Worst idea for addressing California's budget crisis (a particularly acute symptom of global economic meltdown) (prior post):Cut off all funding for the state's oldest law school, the University of California, Hastings College of Law, San Francisco. As posted here and here, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- no particular friend of education budgets ever since he took office from a voter-recalled governor in 2003 -- gets a very loud raspberry for that one.
Best idea for addressing California's budget crisis:
"Eliminat[e] capital punishment, which is rarely carried out anyhow," and "would save the state $125 million a year." (Prior IntLawGrrls posts on California capital punishment here, here, here, here, and here.) Applause for this idea to John Van de Kamp, formerly the state's Attorney General and Los Angeles County's District Attorney. Himself once a candidate for Governor of California, Van de Kamp ended his Los Angeles Times op-ed calling for death penalty abolition with words pointed squarely at the man who now holds that seat:
A courageous governor facing an unprecedented budget crisis would take this step and use the taxpayer money saved to preserve some of the vital services now on the chopping block.
