California's Challenges
California is also known as the Golden State and its prosperity can be traced back to the discovery of gold in the city. In 1968, it was designated as the official state nickname. It is the most populous state of the United States. It shares an international boundary with Mexico and is bordered by Nevada and Oregon. Its state capital is Sacramento, which is located in Los Angeles, the most populous city in California and the second-most populous city in the United States after New York. California scholars are interested in problems that restrict its development, its political past, its active campaign mechanism and political changes, its executive branch, and its legislative branch. California is one of the states that face lingering challenges which make it unstable and must be addressed by its political leaders with immediate effect to restore its glory.
Five problems that plague California
Today's California is facing uncertainty due to undergoing changes. A closer look reveals that California has more scores of challenges that the political leaders in the state are yet to address and resolve. To correct California’s unsustainable course, the state requires informing if its citizen on resolutions and measures needed to be taken. Some of the biggest problems dragging down California and need to be addressed with high concern and immediate effect include;
Water Supply
In much of California, water supply has been unreliable because the state’s water and infrastructure are old, there many unmanned ground water supplies, inefficient water use, and the state water control have done too little in expanding its water reserves even with an increase in population.(Scarpelli).
Revenue Uncertainty
It has become normal for the state's revenue to vary yearly. This leads to poor budget planning methods as when the state receives high tax revenue, and legislators tend to raise spending on programs and employees believing the income will remain reasonable. When this does not happen, lawmakers inevitably cut services and programs affected profoundly (Scarpelli).
Public Retirement Benefits
In California, public retirement benefits plans are in crisis. Unfunded liabilities and retirement benefit plans face massive funding fails. Almost half of the debts by the state are attributed to poor public retirement benefits. The state public retirement benefits require enormous contributions to gain stability (Scarpelli).
Healthcare
California’s healthcare system faces some operational and financial challenges. A rapid rise in health cost has attached with thinning access to care has brought about tremendous obstacles to entry into the state’s healthcare system. As its population ages and its health system declines, consequences will be severe (Scarpelli).
Corrections and Crime
California’s number of prisoners as faced about 500% increase while the construction of prison facilities has failed to keep pace with the rate of inmate growth. This results in severe and unconstitutional living conditions among inmates. Furthermore, prison guards compensation increased stressed the budget (Scarpelli).
California’s Campaign and Election Systems
Campaign System
California is a national leader in election transparency and fairness. The Political Reform Act commands the candidates and committees to folder campaign declarations by specified deadlines specifying the number of donations and expenditure completed. These documents are made public and may be audited by the Franchise Tax Board. To ensure that election malpractices are entirely prohibited, and voters are fully informed of all manner of, related information. One of the key bodies facilitating the efficient administration of the Political Reform Act is the Fair Political Practices Commission which has the mandate to regulate campaign financing, lobbying, conflict of interest and governmental ethics. The commission’s principal objective is to see that public officials act in a fair manner in the governmental decision-making process that leads to transparency in the government and foster public trust in the political system. Under the act campaigns and political committees must disclaim anyone who paid for campaign advertisements (Scarpelli).
Election System
On June 8, 2010, Californian voters approved the primary election system. This changed how elections were to be conducted from then for state legislative offices, state constitutional offices, and US congressional offices which are all now known as voter-nominated offices. The change to a primary election process brought about some changes i.e. all candidates irrespective of their political party appear on a single ballot paper, and voters can choose any candidate and the two who received the majority votes in the primary election irrespective of party preference move on to the general election. Independent candidates are not allowed, and write-in candidates will only be allowed if he/she was one of the two candidates with the most votes in the primaries (Scarpelli).
California’s Executive Branch and the Federal Governments’
The executive is a branch of government that is formed in both state government and the federal government to be responsible for implementing laws. Federal executive implement laws created by the central government of a country which is supreme at all times while the California state executive is the power a state holds to rule by law the people living in that particular state. The similarities and differences between state and federal governments are evident as discussed below.
Similarities and differences between California’s Executive Branch and the Government’s
Both the federal and California state governments have the executive body. The state executive and federal executive have some common roles they perform i.e. in both, the national executive and the state government executive, its key role is to enforce laws at their particular levels, both executives are also in charge of managing their trade with the federal executive overseeing trade nationwide while the state executive oversees trade in California, both the federal executive and are executive have been mandated to collect taxes with the federal executive collecting nationwide taxes as the state executive managing California’s tax and revenue collection (Scarpelli.). However, despite the similarities, the California state executive cannot be compared to the federal executive at large due to the enormous powers owed by the federal executive. Some of the differences include the fact that the national executive has the mandate to mint money (coin and paper) while the state executive cannot perform such a role, the federal executive headed by the president can declare war and send troops to foreign nations while the state executive headed by the governor cannot send the national guard into foreign nations, another difference is the fact that the federal executive headed by the president can offer amnesty to convicted people of federal crime while the state executive cannot offer amnesty to people convicted of federal crime (Scarpelli).
California’s Legislative Branch and the Federal Governments’
The legislature is a government branch formed in both state government and the federal government to be responsible for making laws. Federal legislation is the laws formed by the central government of a country, and this law is supreme at all times while state legislation is the power a state holds to rule the people living in that particular state. The laws made should be just to its subjects by making sure the laws don’t favor other groups racially, tribally or any form of nepotism present. The California state and federal legislative bodies have some similarities and differences as discussed below.
Similarities and Differences between California’s Legislative Branch and the Government’s
California’s legislative body and the federal legislative body have some similarities i.e. they both share the key role of writing laws at their particular levels, they both monitor and engineer governing achievements within their levels and usually have exclusive ability to amend budgets or budget amending processes in their levels of play, In both California’s state legislature and federal legislature, legislative members are elected (Scarpelli). Conversely, despite the similarities, the roles of the federal and state executive are very different at large in that federal legislation laws cover the whole nation at large while state legislation is only for a particular state i.e. California, federal legislation also covers the most sensitive areas i.e. defense, the financial system, and currency while the state executive covers areas such as state environment and state taxation policy. The federal government legislature is also very powerful over the state legislature in that in the case of a clash the federal legislation has more powers compared to the Californian state legislation (Scarpelli).
California’s Judicial Branch and the Federal Governments’
The judiciary is a branch of government that is formed in both state government and the federal government to be responsible for interpreting laws. Federal judicial interprets the laws created by the central government of a country which is considered to be supreme at all times while state judicial is mandated to interpret in-state rules to the people living in that particular state. The federal judicial body and the state judicial body play some similar roles while at the same time have some differences as discussed below.
Similarities and differences between California’s Judicial Branch and the Government’s
Some similarities between California’s judicial body and the federal governments include components like; California’s judicial body and the federal government's judicial body both have the mandate to interpret laws made by the legislature to its subjects, both the California state and federal government judicial body create courts in regard to their constitutions in order to come up with a key process followed when one breaks the law. Both the federal government’s judicial body and the California state judicial body use judges as chief workings in their bodies (Scarpelli). However, despite this similarity, differences exist. For example, in the types of cases heard, where the federal judicial body is more powerful and incorporates the supreme court solving high-scale cases like cases involving the treaties of the US while the state courts handle minor cases like those involving wills and estates. Another difference is in the way judges are appointed, where the president appoints the federal government's judicial body judges and confirmed by the Senate while California state judges are appointed by an election or other ways. Another key difference is in their court's structure where the federal courts are structured as by the US constitution while the state courts are appointed as per the California state laws. In conclusion, as much as California is undergoing problems, these problems can be fixed, and California will regain its healthy financial status, education system, revenue collection, and other problems it faces. However, for this to take place, right leaders have to be put in place. California should use to their advantage the good electoral system in place to remove biased leaders from office and elect leaders who will work tirelessly and do all it takes to bring back the Golden State to its toes.
Works Cited
Craig, Scarpelli. California State and Local Government: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011.
