Thursday, December 20, 2018

After Jerry Brown: Onward Toward Utopia!

After California Republicans were obliterated in the November midterm elections, I've heard from a number of conservative-minded compatriots who are understandably worried about what the Democrats' new super-duper legislative majorities will mean for the state.

In a recent interview with National Public Radio, outgoing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown expressed his own concerns about where the state government might be headed.

The article reports that Los Angeles offers "Such generous retirement pay that they exceed pension fund limits set by the Internal Revenue Service, saddling taxpayers with additional costs using money that could otherwise be tapped to fix sidewalks, fight homelessness or hire more cops." Brown modestly reformed the pension system and has argued, in a crucial case before the state Supreme Court, that pension benefits can be trimmed going forward for public employees.

Prediction: The new administration and union-dominated state Legislature will ignore the pension-funding crisis, local governments will continue to cut back services, and taxpayers will face an unending sea of tax hikes to make up for the shortfalls.

An extensive new study from business relocation coach Joe Vranich, who fled Southern California for Pennsylvania, finds that "1,800 relocation or 'disinvestment events' occurred in 2016, setting a record yearly high going back to 2008 - and that about 13,000 companies left the state during that nine-year period." The main reason wasn't even the state's punitive tax climate but a "Legal climate has become so difficult that companies should consider locating in jurisdictions where they will be treated fairly."

In the midst of a budget crisis in 2011, Gov. Brown and the Legislature ended the state's noxious system of "Redevelopment." Think of it as a locally controlled version of those 1960s-era urban-renewal schemes that destroyed so many neighborhoods.

Prediction: As Brown suggested, the state Republican Party is too weak to stop even the most "Out there" proposals.


https://spectator.org/after-jerry-brown-onward-toward-utopia/

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