I definitely agree with you that Indian casinos and other businesses should not be getting without paying the same taxes and fees that other similar businesses pay. I especially hate the "traveling reservation" or "store as an embassy" kind of rationale that's letting tribes get away with buying any old piece of land, putting up a store/gas station/etc., and claiming it's now part of the reservation and therefore exempt from taxes and other regulations. That's just BS.
You are really on "it" tonight. I too, give you a lot of credit with your posts today! I think you are right. The marginal cost of an additional student must be pretty minimal, given that the fixed costs are already taken care of. The 5% cuts in faculty ( $35.3 million ) only bring the faculty/student ratio up from 19.7 to 1 to 20.7 to 1, so that's really no big deal at all, especially at a large scale University like CAL. As it is now, this budget cut allows for no cost-of-living increases for faculty and staff. This is gonna be particularly tough to swallow because recruitment and retention of faculty and staff is key to maintaining the high academic standards that one would associate with such a fine learning institution. If the state government didn't always "rape" the gasoline taxes and put them into the General Fund, perhaps we might have more accountability. As it is now, we are just starting to figure out just how much of the "smoke and mirrors" have been intact in this state bureaucracy. I'm just pissed that it is really hitting some of these "worthy" young adults pretty hard. Meanwhile, just up the road in Richmond and El Cerrito there will be no high school athletic programs in the West County and no music programs either, plus they are gonna close down the school library. Imagine that. Closing down a school's main library and locking it down. Who would have ever thought. Unreal. Good Night all.