There was more of the same old, same old California news recently. Some
62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were
more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed
rail — before the first mile of track has been laid. One-third of Bay
Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.
Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason.
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Grass-roots voter pushbacks are seen as pointless. Progressive state
and federal courts have overturned a multitude of reform measures of
the last 20 years that had passed with ample majorities.
The basket of California state taxes — sales, income and gasoline —
rates among the highest in the United States. Yet California roads and
K-12 education rank near the bottom.
After years of drought, California has not built a single new
reservoir. Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted
to the sea. Thousands of rural central California homes, in Dust Bowl
fashion, have been abandoned due to a sinking aquifer and dry wells.
One in three American welfare recipients resides in California. Almost
a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line.
Yet the state’s gas and electricity prices are among the nation’s
highest. [
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