Out here in the not-so Golden State, we have certain yearly rituals and patterns faithfully followed by one and all.  Mark Twain’s comment that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco will be validated.  Someone or someones in Berkeley will be protesting something on a daily basis.  Seventy-three percent of those spending time in Los Angeles shopping areas do so with no intent of buying anything but rather in the hope of being discovered.  And the state budget for the coming fiscal year will not be passed by the state legislature until six or more weeks after the previous fiscal year has come to an end.

Part of this process is the blame game.  The Democrats, who are easily the majority in both the state Senate and Assembly but never enough of a majority to have the two-thirds required to pass the budget by themselves, will blame the Republicans for being obstinate fools cruelly denying the people their fundamental right to be taxed to death for their own good.  The Republicans will blame the Democrats for fiscal irresponsibility by attempting to tax the people to death for no purpose save believing ’tis the government’s sacred duty to relieve the people of the terrible burden otherwise known as deciding where to spend their money.  And the governor will wonder exactly which foul demon from the depths of Hades possessed them just long enough to evoke a moment of insanity during which they decided to run for this office.

This year, after a record eighty-five day stalemate featuring a special session of the legislature called by Governor Schwarzenegger who once back in town decided it’d be a shame to let our River Cats tickets go to waste so let’s hang out in Sacramento for the summer, he has called yet another special session.  Why?  Seems that after paring everything imaginable to the bone in an effort to counteract the state’s at the time $15.2 billion dollar deficit, the reduction in tax revenue due to the economic downturn has now left the state some $11.5 billion dollars short of what it thought it’d be vacuuming out of all Californian’s wallets.  This has led to a fall re-run from the summer’s smash hit, albeit one with somewhat limited dialog:

DEMOCRATS:

We can’t cut spending any more!

REPUBLICANS:

We can’t raise taxes any more!

Thus a Gordian knot Gord couldn’t untie.

In the spirit of compromise otherwise known as making everyone unhappy, Schwarzenegger has proposed both spending cuts and a (coughahemcough) “temporary” three year increase in the state sales tax.  Given how some counties in the state already have additional sales tax, usually to fund public transportation efforts, if accepted the sales tax in some areas will exceed ten percent.  In other words, the dollar store will now be the $1.10 1/2 store.  Given that the half-cent hasn’t been circulated in this country since 1857, making change is going to be a bear.

The semi-amusing aspect of all this is proposing to close a state budget shortfall by raising the sales tax at a time when consumer spending is measured solely by the absence thereof.  Wonder how that brainstorming session went: “We need to bring in more revenue because the money we thought we’d get when people buy stuff here isn’t what we thought it’d be because no one is buying anything!  What should we do?  Wait — I’ve got it!  We’ll raise the tax on everything that everyone isn’t buying!  BRILLIANT!!!”

Welcome to my world, everyone who doesn’t live in California.