Evidently, at the forefront of the hindrances to California’s agreement of a budgets the fact that the State lacks an annual report to which people can refer when seeking to determine how well or how badly the region is doing regarding its economy. For the given reasons, the Democrats and Republicans fail to agree on methods of saving money for the State merely because they base their suggestions on Party interests as opposed to the available funds. Accordingly, the problem in California’s legislature is the courtesy to both the elected leaders and the structure of the State government. In other words, the leaders who come into office become ineffective as they have to work with existing policies or push for new ones that would most likely take effect at the end of their terms. Hence, each State leader collaborates with a plan that his or her predecessor was for and in such a situation, ineffectiveness becomes inevitable. Now, the leaders are not to blame for the given scenario; on the contrary, the problem is with the representative government and the tax system. For example, as Field writes, “Proposition 13” that not only reduced the rates of property tax in the State but also set limits of two percent increase per annum on properties as long as they remained unsold; upon purchase, the value would revert to one percent (2011, p.91-92). Subsequently, Californians shy away from owning properties as the longer one owns a particular property, the lesser the tax he or she pays, moving means more money. The given fact is just an example but by that logic, the economy of the State suffers because Proposition 13 created a dominant populace, content with owning one real estate property or renting one as opposed to purchasing more homes and lands.
Subsequently, for a steady budget Californians could demand a coherent system of data collection and representation that would allow the people a chance to understand what is happening at the government level. In other words, an open fiscal system might be what California needs for its leaders to make sound decisions as far as the budget is concerned.
References
Field, M. (2011). California Government and Politics Today (13th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
