I don't know Lizzie. Our school district is whining about cutting staff again because the state is cutting spending. I'm sure the Irvine Co. will once again come in with the money (because schools are very important to the Irvine Company.... which is basically a real estate venture, big land owner, developer... they lease out buildings) but one of the draws in the South county is the schools (ok, you guys from outside of California go ahead and laugh about our schools) so somehow the money comes through them or private funding if the state cuts theirs and taxpayers refuse to raise taxes (which repeatedly happens, I don't know why the district tries to pass an increase every year unless that is a pre-requisite to getting private funding). That doesn't mean that other areas will be so lucky.
When new homes are sold they provide funding to build infrastructure from the new homeowners and builders... so don't think that building new roads is a sign that the state is doing A-ok. Our city raised taxes for street lighting despite getting new money from new homes.
I think So. Cal. is in better shape than Central Cal. We have entertainment (lots of theme parks, movie studios (even if they don't make money they employ lots of people), beaches, etc.... falling dollar probably would help more if it weren't for terrorism worries), aerospace and defense, home building, spattering of techs, lots of biotechs, a bunch of colleges (when the econ doesn't hum... people go to school and if they go to school, they support local area biz and support staff).
Why should the state sound the alarm before election time? No.... Grey Davis is more interested in bringing up the Savings and Loan crisis than pointing out that we signed long term energy contracts at their highs and have raised electric bills twice even though energy has come down.
I think the econ is not as bad as the stock market looks... it is just troubling me that maybe the stock market is foretelling a tale I don't want to hear.
TA |
