Editorial:

The State continues to operate without a budget as the state legislature’s stalemate continues, dragging on in record length. Now at 79 days overdue, with no end in sight, it is being predicted that this stalemate will drag on past Election Day in November.

   Unfortunately, this is no longer news, and it won’t become news again until businesses start going out of businesses. This delay in passing a budget has become an annual ritual and each year the delay becomes longer and longer.

   We have in the past expressed outrage, bewilderment, and have tried to convey to our elected leaders the emotional and economical stress and strain that this delay causes. Small businesses have had to resort to borrowing at inflated interest rates to stay in business. Health care facilities teeter on the brink of closure and educational institutions have become creative in their financing and had to make major cuts in their budgets to balance their budgets.

   Despite citizen disgust, State legislatures continue their childless game of staring across political aisles and waiting to see who blinks first.

   It has now gotten to the point that we no longer feel angry, we shrug and say, ‘whatever,’ and feel indifferent about the process of Democracy in the state of California. We have to move forward without a budget, we have to survive, and politicians’ reputations continue to swirl in the porcelain fixture.

   If there is a lack of voter registration and voter turn out on election day this is part and parcel the reason: Do-nothing politicians no longer matter, voters are discontent, and the public lacks respect for the politicians as they feel disrespected as taxpayers and citizens. Politicians have no one to blame but themselves!