Stop With The State Bonds and Start Paying As We Go

California has become addicted to bonding. It's like the alcoholic that can always get another drink from the hidden bottle, or the child that is rewarded for doing homework when the homework is an expected part of learning.

Legislators and interest groups are not dummies. They know that state budget fiscal fixes or expensive projects can be implemented, either through the legislative process or through the ballot initiative, because the cost is not on a pay-as-you-go basis but, rather, becomes a future cost for a later time and a later generation.

Some state bonding is both appropriate and necessary. A reasonable amount of bonding always has been a useful mechanism for fiscal management. The City of Fresno, for instance, typically uses long-term bonds to pay for expensive outlays such as sewer and water infrastructure. The relatively new City Hall was paid for with 30-year bonds. The state uses bonding in the same way.

It's the mind-numbing plethora of bonding that in the past few years has been a staple of California governance that needs to be reassessed and, I believe, significantly reduced. If you are worried about the $1.4 billion in federal debt, you should certainly be worried about California's penchant for borrowing.

The latest ploy by the legislature is to try to solve the very real water crisis in the state by proposing bonding for numerous dams that would capture snow run-off to be released during the dry months of the year. Dams and related water infrastructure may or may not be one reasonable answer to the state's water issues. Another multi-billion dollar bond issuance piled on top of others to fund the dams, however, is not. If voters want the water infrastructure, taxes should be raised to pay for it.

California just can't have it all. Voters of all political persuasions need to be convinced by our elected representatives or through the initiative process what California needs and then be given by legislators an honest pay-as-you-go plan to finance these needs. We can't just kick the proverbial fiscal can further down the street. To do otherwise is to jeopardize not just our future, but the future of our children and grandchildren.

Coming Soon. . .

1. What about an Orchids and Onions Award to recognize the good and not-so-good in Fresno?
2. A healthy beginning for downtown progress.
3. An update on your local community college.

Comments are welcome. Click on "Comments" below or e-mail me at abriancalhoun@gmail.com.