MANY CALIFORNIAS:

On Gov. Jerry Brown's 'Realignment' Plan: A shift from the state to local control (San Francisco Chronicle January 16, 2011)

Gov. Jerry Brown has barely taken office, but he's already presented an audacious plan for the state budget. It's audacious to presume that the voters will agree to an extension of the state's current tax rates for another five years, for one thing, but the assumption is based on an even bolder idea.

Brown wants to transfer enormous responsibility for major services to local governments. His gamble - and it's a big one - is that the voters will agree to pay the taxes as long as they can connect them with the services in their own communities.

The state is too big, so just break it up.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 17, 2011 5:43 AM