless person will be pissing on the train. It's not a great place to live. Although there are still some good areas.

I don't know how anyone can look at the past years of democratic control in California and come away with the thought that yeah this has been good we're doing great.

The homeless people are there because the weather is good enough and the cities aren't complete a-holes to them...because of course, lots of homeless are simply those evicted out, and not the druggies that you and Smiling John seem to lurve portraying them all as.

Also it's very f*(king easy to praise Dem control after seeing the walking disaster things were when Der Sperminator was in charge, or the 16 years of prison build-up under Duke and Wilson.

But you have a point, I think it was Dem controlled and Dem majority even in the 70's when the DINOs crossed over to Jarvis and put through the most monstrous proposition ever passed. And boy howdy could so have been done if not for those tax freezes

The police chief where I live said that a lot of homeless people come here from states with heavier winters and stay only temporarily, so I agree that the weather is a big factor.

[DrScholl]

Rent control isn't in effect in most municipalities, yet developers still refuse to build it. The state is starting to put more pressure on cities to raise density. But none of that was the topic of this thread. The topic was about the state having a surplus, but thread was turned into an "I Hate California" topic.

Yeah, rent control is only in place in California's most expensive cities. Strangely, those cities seem to only be getting more expensive despite this, which isn't a coincidence. Also, the thread implied that running a budget surplus disproved conservative arguments that the state is poorly managed, and I was illustrating that there's a lot more to running a state than just making sure the books are balanced. So this is very much on-topic; in fact I'm responding directly to the insinuation in the thread's title.

A budget surplus and a lack of housing are two separate things, but whatever.