All across California, cities and counties are
frantically scrambling to find new sources of revenue even as they look
at ways of cutting public spending.– and bankruptcy looms as the best
alternative for some overburdened by debt.
The
state government, paralyzed by political and philosophical conflict,
remains at loggerheads over whether to triple vehicle license fees and
increase the sales tax by nearly 20 percent or slash spending on public
services.
Even as President-elect
Barack Obama has inspired much of the nation with hope for real change,
the federal government is bailing out banks, insurers and others with
$700 billion and looking at spending a whole lot more to save the auto
industry and stimulate the economy with massive public works spending,
aid to states and local government and tax cuts to ordinary folks.
It’s a case of irreconcilable differences, a zero sum game that defies all logic.
Go to NBC Los Angeles for the rest of the story.
