Originally Posted by B. Carfree

The fines in this law have nothing to do with "b'crats". Bureaucrats are generally understood to be career employees of the government, not elected officials. It was the elected legislators, likely with input from the governor regarding what he would be willing to sign into law, who set these ridiculously low fines. Let's keep the blame (or credit) where it belongs.

Oh, and it's not a "rule", it's a law.

As to your comment about California's debt: It does indeed have a debt, almost all of which was created during the many years of Republican governorships. To be fair, much of the problem stemmed from Prop. 13, which made increasing taxes incredibly difficult and the fact that CA requires a two-thirds vote to pass a budget, which gives tremendous power to a minority of bad legislators. Now that there is not only a Democratic governor but the D's also hold two-thirds majorities in both legislative houses, California currently has a balanced budget.