While there are few good stories about the current financial recession we are caught in, there is one bit of good news, and that is the reduction in government spending at all levels—based on the concept that government serves best that spends less, except for the crucial area of public safety—and we are now, as a state, close to per capita spending that we last saw a decade or so ago, and that is very good news.
An excerpt from the story in the San Franciso Chronicle.
“California's spending boomed in recent years - from $38.9 billion in 1993 to $102.9 billion in 2008 - as lawmakers poured increasing amounts of money into state services.
“But a crash in revenue collection that began 19 months ago forced lawmakers in the past two years to make the deepest cuts to the state's discretionary fund in the history of the Golden State.
“Today, general fund spending stands at $84.5 billion and the state's per capita spending is $2,301 - down to what the state was spending per person 11 years ago, when adjusted for inflation, a Chronicle analysis of general fund budgets over the past 20 years found.
“Spending is likely to continue to plunge in the coming years.”
