Every year, the Friday after Thanksgiving features a parade in what is supposed to be an ice cold Sioux Falls, South Dakota. But when there is no snow on the ground, and the temperature is 20 degrees (-6C), the Jingle Bell run and Parade of Lights participants are barely bothered by a slight chill in the air.
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The economic numbers just came out, and they were somewhat surprising – surprisingly good. The city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota ended 2008 with a balanced budget for the third straight year. Not only that, but the city of 125 thousand people finished the year during “the worst economy since the Great Depression” with a five million dollar surplus. Isn’t that a unique concept for a government body, ending the year with money in the bank?
Sioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota, a state which adheres to a constitutional requirement of a balanced budget. The governor has presented two budgets to the state legislature in the past two months. Based upon lower income projections, the second contained serious cuts – including closure of a state school for the deaf, repeal of a teacher pay-boost program, and elimination of 76 state jobs.
While legislators from the opposing party balked at some of governor’s proposed cuts, they counter-proposed budgetary fixes of their own. Make no mistake – when the legislative session ends, South Dakota will have balanced its books. It is the way things are done.
Compare that to the dysfunctional state of California, which faces a forty billion (B) dollar shortfall with no stomach, backbone, or brain power to fix it. Teachers balk at larger class sizes, government employee unions refuse to give back any of their nation-high 14 paid holidays, and environmentalists scream about any suggestion that might delay reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
California is considering issuing IOU’s for tax refunds; the state controller says he may withhold payments to social service providers and loan installments to college students. (Watch out for those college students Governor Schwartzenegger. In Iceland, they rioted when the cost of their education increased.)
So how will California cope with its economic irresponsibility? On the backs of the rest of America, of course. Estimates are that one-quarter of its budget shortfall will be covered by California’s share of the Obama administration’s “economic stimulus” package. Is it not ironic that some of the federal taxes paid by financially-prudent South Dakotans will be used to bail out uncontrolled, unjustifiable government spending by the state of California?
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