California has four major problems it is not addressing

Forbes:
...

That vast State Water Project was designed for a population not much greater than 25 million. Today, on any one day, California verges on nearly 40 million people within its borders and is projected to reach 50 million if not higher.

In the last 50 years, however, California’s infrastructure needs have been ignored.

The state’s water system remains essentially is as it was in the 1960s. As for its roads, a recent headline declared that “California’s roads are some of the poorest in the nation and rapidly getting worse.”

According to a 2017 infrastructure report card:

“Driving on roads in need of repair in California costs each driver $844 per year, and 5.5% of bridges are rated structurally deficient. Drinking water needs in California are an estimated $44.5 billion, and wastewater needs total $26.2 billion. 678 dams are considered to be high-hazard potential. The state’s schools have an estimated capital expenditure gap of $3.2 billion.”

In 2017, California’s Governor Jerry Brown estimated California was “facing $187 billion in unmet infrastructure needs.” However, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute “pegs the cost of California’s unfunded infrastructure needs at up to $737 billion and possibly as much as $765 billion.” Who is right? It’s hard to know but all of those figures are more than daunting.

How much in debt are the California governments? That’s hard to know too. According to a January 2017 study, “California state and local governments owe $1.3 trillion as of June 30, 2015.” The study was based on “a review of federal, state and local financial disclosures.”

In other words, that $1.3 trillion in debt is the amount to which California governments admit. Other studies believe it to be more. Indeed, one study says it is actually $2.3 trillion and a recent Hoover Institute stated that there is over $1 trillion in pension liability alone, or $76,884 per household. Incredibly, there are 4 million current pension beneficiaries, a number that continues to grow and which exceeds the total population of 22 states.
...

When you consider the California legal system and its regulatory system, inclusive of the world’s most comprehensive global warming law, California is likely the most regulated state in the Country, if not the World.

California also is among the highest taxed states in the nation. California has the highest income tax rates. The top rate is 13.3%. The next closest top tax rate is in Oregon at 9.9%. However, Oregon does not have a sales tax. California has the 10th highest sales tax.

What is remarkable about the California income tax isn’t just that it has the highest rate, it is how little income it takes, just above $52,000, to qualify for California rate of 9.3%. Given the high cost of living in California, that means many Californians are subject to that rate.

On the other hand, for more than a decade, less than 150,000 of California’s 35+ million people pay half of all of its income tax – a highly imbalanced system.
...

You would think all of the above would have government officials deeply worried. So much so that they would cut back everywhere they could. If you thought that, you would be wrong – very wrong.

California spends nearly $200 billion a year on budget and even more off-budget in the form of programs paid with bonds, i.e. debt financing. As for the pension debt, of that nearly $200 billion, in the most recent budget less than $2 billion was allocated to paying down that pension debt. More than that was spent this year on a high-speed rail project currently estimated to cost $70 billion and which no one seems to want.

Beyond that, as I wrote earlier, California is moving ever farther left and wants the nation to pay for it. The next generation of leaders, Gavin Newsom, Kevin de Leon, Xavier Becerra and Kamala Harris are significantly to the Left of the old (and “conservative” by comparison) Jerry Brown and Diane Feinstein. That new generation of leaders are supported by an influx of friendly voters who are replacing those that are leaving.
...
There is more.

California is an example of the bankruptcy of liberalism in this country.  It has put a once rich state on an unsustainable track and instead of fixing obvious structural problems is instead spending on social programs.  It is also encouraging illegal immigration which adds to the state's burden.   The Democrat politicians in the state appear divorced from reality.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains