“Try your hand at closing California’s budget shortfall, estimated at $24 billion. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Cut spending, raise taxes and/or borrow to get the state out of the red. For each choice -- drawn from proposals from across the political spectrum -- we’ve tried to give some sense of the effects. As you craft your proposal, the Deficit Meter will show your progress.” - Anthony Citrano

Holy crap...I tried it...raising taxes only gets you about halfway there and then you have to make some pretty painful cuts to get the rest of the way there. California is truly screwed. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

I got them into the green but it took some doing. Interesting that "legalize marijuana and tax at 10%" wasn't an option as a revenue stream. I wonder how quickly the scenario would change if it were. - FFing Enigma

My only option is to move to florida - Tony C (Unrated) from fftogo

@Tina - it is an option (Assembly Bill 390) but not within the current emergency session. @Alex: Yes, but it ain't just California. The state continues to serve as an essential US leading indicator. ;) - Anthony Citrano

Wow, that is amazing to see. I didn't even manage to get it half way down. My mom is in human services and as a recent college grad with no insurance it was hard to cut anything from education, human services, health or state workers. Poor Cali. :( - Heather Rantypants

@Earl: Florida, New York, and Michigan are close on California's heels. Try maybe Hawaii instead. - Alleluiabug Heather

Another 6 months of Obama, and the U.S. will be like California. - Spencer

That's an awesome visualization. California is pretty fucked. - Eric P

I fixed it, but I raised the hell out of some taxes to do it. - Steve Lowe

Here is what I would do.. I'd actually probably do more than just what has been proposed: http://www.latimes.com/news... - Bill Rawlinson

If you cut everything but the one-time fixes, and don't raise taxes, you are still in the red. California is boned. Can we sell it to Japan? China? - Andy Dustman

@Spencer: clue up, mon vieux. - Anthony Citrano

@Andy, Heather, Eric - as I said to Alex: this isn't unique to CA; it's coming soon to a State House near you. - Anthony Citrano

Yeah, but not to the extent that CA is facing...unless the economy gets worse. :) - Scoble, Alex Scoble

@Alex - that depends on whether you measure "extent" in percentages or absolutes. In absolutes, of course none are to the extent of CA because it's the largest state economy. But in percentage terms, most state budgets are similarly fucked over the next fiscal session - two if they're lucky. - Anthony Citrano

I disagree. California is uniquely fucked up because of its constitution and system of ballot referendums (prop 13). Other states are able to adjust and respond more effectively as they go along - obviously they haven't stayed deficit free, but the situation isn't *as* dire elsewhere. - Eric P

It's important to keep in mind that this is a static tool for what is an inherently dynamic problem. You can raise taxes, sure, but you'll also lose an extraordinary amount of revenue in subsequent years as families relocate. And if you think that won't happen, keep in mind that Cali is already hemorrhaging high-earners. Cali's problem is a spending problem, just as the rest of the country's problem is a spending problem. You simply cannot fix this problem absent an excruciating amount of pain. California's nanny-state has largely been built as a mechanism to prevent the populace from experiencing just that kind of pain. The resulting math is not pleasant. - Forrest Cox

Good fun, balance California budget! - Mike Reynolds

Wow, this is a great visual representation. Totally depressing. - joey

@Eric P: yes, California has unique challenges. But what I meant was that the core problem - i.e. the state being totally bankrupt - is not unique. Many US states will be right behind it. - Anthony Citrano

In MO, we had a GOP Gov. who made draconian cuts to balance the budget. It made him unpopular and he only served one term; but we are stable fiscally now. - Robert Hafer from iPhone

@Anthony - but not too many other states have an economy roughly the size of France's. A good comparison here is Texas, which is also very large, very diverse, and is in comparatively sterling fiscal shape. - Forrest Cox

Just legalize our states #1 Cash crop, and the tax revenues from it should go a long way to shoring up the budget permanently. Then repeat for every other state and things might actually start to get better! Imagine that! - Michael Fidler

The budget "options" are too old. Due to a failure to act before July 1 - some options are no longer available. - LPH™ and his dog P™ from BuddyFeed

I didn't see an option to cut the salaries of the governor and legislators to minimum wage level. - John (bird whisperer)

I balanced the budget and have almost $11 million left over without raising ONE TAX! http://www.latimes.com/news... :P (And yes, I'm dead serious) - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

No new taxes? Select the "possibly illegal" cuts and give voters next election a choice: keep more of your earnings and invest in your own futures, or give it all to us and trust us to rain those benefits sufficiently back to you. Do you really have confidence CA can do that efficiently? - Andrew Skretvedt

After experimenting and looking at the list, any change of less than a billion dollars is barely worth making. Fixing this is going to be painful, but this is what you get for continuously demanding services, at some point they need to be paid for. The "cut the health and dental care for state retirees maybe be illegal and will be challenged in court" is kind weird: if the state goes bankrupt, those won't be paid out anyway. But I guess everyone gets to feel good about not having to cut that. - Andy Bakun

I also don't get why we're spending money on some of these things. Why are we keeping illegal immigrants in state prisons? Why have they not been deported? Wouldn't deporting them as soon as possible actually be cheaper in the long run? - Andy Bakun

New constitution. - anna sauce

That wasn't too hard. I made 14bn in cuts and 16bn in new taxes, giving me a budget surplus of 6.8bn which I will bank for the next two years as the tax base shrinks even more. I gutted law enforcement (over porked as it is), cut hard across community college level (sorry kids, suck it up for a bit and read on your own) but left k-14 intact as well as ALL health and human services. - Cole Jolley

It's amazing how may state funded freeloaders there are in Ca. - Kenny Elliott

Maybe I didn't see the option, but I wanted to release all non-violent drug offenders, and others incarcerated for victimless crimes. That should've been worth something. - Dave Roth

This is a wonderful application. It's very easy to armchair quarterback things like budgets. It's good to be able to see options laid out in an interactive fashion like this. Should do it more often, particularly before elections. - Barry Biddlecomb from twhirl

My one gripe about the application: It only shows the *deficit*, not the entire budget, and cuts that have been proposed by politicians. This is around $130B if federal funds aren't counted, $200B with federal funds. http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeti... - Andy Dustman

Gawd...this is hard to do without cutting much needed programs (I think anyway.) - Adam C.

California is setting an early example for a wholesale rethink sorely needed in the United States. That is: what should government really be responsible for? As many of you have said, this is an example of free-riding entitlement gone amok. And if you all think this is bad, just wait until we have to take the same approach to the federal budget.... - Anthony Citrano

The thing is, paying more isn't even an option, since the Governator will terminate any bill that tries to raise taxes. Although I wonder how long that stance is going to last. - Victor Ganata