California is hurting.

The state this year faced a 26+ BILLION dollar deficit that prompted deep budget cuts. It's a cycle that's familiar to Californians- one that sometimes seems to be the natural state of affairs. ScoopDaily's Kevin Swanson takes that "it's just the way things are" notion to task this week in his thoughtful piece "California: the Death of A Nation". Kevin's piece starts out by looking at a local school bond measure in his native Marin County and follows the (lack of) money right back to it's source:

The main culprit in California’s fall into perpetual fiscal disaster is 1978’s Proposition 13. Unlike other states that rely on property taxes for state and local revenues, Prop 13 limits California’s property taxes to 1% of the assessed value of the property, while each year the assessed value may not increase by more than 2%. As a result, California is dependent on income taxes for nearly half of its revenues. During last year’s recession, continued economic downturn and high unemployment this revenue stream diminished pushing the state into insolvency.

California’s lawmakers are also hindered by a 1933 Constitutional provision that requires a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses to pass a budget and raise taxes. According to TIME Magazine, California is the only state in the nation with this rule. Republican legislators have capitalized on this oddity with outright refusals to cooperate with Democrats for any revenue increases needed to balance the state budget.

(via ScoopDaily formerly Scoop44)