How many will die?

How many will die? Protest against Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of AIDS funding
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes

http://gov.ca.gov/interact
http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts/legislators/your_legislator.html
http://projectinform.org/news/2009/072809.shtml
Info and photo from Flickr: Steve Rhodes.

It this the year 1983? In a sinister throwback to dark days when the disease HIV was out of control, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger line-item vetoed AIDS funding from the state. This will result in services to the poorest AIDS patients and AIDS-impacted communities from being served and cause the spread of the disease to accelerate.

The background to the California fiscal crisis is larger than the current economic downtown. It has everything to do with demographics. The majority of Californian voters have been of retirement age or near it since the 80s. Children educated for nearly free are now all graduated and have gone into careers, and in fact have put their own kids through college for practically free. Most of these people couldn't give a rats ass about the next generation, so they voted for tax cuts. It is still sacrilege to speak of raising taxes in California. But state needs didn't go away, so the state has borrowed heavily to fund programs. Now low taxes and non-stop borrowing has led our state to a fiscal crisis.

Fresno State tuition will go up to $2,336.50 per semester this year following a 10% and then 30% fee hike. Classes and staff will be cut. Highway cleanup crews are getting furloughs, leading to routine spills taking hours to get cleaned up. The entire state park system will close down this autumn. About 9,000 prisoners are to be released in Fresno this year due to lack of incarceration funds. This will include prisoners prone to violence. This crisis impacts the quality of life in California deeply.


UPDATE: OOPS- California is a young state.
(1) My age demographics assertion is wrong.
(2) Still true my generation took its low cost public education and didn't maintain support for it afterwords. Edcation is a huge quality of life enhancer and creates high paying jobs.
(3) What does anybody out there think of the assertion that California is not a good place to stay once you have gotten an education here.