Tag: Economy

Bee to Voters: Budget Woes Are Your Fault

In a front page story today, the Bee chastises voters (presumably some of whom, you know, work at the Bee) for making the state “ungovernable” with our insistence on both mandatory spending and no tax increases.

Only 4 percent [of voters], according to a recent poll, have a “great deal” of confidence that lawmakers can do the right thing on the overdue spending plan.

But the same voters have passed laws that virtually guarantee annual spending increases for education, severely restrict what can be cut from transportation and local governments and make it virtually impossible to raise taxes.

The research that must have gone into pinpointing the voting records of every single California voter boggles the mind. Especially since nobody born after 1960 can be blamed for the passage of Prop 13 in 1978.

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The Economy Sucks for Restaurants Too

Much was made of the recent closing of California Fat’s this week, much more, in fact, than the closing of Brother Oliver’s earlier this year. Each establishment was just short of being iconic, but the suburban Oliver’s didn’t quite have the cultural cache that anything with the name Fat attached to it does.

It is, however, not just the locals who are having difficulties in our worsening economy. Within the last few months, we’ve seen the closing of Macaroni Grill on Alta Arden (now where am I going to get chicken parmagiana after seeing dissected bodies? Oh, that’s right, the bodies left town too. Alta Arden is like a ghost town now. Thank God for Chick Fil-A.), Wendy’s on Fair Oaks, and Pick Up Stix everywhere. I’m not saying that some of these national chains will be missed for their standout cuisine, but I’d rather have a chain or big box retailer than an empty storefront any day.