" Education is the biggest waste of money we have. Look at Napa College - they wasted 85% of the Measure N college bond money we gave them.
Our kids are performing worse than kids in third world countries because our teachers are the worst.
Look at Napa Valley Unified - They threw away perfectly good furniture, they are wasting $130 million on a high school in AmCan when Cordelia built one for $60 million.
Education must take a 50% budget reduction immediately! "

" manxkat be specific..what education program would you cut?

as for the differences between Cordelia and Am Can...i would wager land costs alone would be a major difference, and did they both use identical designs for the same number of students? Only way to compare them is if they used the same plans....otherwise it's apples and oranges

frankly i dont know where I would cut yet..but i do know there is no way cuts alone can solve the problem.. "

" Your rights cuts alone wont do it. You have to go back and change all the bad laws that politcans put in to protect them selves and thier crooked dealings. "

" Cuts alone can work. All department heads need to understand the gravity of the situation. They have been fat & happy for far too long because of annual budget increases. I realize they’ll kick & scream to keep the status quo but the reality is that we have no choice.

I would start by ending all overtime, a complete hiring freeze, a mandatory 10% cut in all agency budgets, & no increases in future budgets until further notice.

All services for illegal immigrants should be terminated. Nonessential & duplicitous agencies should be dismantled.

Union contracts, wages & benefit packages will need to be addressed as well.

The sooner we start the better. "

" you cannot cut 20 billion from the budget because, thanks to an out of control initiative process, too many areas of the budget are set in stone......face it, there will be a need for increased taxes of some sort... "

" Initiatives can be put on the back burner. We can & we must if we want this state to survive. Bankruptcy is the only other alternative, because you can't tax business's & wealthy folks who've left the out of the state. "

" if they have already passed antipc, you cannot put them on the back burner....you'll need to pass new initiatives to allow you to do that ....very few have emergency clauses allowing them to not be funded to the fullest amount.... "

" Stop giving out so much Welfare "

" we spent about 2.6 billion on Medicaid and about 2 billion on welfare....still leaves 15 billion...assuming you eliminated them both which I don't believe you can because of federal mandates ... and a large portion of the Medicaid funding comes from the feds.... "

" Interesting how having a few facts cut arguments off -- good job Raven for pointing out that the budget crisis will not be solved by simple, top of the waves, seat of the pants solutions. The simple steps were taken years ago. Real gut-wrenching, painful choices are going to have to be made that will no doubt slash programs that help the elderly and infirm and push the financial impact to the local communities. Higher taxes are inevitable. "

" Where there is a will there is a way.

Too many gutless liberal legislators in CA that don't get it. After you've taxed the last business out of the state & people figure out they make more money living of the government where are the revenues going to come from? "

" Raven & MP, why don't you shed a little light on your plans or are you just like our business as usual, do-nothing legislators. "