“Yet more budget misery: The December numbers are in and the state fell short of revenue projections by $2.5 billion for the first half of the fiscal year. Total hole (maybe): $9.2 billion. So what do we do now?”

Government should run like an efficient corporation. It should cook its books.

Move to Texas.

What

Can the governor raise enough money to successfully push his $7 billion-a-year tax plan for the November 2012 ballot? Some tribes have put up $275,000. Who else will help finance this?

The governor can raise enough money to meet the campaign budget but the reality is that he is not going to be able to

A billion dollars’ worth of budget cuts are announced with more on the way. Is there any good news at all in the triggered cuts? What are Brown’s options?

This is fiscal reality.  Brown was a truth-teller during the campaign and now he is having to do what he said.

There is no good news

“The payroll deduction proposal will be on the Nov. 2012 ballot. Unions hate it, businesses love it. In some cases, it also bars state contractors from contributing to candidates’ political committees. What’s your take?”

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: Of course you know, this means war.

This version is different from others because

“Is the push by the wealthy to tax the wealthy gathering steam? The Band of Billionaires wants to raise $10 billion at the ballot,  a hedge-fund guru wants to raise $1.1 billion and, of course, Warren Buffet says he is woefully under-taxed and has denounced no-tax Republicans. What’s going on here?”

The One Percent strikes

A group of millionaires called “Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength” is demanding that Congress approve tax hikes on the wealthy. What do you think: Is this a message that will resonate in California as Gov. Brown crafts a new revenue package?

I suppose the millionaires in that group will be accused of engaging in class

Brown’s public pension plan cuts existing benefits and sets up a “hybrid” system to include a 401(k) component. Is the love affair between labor and Brown over, this time for good?

The love affair may be waning, but they remain friends with benefits.  Gov. Brown is not above flirting, granting labor a sweet nothing by

Pull the plug on high-speed rail or go ahead with the project?  What’s your take?

Mass transit projects have rarely lived up to their billing, our political leaders should concentrate on other ways to create jobs.  But politics will get in the way and the issue will be with us for decades.

We have to

Jerry Brown is presenting his proposed overhaul of public pensions this week. So what’s wrong with public pensions and what should Brown do to fix them?

“Airtime” purchases defy intellectual gravity; that practice should be grounded immediately. Spiking should be outlawed; there should be no state pensions in excess of $100,000 (indexed for inflation); and

Is the Occupy movement the real deal? If so, what impact will it have on next year’s elections in California or nationwide?

Maybe they’ll nominate William Jennings Bryan for president and resurrect the Free Silver movement. But it is the real deal as far as facing the crushing truth that banks are more powerful than