Rarely has such a naturally rich and scenic region become so mismanaged by so many creative and well-intentioned people.
In California, Yuletide rush hours are apparently the perfect time for state workers to shut down major freeways to make long-overdue repairs to the ancient pavement. Last week, I saw thousands of cars stuck in a road-construction zone that was juxtaposed with a huge concrete (but only quarter-built) high-speed-rail overpass nearby.
The multibillion-dollar high-speed-rail project, stalled and way over budget, eventually may be completed in a decade or two. But for now, California needs good old-fashioned roads that don’t disrupt holiday shopping — before it starts futuristic projects it cannot fully fund.
California’s steep new gasoline tax — one of the highest in the nation — has not even fully kicked in, and yet the cash-strapped state is already complaining that the anticipated additional revenue will be too little.
Now, some officials also want to consider taxing motorists for each mile they drive on the state’s antediluvian roads.
Nature this year is predictably not cooperating with California.
In most areas of the Sierra Nevada, the state’s chief source of stored water, there is not a drop of snow on the ground. The High Sierra so far this year looks more like Death Valley than Alpine Switzerland.
The last two months of California weather were among the driest autumn months on record. Unless 2018 is a miraculously wet year, California will find itself on the cusp of another existential drought.
Yet California politicians are currently obsessed with the usual race/class/gender agendas, as Sacramento broadcasts that California is a sanctuary state exempt from federal immigration laws.
Periodically, Governor Jerry Brown, in prophetic Old Testament style, offers rebukes of President Donald Trump, as Brown tours the globe as commander in chief of California.
But meanwhile, in the real (dry) world, did Brown’s state prepare for such a disaster during either its recent four-year dry spell or its near-record wet year in 2016?
Hardly.
Over some 50 consecutive months of drought, California did not start work on a single major reservoir — though many had long ago been planned and designed.
Instead, given the lack of water-storage capacity, and due to environmental diversions, tens of millions of acre-feet of precious runoff water last year were simply let out to the ocean.
This year, the state may want all of that water back.
Silicon Valley is the state’s signature cash cow, emblematic of progressive-cool culture and tech savvy.
Yet many streets around high-tech corporate campuses are lined with parked Winnebagos that serve as worker housing compounds. In nearby Redwood City, World War II–era cottages have become virtual hostels. Trailers, tiny garages, and converted patios serve as quasi-apartments.
so sad to bad, so here is a state that wants to succeed from the Union; good luck. this state is so deserving of the consequences of karma.
This progressive utopia, how long before they lock in anyone with enough scratch to pay taxes for their foolishness. Many have fled taking their ignorance with them voting for the same failed policies that ruined Cali.
California has the 6th largest economy in the world. That’s up from 2001, when the state ranked 11th largest in the world. The state’s annual GDP exceeds that of the entire Russian Federation.
California’s economy is largest of any state in the nation, with a GDP that exceeds that of New York, the second place holder, by more than $1 Trillion per year.
Here’s how big California’s economy really is
@Greg: Excessive cost of living huge debt and crumbling infrastucture, http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/05/01/report-californias-actual-debt-set-at-848b-could-pass-1-1t/
Incompetent management, over taxation, homeless, poverty. http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article2916749.html The third world just around the corner from mansions.
@Kitt, #4:
And Texas is so different?
Tell ’em I ain’t got it: Texas debt hits $341 billion
If you compare the actual debt burden with the state GDP, it looks like the same sort of problem. The right just likes to spin things to make it all appear to be a blue state problem. Nor is it all the doing of democrats. The GOP’s tax reform bill being a prime example. It’s going to add another $1.5 trillion in debt on top of the debt growth already projected, while diverting huge amounts of additional income and wealth upward. In case you haven’t noticed, plenty has been shifted up there already.
Blame-shifting isn’t a solution to anything.
So how many Future Demacratic Voters and Supporters(Illegal Aliens)are in those work crews especialy since Moonbeam Brown has made the state into Sanctuary for illegal aliens. he belongs in prison with Obama and both Clinton’s and Al Gore
@Greg: The article actually states that Ca is 12th do to the high cost of living. Nice try though, Greg.
@Greg:
That’s not budget deficits, that’s pension benefits, the liberal’s gift to the world. Budget deficits are illegal in Texas.
Liberals seem to do fiscally stupid things simply to show that they can. In California, almost everything they do is contrary to common sense. I wish they WOULD secede.
@Greg: Yes Texas is quite different, lets compare tax rates lol
Top income tax rate is 0% in Texas 6.25% sales tax ,20cents per gallon of gas
Cali is 13%, you hit 9% at 50 K, 7.5% sales tax, 41.7 cents per gallon of gas
Educational ranking California only beats Puerto Rico in graduating HS students
@notGreg, #5:
A higher cost of living goes hand-in-hand with rapid economic expansion. You seldom have one for very long without the other.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #8:
Unfunded pension liabilities are debt. They’re essentially deferred compensation that employers have agreed to pay employees in the future for services rendered in the present. They’re part of the employment agreement.
What do you think they are? Lotto winnings? They’re something earned as payment for time and services provided.
@Greg:
I wonder why a lot of that “expansion” has been flowing from California to Texas?
@Greg:
And these are CITY pensions. Dallas is trying to default on pension commitments to police and firemen. Dallas has and always has had a DEMOCRAT government. Same for Austin, San Antonio and Houston and ALL have debt issues.
It’s always the same; liberals spend other people’s money like it’s… other people’s money.
Feel free to tell the next policeman or fireman you meet that he has no right to expect his pension agreement to be honored. Of course, it’s far better to have already received the agreed upon time and services before stiffing them. This is how you “Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and in Life.” The Donald has done this to small businesses many, many times. And now he’s a billionaire and President.
@Greg: The solution to pension debt is simple 401Kmatch that becomes untouchable, they cant rob the fund. If anything is left when they die it goes to heirs. Public unions dealing with democrat s in office in exchange for union votes and campaign donations a vicious circle that only leads to huge unfunded debt.
Does the taxpayer paying the salaries get to vote on these benefits and salaries they fund it but are cut out completely on negotiations.
@Greg:
Um, that’s not what I said. I said they are getting screwed by the City of Dallas because they over-promised. I have numerous friends and relatives that are Dallas cops and retired from the DFD and I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the rug pulled out from under them. However, Greg, what do you suppose happens when liberal governments promise more than they can fulfill and the rug gets yanked out from under those who think they were getting what they were promised? Dallas just spent $400,000 removing a statue of Robert E. Lee from Lee park (and renaming the park); I’ll hazard a guess that the pensioners would have liked to have had that money put in their account. But, stupid governments do what stupid governments do, don’t they?