This mess was many years in the making. A major reason is the stupidity of our initiative structure...the uninformed and/or greedy voters keep passing limitations on taxing ability that are so stupidly written as to target some groups and leave other groups completely untouched--ending up in a situation where you might be paying four or five times the tax as the person across the street.

That's just one issue. We have a very very big "gray" economy that uses cash, and billions of that go out of the state to Mexico or elsewhere every month. The salaries of Union workers often are beyond belief---and we have a bloated bureaucracy in Sacramento that seems impervious to cuts. (Housing development is one major part of it.)

Those of us who try to bring some fiscal sanity are overruled by the Howard Jarvis Conservatives and their stupid initiatives, the greedy bloodsuckers in Sacramento, and term-limited politicians looking, always looking, for their next jobs.

As for Santa Barbara---let's face it, it has always been a primo place to live, probably always will be...and not going to get cheaper. We lived there for 40 years...left with few regrets!