Where does all that money collected by outrageous taxes, fees, fines, and costs go in California? (San Francisco: buy, school)

[V8 Vega]

Public employees, most make twice what they would make if the worked in the private sector. Not only they're unbelievable pay but then retire early with full pay plus healthcare.
Calif. is 38 million so there is a LOT of teachers, their union is the strongest in the world. Your paying for all their pensions and healthcare.
Firemen make 100,000 a year, with overtime the make two or three times that and they retire at 50, your paying for this crap.
If you can land a job working for the goverment in Calif. any job its better than winning the lottery.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by v8 vega

Public employees, most make twice what they would make if the worked in the private sector. Not only they're unbelievable pay but then retire early with full pay plus healthcare.

That's exactly right, and I often complain about overpaid non-military government servants as well. Just look at a BART train operator. BART is mostly automated; this person is mainly there to hit the bakes in an emergency, but they also open the doors and make sure everyone gets on the train safely. Still, if they work overtime they can make up to 100k! And they are allowed to go on strike!

Imagine if we had unions in the military. "I'm sorry, Mr. President. My Navy SEAL team cannot go into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden. We are on strike because we don't make enough to buy a SFH in an excellent school district in San Francisco."

We join the military to serve our country, not to get rich. Non-military government workers should do the same. The Legislature should pay the workers what the State can afford after paying for everything else, not what the unions extracted through threat of a strike.

Also, their pension should be "defined contribution", like a 401k, not "defined benefit". That is much cheaper for the State.

[tikkasf]

Many of these higher paying gov jobs are in municipalities and transit agencies..... The Legislature does not set the salaries for example for the City of San Francisco or what AC Transit pays. Actually if you look at what the state pays for a lot of their positions, it is not that high....DMV employees being one example

[DenaDude]

Originally Posted by tikkasf

Many of these higher paying gov jobs are in municipalities and transit agencies..... The Legislature does not set the salaries for example for the City of San Francisco or what AC Transit pays. Actually if you look at what the state pays for a lot of their positions, it is not that high....DMV employees being one example

And you can definitely tell the DMV gets what it pays for.

[Tulemutt]

4 posts for DenaDude in this thread so far and he's batting 1.000.

[Bill the Butcher]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

How come our roads, transportation infrastructure, and public facilties are still in such awful shape compared to many other states and countries?

I've always thought the argument about roads being in poor shape is either a bad one, or at the very least, very hard to judge.

1. Nearly every time i drive somewhere more than a few miles, I do see road work going on.

2. Are we supposed to see even more road work being done? At what point are we doing TOO MUCH road wiork? I would think that is a hard thing to determine. It would be a waste of money to be fixing roads before they need it.

3. You hear of complaints of suspension and tires being damaged and other repairs being needed on cars due to bad roads. While I suppose true, is it really all bad? Mechanics, auto shops and tire dealers are benefiting. All of which live and spend money in our local california communites.

4. Obviously we don't want a major bridge to collapse endangering drivers, but have we had any serious bridge collapses not due to some severe flood or earthquake?

[Ruth4Truth]

The Gov's hands are tied as to how most of the money is spent. That's why you see municipalities now leveling outrageous fines for traffic infractions, for example, and charging more for parking: to get badly-needed revenue into the system. It's a sign of a budget in trouble. Not that that's anything new, but the worse it gets, the more they have to search every nook and cranny for potential revenue, and take all options to new extremes.

[Lockdev]

There's about 10,000 layers of needless government administration.

So, to answer your question: the money goes to pay for the typical liberal larger-than-it-needs-to-be government.

[expatCA]

Why does the 5th largest economy on the world, with very high taxes and fees, have so many problems????

What is wrong with the spending?

It isn't beauty or weather or popularity as a place to live. That does not cost anyone, especially the State and in fact brings in revenue for the use of it.

[candalf]

I question the notion that California is in a terrible shape. Compared to where? As someone who immigrated from abroad a couple of decades ago, I have some idea what a place in a terrible shape looks like and trust me: California ain't it.

In fact, judging by the huge demand for housing, parts of it appear to be one of the most desirable places in the country. If it was truly a "mess", world-caliber companies would not be headquartered here and population would be declining.

Maybe taxes could be spent better but this gloomy assessment of the entire state needs to be taken with a grain of salt.