Revenue Solutions Even Dan Walters Can Live With

I think it's notable that the budget gap is so wide this year that the SacBee's house conservative Dan Walters felt the need to actually come up with a proposal himself rather than carp and gainsay everyone else's. That alone shows you the gravity of the situation and the wideness of the budget hole. And I have to say, I think Walters came up with some half-decent ideas, or rather bit off some of them from elsewhere:

We devote too much money to prisons, with eight times as many inmates and 20 times as much spending as when we launched California's massive prison-building program a quarter-century ago. Schwarzenegger is on the right path in suggesting the release of low-security inmates, especially those with drug problems, into treatment and transition programs. Spending $40,000-plus per year to keep a drug addict or a geriatric inmate in prison is ludicrous.

We spend too little on K-12 schools, and we spend it badly. We should raise per pupil spending to at least the national average, which might cost $4 billion to $8 billion more a year. We should also eliminate or consolidate billions of dollars in so-called "categorical" programs and redirect funds toward the kids and schools needing them most and toward proven educational strategies [...]

We should expand Hill's modest recommendations on tax loopholes, ruthlessly closing those whose only bases are political pull or bad habit, to finance what we really need and/or reduce overall tax rates to encourage economic investment.

A $10 billion-plus loophole-closure effort would be justified. But to overcome special interest resistance, we may need an independent commission, such as the one Congress created to close unneeded military bases. While we're at it, we should rework the tax system to align it with the real economy, such as extending sales taxes to services and reducing the sales tax rate [...]

Finally, we should stop financing infrastructure with bonds to be repaid from a deficit-ridden general fund. We should raise gas taxes, impose levee improvement fees on property owners and bill water users for the costs of supplying their needs.

Mostly, we should accept the reality that there's no free lunch and if we want something from government, we must pay for it.

I excised the more dodgy ideas about increasing student fees on four-year colleges and reining in "out-of-control" public pension obligations. But there's a decent amount of common sense here, and it brings into balance the conversation needed about the budget by focusing on services instead of taxes, at least as related to education and water and infrastructure improvements. The day that a conservative writes "we should accept the reality that there's no free lunch" is a rare day indeed.

At the same time, there's a lack of focus here on economic growth and in more innovative budget solutions that would make California a proper 21st-century state. Judy Chu's proposal to apply the sales tax in the same manner as New York, Texas and Florida would wipe about $10 billion dollars off the books at the drop of a hat. The services in question, including health club dues, landscaping, and taxidermy, are in general utilized by the higher-income residents of the state, and thus the taxation will be somewhat progressive. Moreover, the services California could provide would have a substantial economic impact to practically everyone who lives here.in