Answer(s) from Patrick, Solutionist
Voters and taxpayers should curtail their elected officials from enacting laws that borrow money with the use of General Obligation Bonds to "pay off" debt attributable to project(s) that were "sold to the voters" as project(s) that would "pay for themselves". Case in point, is the Golden State's ongoing budget and water crises. They are both directly linked to government officials barely getting voters' 1960 approval of a $1.75 billion General Obligation "Water Resources Development Bond Act".
Government records indicate that an estimated 30 percent of the $1.75 billion is still unpaid; in the interim period, government water contractors have reaped in billions of dollars in profits. More importantly, officials have successfully mislead voters to approve more than $19 billion in additional General Obligation water- and water-related bonds from 1996 through 2006. Governor Jerry Brown, along with supporters, plan to place another $11 billion General Obligation bond on the Nov. 2012 ballot. According to the state Director of Finance, it cost about one dollar in interst payment for every General Obligation bond dollar borrowed to continue to bailout the same government water project contractors. Instead, voters and taxpayers should have the water contractors and users "beneficaries" pay the cost.
Government records indicate that an estimated 30 percent of the $1.75 billion is still unpaid; in the interim period, government water contractors have reaped in billions of dollars in profits. More importantly, officials have successfully mislead voters to approve more than $19 billion in additional General Obligation water- and water-related bonds from 1996 through 2006. Governor Jerry Brown, along with supporters, plan to place another $11 billion General Obligation bond on the Nov. 2012 ballot. According to the state Director of Finance, it cost about one dollar in interst payment for every General Obligation bond dollar borrowed to continue to bailout the same government water project contractors. Instead, voters and taxpayers should have the water contractors and users "beneficaries" pay the cost.
Californians should also look and see how the State of North Dakota successfully survived in the 1930's Great Depression, and how it is prospering today, even in the midst of what has been identified as a banking-institutions orchestration of the "Great Depression" as of late.
