California = Liberal Failed State

[Soul Crusher]

Bump.

[Soul Crusher]

Free Republic
Browse · Search   Pings · Mail   News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.

California,The "Failed State"
Townhall.com ^ | July 3, 2011 | Austin Hill
Posted on July 3, 2011 10:28:29 AM EDT by Kaslin

“Failed state.”

That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Do a web search with the words “failed state” and names like Somalia, Haiti, and Sudan will appear on your computer screen.

Unfortunately, the 31st state in our union – California – is looking more and more like a “failed state” as well. And this should matter to every American, because like it or not, California is both a global economic epicenter and a spectacular place in the world.

My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.”(Huntington Beach), Apple Computers, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, the most fertile farm land in the world (San Joaquin Valley), eBay, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “the entertainment capitol of the world” (Hollywood), three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), and Mitsubishi Motors of North America. It remains a global leader in the agricultural, information technology, and aerospace sectors. If it were its own country, it would comprise the eight largest national economy in the world.

This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving while actual economic output is slumping.

Most academicians and government bureaucrats who keep track of the world’s “failed states” still won’t admit that Greece belongs on their lists, so the idea that California has in any sense “failed” isn’t even considered. But if we take seriously the criteria for determining a “failed state,” then the sad truth about California becomes painfully clear.

One of the most often quoted authorities on failed states is The Fund for Peace, a Washington, DC-based non-profit think tank organization, and among the many indicators of a failed state that “FFP” notes is “uneven economic development among group lines.” This notion of “uneven economic development” often has “life or death” implications in places like Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the idea is every bit as real in California as it regards the disparity between the government, and the private sector economy.

For the record, the government of California presently entails a budget deficit of somewhere between $10 and $15 billion – a deficit that is expected to swell to about $25 billion by the middle of 2012. With this as his backdrop, Governor Jerry Brown took office in January noting at the time that California had a history of “kickin’ the can down the road” with its budget woes, and that his plan to solve California’s dreadful fiscal problems would involve both cuts in government spending, and – if California voters approved – tax increases.

Yet Governor Brown is a life-long government employee, and will have nothing to do with cutting state spending where it is most problematic – in the arena of government employee salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions. In fact, while he has been completely unable to implement his plan of “temporarily extending” certain “temporarily inflated tax rates” (which de facto amounts to a tax increase plan), he has continued lining the pockets of unionized government employees with more lavish expenditures on their salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions.

In April, for example, Brown approved a new contract for the California Prison Guard’s union, which allows guards to accrue unlimited numbers of un-used paid vacation days each year. When a guard retires, the un-used vacation time can now be “cashed-in” at the guard’s highest salary rate- a sweet pay-off from Governor Brown to a labor union that spent nearly $2 million on his campaign last year.

And here’s where yet another set of criteria comes in to play for determining a “failed state.” According to the Fund for Peace, failed states often exhibit “a disappearance of basic state functions that serve the people, including a failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence…” The high-minded folks at the FFP may not know this, but – shocking news! – California has so horribly mismanaged its prison system that it can’t afford to facilitate all of its prisoners.

After being taken to court over the conditions in which they were detaining convicts – which included as many as 54 prisoners sharing one toilet – the California government was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May of this year to release huge numbers of prisoners. This is to say that California’s leaders had plenty of money to spend on their unionized prison guards, yet it doesn’t have enough money to properly facilitate prisoners so as to comply with federal requirements.

Is this “failure enough” to get anybody’s attention? By the FFP’s own criteria, California has failed to fulfill a “basic state function” and to protect “citizens” from “violence.”

The Fund for Peace needs to sound the alarm bells over the California government’s failures, but they probably won’t. It’s up to the state’s citizenry to demand better leadership in Sacramento – before it’s too late.

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: California; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: california; Click to Add Keyword
 
We need your help to keep the light of freedom burning!!

[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-50, 51-63 next last

1 posted on July 3, 2011 10:28:30 AM EDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
“My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook...”

Facebook isn’t a reason to save the state. It’s more a contagious disease.


2 posted on July 3, 2011 10:32:21 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
“This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving”

Businesses, like people, will not usually stay where they are not wanted.


3 posted on July 3, 2011 10:33:20 AM EDT by Grunthor (Support a POTUS candidate but don't get emotionally invested like a liberal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
Read Rawles' writings about the "Golden Horde."
The Golden Horde and the Thin Veneer

Anyone who lives in California, or any large city, needs to read this.

4 posted on July 3, 2011 10:40:25 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
California is just hemorrhaging businesses. For the first half of this year, some 5.4 businesses employing over 100 people, that are required to announce their departure, have on average left each week.

Only 1 in 5 such businesses are required to report their departure. So this could mean they are losing over 20 such mid-sized and large businesses *a week*. This is more than double what it was two years ago and a lot more than it was last year.


5 posted on July 3, 2011 10:43:20 AM EDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
Rome, the failed state.

Britain, the failed state.

America, the failed state.

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
— Robert A. Heinlein


6 posted on July 3, 2011 10:46:28 AM EDT by flowerplough (Bammy: It frustrates me when people talk about government jobs as if somehow those are worth less.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
This is a poorly written article. California is a mess but the writer only skims the surface on why.
7 posted on July 3, 2011 10:47:26 AM EDT by ExtremeUnction
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Capital flight. If I lived there I would get the hell out on the quick.Before it is foreclosed on.


8 posted on July 3, 2011 10:49:29 AM EDT by screaminsunshine (Socialism...Easier said than done.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: flowerplough
Good quote.


9 posted on July 3, 2011 10:49:46 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: ExtremeUnction
Perhaps he did so, because it would make another column


10 posted on July 3, 2011 10:50:11 AM EDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Why should a private business ever have to report to a state government they are leaving? Maybe give notice to whoever they’ve leased their building(s) from, but to the state??? What is the state going to say or do? “On no, you can’t leave. You have to stay until you go

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

Free Republic
Browse · Search   Pings · Mail   News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
Skip to comments.

California,The "Failed State"
Townhall.com ^ | July 3, 2011 | Austin Hill
Posted on July 3, 2011 10:28:29 AM EDT by Kaslin

“Failed state.”

That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Do a web search with the words “failed state” and names like Somalia, Haiti, and Sudan will appear on your computer screen.

Unfortunately, the 31st state in our union – California – is looking more and more like a “failed state” as well. And this should matter to every American, because like it or not, California is both a global economic epicenter and a spectacular place in the world.

My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook, “Surf City, U.S.A.”(Huntington Beach), Apple Computers, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, the most fertile farm land in the world (San Joaquin Valley), eBay, Legoland, Cisco Systems, “the entertainment capitol of the world” (Hollywood), three U.S. Presidents (Richard Nixon by birth, and Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan by “adoption”), and Mitsubishi Motors of North America. It remains a global leader in the agricultural, information technology, and aerospace sectors. If it were its own country, it would comprise the eight largest national economy in the world.

This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving while actual economic output is slumping.

Most academicians and government bureaucrats who keep track of the world’s “failed states” still won’t admit that Greece belongs on their lists, so the idea that California has in any sense “failed” isn’t even considered. But if we take seriously the criteria for determining a “failed state,” then the sad truth about California becomes painfully clear.

One of the most often quoted authorities on failed states is The Fund for Peace, a Washington, DC-based non-profit think tank organization, and among the many indicators of a failed state that “FFP” notes is “uneven economic development among group lines.” This notion of “uneven economic development” often has “life or death” implications in places like Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet the idea is every bit as real in California as it regards the disparity between the government, and the private sector economy.

For the record, the government of California presently entails a budget deficit of somewhere between $10 and $15 billion – a deficit that is expected to swell to about $25 billion by the middle of 2012. With this as his backdrop, Governor Jerry Brown took office in January noting at the time that California had a history of “kickin’ the can down the road” with its budget woes, and that his plan to solve California’s dreadful fiscal problems would involve both cuts in government spending, and – if California voters approved – tax increases.

Yet Governor Brown is a life-long government employee, and will have nothing to do with cutting state spending where it is most problematic – in the arena of government employee salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions. In fact, while he has been completely unable to implement his plan of “temporarily extending” certain “temporarily inflated tax rates” (which de facto amounts to a tax increase plan), he has continued lining the pockets of unionized government employees with more lavish expenditures on their salaries, benefits, and retirement pensions.

In April, for example, Brown approved a new contract for the California Prison Guard’s union, which allows guards to accrue unlimited numbers of un-used paid vacation days each year. When a guard retires, the un-used vacation time can now be “cashed-in” at the guard’s highest salary rate- a sweet pay-off from Governor Brown to a labor union that spent nearly $2 million on his campaign last year.

And here’s where yet another set of criteria comes in to play for determining a “failed state.” According to the Fund for Peace, failed states often exhibit “a disappearance of basic state functions that serve the people, including a failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence…” The high-minded folks at the FFP may not know this, but – shocking news! – California has so horribly mismanaged its prison system that it can’t afford to facilitate all of its prisoners.

After being taken to court over the conditions in which they were detaining convicts – which included as many as 54 prisoners sharing one toilet – the California government was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May of this year to release huge numbers of prisoners. This is to say that California’s leaders had plenty of money to spend on their unionized prison guards, yet it doesn’t have enough money to properly facilitate prisoners so as to comply with federal requirements.

Is this “failure enough” to get anybody’s attention? By the FFP’s own criteria, California has failed to fulfill a “basic state function” and to protect “citizens” from “violence.”

The Fund for Peace needs to sound the alarm bells over the California government’s failures, but they probably won’t. It’s up to the state’s citizenry to demand better leadership in Sacramento – before it’s too late.

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: California; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: california; Click to Add Keyword
 
We need your help to keep the light of freedom burning!!

[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-50, 51-63 next last

1 posted on July 3, 2011 10:28:30 AM EDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
“My native homeland of California is home to the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states (Mount Whitney), the lowest valley (Death Valley), Facebook...”

Facebook isn’t a reason to save the state. It’s more a contagious disease.


2 posted on July 3, 2011 10:32:21 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
“This is to say that California can be and should be a place of robust economic opportunity across multiple sectors. But politicians and government employee labor unions have a stranglehold on the state (sound familiar?). Businesses and capital are now leaving”

Businesses, like people, will not usually stay where they are not wanted.


3 posted on July 3, 2011 10:33:20 AM EDT by Grunthor (Support a POTUS candidate but don't get emotionally invested like a liberal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
Read Rawles' writings about the "Golden Horde."
The Golden Horde and the Thin Veneer

Anyone who lives in California, or any large city, needs to read this.

4 posted on July 3, 2011 10:40:25 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
California is just hemorrhaging businesses. For the first half of this year, some 5.4 businesses employing over 100 people, that are required to announce their departure, have on average left each week.

Only 1 in 5 such businesses are required to report their departure. So this could mean they are losing over 20 such mid-sized and large businesses *a week*. This is more than double what it was two years ago and a lot more than it was last year.


5 posted on July 3, 2011 10:43:20 AM EDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
Rome, the failed state.

Britain, the failed state.

America, the failed state.

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
— Robert A. Heinlein


6 posted on July 3, 2011 10:46:28 AM EDT by flowerplough (Bammy: It frustrates me when people talk about government jobs as if somehow those are worth less.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: Kaslin
This is a poorly written article. California is a mess but the writer only skims the surface on why.
7 posted on July 3, 2011 10:47:26 AM EDT by ExtremeUnction
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Capital flight. If I lived there I would get the hell out on the quick.Before it is foreclosed on.


8 posted on July 3, 2011 10:49:29 AM EDT by screaminsunshine (Socialism...Easier said than done.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: flowerplough
Good quote.


9 posted on July 3, 2011 10:49:46 AM EDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: ExtremeUnction
Perhaps he did so, because it would make another column


10 posted on July 3, 2011 10:50:11 AM EDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Why should a private business ever have to report to a state government they are leaving? Maybe give notice to whoever they’ve leased their building(s) from, but to the state??? What is the state going to say or do? “On no, you can’t leave. You have to stay until you go

Free Republic is not a credible or factual news source.  Its a internet forum full of mostly white supremacists.  Why do you continue to put their garbage on these sites for instead of posting article from credible news sources

[Kazan]

Why don't you refute the article instead of posting about credible news sources? Attack the messenger and ignore the message?

[Soul Crusher]

Lmfao.

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

Why don't you refute the article instead of posting about credible news sources? Attack the messenger and ignore the message?

I just did

[Soul Crusher]

I just did

Is www.townhall.com  a racist website?  Cause that is where this is from.


California,The "Failed State"
Townhall.com ^ | July 3, 2011 | Austin Hill

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

Is www.townhall.com  a racist website?  Cause that is where this is from.


California,The "Failed State"
Townhall.com ^ | July 3, 2011 | Austin Hill

Townhall is a radical conservative site.  I'm sure there's plenty of white supremacist luring around the corners waiting to burn a cross.....

[Soul Crusher]

Townhall is a radical conservative site.  I'm sure there's plenty of white supremacist luring around the corners waiting to burn a cross.....

  

95%er is a disease bro - check yourself. 

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

 

95%er is a disease bro - check yourself. 

I'm using the same techniques you use except I'm correct about it.  Stop crying you big baby. 

[Soul Crusher]

Companies Are Leaving California in Record Numbers, and It Might Get Worse
The American ^ | 07/01/2011 | Mark J. Perry


________________________ ________________________ ___



The state of California is becoming legendary for creating the most anti-business climate in the country because of its high taxes, excessive regulations, forced unionism, and bloated public sector. For the second year in a row, a large group of America’s CEOs recently rated California as the worst state in the country to do business in an annual survey conducted by Chief Executive Magazine. California currently ranks No. 49 among U.S. states for “business tax climate” according to the Tax Foundation’s 2011 State Business Tax Climate Index, and it ranks No. 48 for “economic freedom” according to a recent study by the Mercatus Center.

It shouldn’t be any surprise then that companies are leaving the “Golden State” in record numbers this year (see chart below) for “golder pastures” and more business-friendly climates in other states. In just the last two years, the number of companies leaving California has accelerated more than five-fold, from one per week in 2009 to 5.4 per week this year, according to California relocation expert Joe Vranich.

And now because of new online sales taxes signed into law this week by Governor Jerry Brown, California’s business climate has become even chillier. According to the L.A. Times, “Amazon.com dropped about 10,000 California-based associate sales partners late Wednesday so that it would not be forced to collect California state sales tax on purchases made through them.” Many of Amazon’s sales partners in California are small business like book stores that rely heavily on online sales to stay in business, and might now be forced out of business, or out of state.

With another new tax in place on business activity, California will likely remain at the bottom of the state rankings for business and tax climate, and it’s a good bet that the rate of “disinvestment events” (companies leaving California) will accelerate ever more.

[Kazan]

I just did

How? By saying its not a credible news source? Wow you got him there

[Soul Crusher]

How? By saying its not a credible news source? Wow you got him there

I'm still waiting for him to show me crime stats on air guns converted to machine guns.   LMFAO. 

[Soul Crusher]

California Prison Psychiatrist Paid $838,706
By Michael B. Marois - Jul 5, 2011 2:22 PM ET .


The chief psychiatrist for California’s overcrowded prison system was paid $838,706 in 2010, more than any other state employee that year, payroll figures released today show.

The doctor, whose name wasn’t released, had a salary range of $261,408 to $308,640, according to data released today by California Controller John Chiang. The total compensation was raised by bonuses or payout of unused vacation time, according to the controller’s office.

The figures show that the 10 highest-paid state employees each earned more than $500,000 in 2010, for a total of $6.2 million. All but three were doctors or dentists for the Corrections Department. Joe Dear, the chief investment officer at the California Public Employees Retirement System, ranked seventh with a gross pay of $548,142, the data show.

Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the prison system, didn’t immediately respond to a telephone request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael B. Marois in Sacramento at mmarois@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net

[Soul Crusher]

Bump for straw.

[Fury]

Bump for straw.

He'll blame California Republicans.

Sad to see what his ilk have done to the world's 8th largest economy.

[Soul Crusher]

He'll blame California Republicans.

Sad to see what his ilk have done to the world's 8th largest economy.

Not to mention the collection of crazies they send to the congress.   

[Fury]

Not to mention the collection of crazies they send to the congress.   

Are you talking about Nancy Pelosi, champion of the everyman, whose net wealth increased 62% to $35.2 MILLION last year? Hahahaha, yeah, California has their shit together. Talk about a grifter.

The crazies sent to congress are indicative of the type of person living in California. Doesn't really say a lot about the Straw Man's in that state. 

[Soul Crusher]

Waxman pelosi boxer Feinstein Sanchez to name a few. 

[Soul Crusher]

Skip to comments.

Calif. Hospitals Spend $1.25 Bil On Illegal Immigrants
Judicial Watch ^ | July 5, 2011
Posted on July 5, 2011 3:37:26 PM EDT by jazusamo

While the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret amnesty plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding compensation from the federal government.

The group that represents most of the nation’s hospitals and medical providers recently urged President Obama to work with Congress to reimburse them for the monstrous cost of treating illegal immigrants. Federal law requires facilities to “treat and stabilize individuals” regardless of their immigration status, but federal support for the services remains “virtually nonexistent,” according to a letter submitted by the American Hospital Association to the president.

This week officials in California, the state with the largest concentration of illegal immigrants, joined the call for federal compensation after revealing that hospitals there spend about $1.25 billion annually to care for illegal aliens. The figure skyrocketed from $1.05 billion in 2007, according to California Hospital Association figures quoted in a local news report.

The problem will only get worst, according to officials, who say the $1.25 billion for 2010 could actually be higher. They complain that federal law forces them to treat patients in emergency rooms regardless of immigration status yet they get stuck with the financial burden. This has forced many hospitals to curtail services or close beds and could ultimately compromise healthcare.

Nationwide, U.S. taxpayers spend tens of billions of dollars annually to provide free medical care for illegal immigrants with states that border Mexico taking the biggest hit. Adding to the problem is the fact that Mexico, the country that provides the largest amount of illegal immigrants in the U.S., has long promoted America’s generous public health centers. It even operates a Spanish-language program (Ventanillas de Salud, Health Windows) in about a dozen U.S. cities that refers its nationals—living in the country illegally—to publicly funded health centers where they can get free medical care without being turned over to immigration authorities.

[Straw Man]

Skip to comments.

Calif. Hospitals Spend $1.25 Bil On Illegal Immigrants
Judicial Watch ^ | July 5, 2011
Posted on July 5, 2011 3:37:26 PM EDT by jazusamo

While the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret amnesty plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding compensation from the federal government.

The group that represents most of the nation’s hospitals and medical providers recently urged President Obama to work with Congress to reimburse them for the monstrous cost of treating illegal immigrants. Federal law requires facilities to “treat and stabilize individuals” regardless of their immigration status, but federal support for the services remains “virtually nonexistent,” according to a letter submitted by the American Hospital Association to the president.

This week officials in California, the state with the largest concentration of illegal immigrants, joined the call for federal compensation after revealing that hospitals there spend about $1.25 billion annually to care for illegal aliens. The figure skyrocketed from $1.05 billion in 2007, according to California Hospital Association figures quoted in a local news report.

The problem will only get worst, according to officials, who say the $1.25 billion for 2010 could actually be higher. They complain that federal law forces them to treat patients in emergency rooms regardless of immigration status yet they get stuck with the financial burden. This has forced many hospitals to curtail services or close beds and could ultimately compromise healthcare.

Nationwide, U.S. taxpayers spend tens of billions of dollars annually to provide free medical care for illegal immigrants with states that border Mexico taking the biggest hit. Adding to the problem is the fact that Mexico, the country that provides the largest amount of illegal immigrants in the U.S., has long promoted America’s generous public health centers. It even operates a Spanish-language program (Ventanillas de Salud, Health Windows) in about a dozen U.S. cities that refers its nationals—living in the country illegally—to publicly funded health centers where they can get free medical care without being turned over to immigration authorities.

this is interesting

any more info on these cities ?

[Soul Crusher]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento -- As California's elected leaders took drastic steps to cut spending last year, the state was paying hundreds of its workers six-figure earnings that far exceeded base salaries, according to newly released compensation data for public employees.

The data, compiled by state Controller John Chiang, show that more than 500 state employees made more than $240,000 before taxes in 2010. The controller listed last year's pay for all 256,222 state workers on his website, but did not include their names.

At least nine state workers made more than $500,000 last year - most of them prison doctors and other medical staff. The top 10 earners, combined, collected more than $5.8 million in 2010.

When Chiang's office first released the data Tuesday morning, they reported the top earner as a prison system psychiatrist who made $838,706 last year. But later in the day, Jacob Roper, a spokesman for the controller, said that figure was erroneous. State officials are reviewing the payroll data and will update it as soon as possible, he said. Without that psychiatrist, Chiang's database cites the top earner as a prison surgeon who made $777,423 before taxes.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/0...

[Soul Crusher]

latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-pay-20110706,0,6607504.story

latimes.com

California pays more than 1,400 workers in excess of $200,000

Many are prison doctors, dentists or nurses. Total compensation can be pushed higher by payouts for unused vacation and sick time. Last year, a prison doctor collected $777,423 and a dentist got $599,403.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

July 6, 2011

advertisement
Reporting from Sacramento -- More than 1,400 state employees were paid in excess of $200,000 last year, according to compensation data made public for the first time Tuesday on Controller John Chiang's website.

Of those, 790 were prison doctors, dentists or nurses. More than 300 others were psychiatrists and other medical professionals working for the Department of Mental Health.

One prison doctor collected $777,423 in 2010 and a dentist took home $599,403, according to the website. The president of the state's stem cell research agency received $482,234.

The database lists state positions by title and allows users to sort by department, salary range and total wages.

Chiang, a Democrat who has received millions in campaign contributions from state employee unions, did not include workers' names even though that information is public and has been provided upon request for years.

In October, in response to the salary scandals in Bell, Chiang collected and published payroll information from California counties and cities. His staff left names out then because "it wasn't our data, [and] couldn't be verified or scrubbed for confidential information," said Jacob Roper, a spokesman for the controller.

Chiang followed the same template in posting the state payroll. Roper denied that the identities of employees were left out to avoid upsetting the politically powerful employee unions.

The omission frustrated open-government advocates who say taxpayers have a right to see exactly where their money is going.

"The name, the position and the amount of money being paid to public employees should not be concealed," said Robert Fellmeth, executive director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego.

Total compensation for many of the best-paid state jobs on Chiang's list was pushed higher — in some cases more than doubled — by six-figure payouts for unused vacation and sick time.

A May analysis by The Times of Chiang's database — a version obtained by request, which contained employee names and greater detail on payouts — showed a prison psychiatrist, Fong Lai, received $594,976 for more than 2 1/2 years worth of unused sick time. A prison dentist, Robert Stogsdill, got a $553,253 payout.

Managers of state agencies are supposed cap at 80 days the amount of unused vacation time their employees can save but routinely ignore the limit, The Times found.

In all, 309 state employees got lump payments in excess of $100,000 in 2010, the data show.

For years, prison doctors, dentists and nurses were unable to use their vacation time because high numbers of vacancies in those jobs meant there was nobody to treat inmates if the employees took time off, said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the receiver put in charge of prison healthcare by federal court order.

But regular pay can also be very high for prison healthcare professionals. Sixty-five hold jobs with salary ranges that exceed $300,000, according to Chiang's website, which does not specify employees' base salaries.

It was impossible "to fill vacancies at many prisons until they raised these salaries," Kincaid said. "These are not easy places to work; the salaries had to be competitive."

Four state jobs come with salary ranges that reach above $500,000, according to Chiang's website.

The chief investment officer for the state pension system can make up to $612,000. The president of the workers' compensation insurance fund can make $585,360.

By contrast, Gov. Jerry Brown is paid $173,900 per year.

jack.dolan@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

[Soul Crusher]

California companies fleeing the Golden State
CNN Money ^ | 07/12/2011 | Tami Luhby

________________________ ________________________ ______________



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Buffeted by high taxes, strict regulations and uncertain state budgets, a growing number of California companies are seeking friendlier business environments outside of the Golden State.

And governors around the country, smelling blood in the water, have stepped up their courtship of California companies. Officials in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and Utah are telling California firms how business-friendly they are in comparison.

Companies are "disinvesting" in California at a rate five times greater than just two years ago, said Joseph Vranich, a business relocation expert based in Irvine. This includes leaving altogether, establishing divisions elsewhere or opting not to set up shop in California.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...





________________________ _____________

Straw Man, Mal, and the other leftists - PROSPERITY IS ONE TAX HIKE AND REGULATION AWAY! 

[dario73]

51st State: California, Rest in Peace?
By Joe Deaux    07/12/11 - 05:50 PM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What would the Red Hot Chili Peppers call it? Caliconfiguration?

California county board of supervisors have passed a proposal that would separate the state into two regions -- North California and South California -- which would make them the 50th and 51st states and alter the Golden State's economy.

It's a map that looks more like gerrymandering than geography. The proposed division would put the state's two most economically powerful cities -- San Francisco and Los Angeles -- in the same state.

Jeff Stone, a Republican Riverside County supervisor in California's inland Third District, said he wanted to secede from the state and its "liberal' policies with the creation of "South California."

"This has struck a chord with a lot of people in the state who have suffered economically,'' Stone told the Los Angeles Times. "We know it's going to be a challenge to form a second state, but it's not impossible." 
 


South California is geographically misleading, because according to Stone's plan it would consist of 13 counties that would create a virtual diagonal line from Los Angeles to Mono Country -- about 90 miles south of Lake Tahoe.

Stone's chief of staff, Verne Lauritzen, told TheStreet that the proposal passed 4-0, but the board stipulated that the supervisor could not use any county resources to promote the measure. Lauritzen said that they expected to start a grass-roots campaign to push the proposal to the state Legislature and Congress.

In the hypothetical event of partition, "North" California would include San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"There are many factions who believe that the dysfunction and size of California has made it extremely difficult to manage," said Matthew Mahood, president of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. Mahood, however, said there would be major concerns about water if there were a partition.

Southern California gets most of its water via aqueducts that are connected to sources in Northern California. Mahood said that the south needs its water, and a split into two states would worsen the problem.

San Diego, Orange County and Riverside County would be part of Stone's proposed state of South California.

"It's more about how [a secession] would affect the taxes," said Heidi Larkin-Reed, president of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. Businesses would continue to function, but a split would have consequences on property taxes.

Larkin-Reed said that she was on a board years ago in a failed attempt to split San Marino, Calif., into two counties: "Forming a new county is almost impossible," and she added that to form a new state would be even more difficult.

Ross Starr, a professor of economics at University of California-San Diego, told TheStreet that the usual rationale for division is not economic but political.

"Not really much [economic] implication, though it depends where you draw the line, and who gets all the poor people," Starr said in an email. "The usual suggestion is draw an East-West state line somewhere north of the Tehachapis. That leaves both states with ample ports, vigorous industries, major universities."

But Stone's proposal doesn't seem to consider the usual suggestion.

This may have less to do with creating a Republican California and a Democratic California and more to do with redistricting.

"This is not new, by the way," Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, told TheStreet. He said counties in Northern California -- north of San Francisco -- have called for secession before.

But would the new South California be disadvantaged without the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles?

"Are you kidding me? [South California] has Orange County and San Diego," Thornberg said. "It's not that relevant." He added that due to interstate commerce rules outlined by the U.S. Constitution, the difference would be completely unnoticeable.


http://www.thestreet.com/story/11181697/1/51st-state-california-rest-in-peace.html?cm_ven=RSSFeed