California Insider

I missed this story yesterday. An excellent piece by LAT reporter Jeff Rabin dissecting Phil Angelides' policy for refinancing California's general obligation bond debt and structuring new bond issues to defer payments as much as possible. There are debates about how much all of this is going to cost us, but it's clear that the treasurer's methods are one more way for the state to spend now and pay later. This is why I have come to support the concept of moving the state's budget deficit off book and financing it openly--along with a rock-solid plan to balance the operating budget once and for all. Otherwise the state just continues to drift from year to year, spending more than it's taking in, disguising or ignoring the long-term effects and hoping for the best.

Here's today's column, on a Blue Shield of California study putting the cost of universal health care at about $8 billion a year.