California Budget, Biologist

A pilot and three California state employees were killed when their helicopter crashed while the state employees were surveying the deer population.

(MADERA COUNTY, CALIF. -- Three biologists with the California Department of Fish and Game and a contract pilot were killed Tuesday when their helicopter clipped a power line and crashed while they were surveying deer in the Sierra foothills south of Yosemite National Park, authorities said.)

Surveying the deer population! No wonder the state of California has a budget deficit. Do you need to count the deer population? Maybe it's because it is the year to take a census. And do you need two high paid biologists and an assistant to do the counting?

And why does high paid California State employees have to hike through the mountains and measure the snow pack? What a job. Hike where you want and make an estimate. There are electronic devices for measuring snowfall. Don't expect the government employees to be furloughed. The State could furlough all high paid hikers and let private individuals and ski resorts report the snow pack.

Another way CA could close there budget deficit and actually have a surplus is to close K-11 grades in the government schools. Classes for seniors would continue and those who could would graduate. Another way to reduce the massive education cost is with courses on YouTube or other online sites providing online courses. But the governor said he would not cut education funding. The plunders of the education monopoly have too much power.

For over 80 years California did not have a sales tax. Then in 1933 they passed a sales tax of 2.5%. Today, in less time than it took the state to create a sales tax of 2.5%, the rate has risen to 8.5%. County and local taxes have the total sales tax in San Mateo County of 9.25%!

This plunderous sales tax on the producers is not enough. They want more. Maybe they want to count the squirrel population.

Bilbo Baggins, from his Hobbit hole in Hobbiton, CA