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First I would like to start off by saying I think this was the unintelligent thing the state/people of California could do. This will go down in history as the most hideous election, and I always thought the election 2000 in Florida would be. It was also my first year voting and it makes me never want to vote again if someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger could win. I might as well move to Canada if I have Arnie running the state I live in and that great man Mr. Bush is running the United States.(Yes I probably shouldn’t be even saying something like this, with the lovely Patriot Act that our government has chose to enforce in America, the land of the free. Yeah right.) I think the major reason Governor Davis was recalled from office because people are too ignorant to look at the statistics. I think the budget crisis did not start from Davis. It started back in the 1970’s. A variety of factors, not Davis, created this situation. In 1978, the people of California passed Proposition 13, which capped property taxes and stopped lawmakers from raising taxes without a two-thirds majority. In effect, they ensured that state revenues would shrink. In 1988, the people of California locked the state into spending 40 percent of its general fund on education. Over the years other initiatives have fixed spending minimums in other areas. In effect, they tied lawmakers' hands in budget matters. In 1990, the people set term limits for elected state officials. Now no politician dealing with today's crises will be around to face the long-term consequences of his or her decisions. In 1997, the people of California passed a law empowering one-third of the voters to veto all local tax increases. City and counties can't recoup revenue losses stemming from Proposition 13. Throughout these years, the population of California has been growing faster than that of any other state or country. In every category, therefore, from schools to prisons, the state's expenses have been climbing like a bad fever. People jump to conclusions too quickly especially when the government makes a decision, such as the one Gray Davis chose to make with the prison system.
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