Create private sector jobs with three-point plan
Creating an atmosphere for private sector job growth should be the number one priority of our state legislature. The state of California has an unemployment rate of 12 percent, which is the highest since the Great Depression. In some of our local communities, unemployment exceeds 30 percent.
To correct this dire situation we must implement a three-point action plan.
* Cut government spending. Our incompetent state legislature is poised to spend about $25 billion more this year than the tax revenue they take in. Over the last 10 years California taxpayers have paid a whopping 71 percent increase in taxes to the state government -- and yet it is not enough. During the same time frame the state has spent an additional 80 percent on non-education expenditures. For example, over the last 10 years, welfare costs have increased 107 percent and corrections' costs have increased 125 percent.
We must renegotiate public employee contracts to achieve a minimum of a 15 percent reduction in compensation. This would save $2.79 billion and put government workers' comp more in alignment with economic reality. The alternative is to furlough 15 percent of state workers.
We have 12 percent of the nation's population, but 30 percent of the nation's welfare recipients. We must impose a lifetime welfare limit of five years that other states have adopted.
We could save $5 billion per year if California ran its prisons like other states. An inmate in California costs the taxpayer $49,000, which is twice the cost in other states. Annual health care costs for a prisoner have increased from $2,700 in 1995 to over $11,000 today.
* Eliminate stifling regulations. Ridiculous regulations are strangling private sector job creation. A prime example is the regulatory assault on our local agriculture and oil industries.
The man-made drought is caused by unrealistic environmental regulations and a rogue judicial ruling concerning the Delta smelt, which is trampling the ability of farmers to plant and thus hire employees. The oil industry could be drilling from existing platforms off the Santa Barbara coast if it were not for overzealous environmentalists. This restriction prevents the state from collecting $100 million in new tax revenue.
* Reduce punitive taxes. Californians pay among the highest taxes in the country, and more taxes is not the answer. One proposal, the Oil Severance Tax, was a sure job killer in Kern County. We need a cut in the tax burden across the board.
To make California a job generator rather than a job killer we need to embrace a limited government model and drastically cut government spending, eliminate stifling regulations, and reduce punitive taxation.
Ken Mettler of the California Republican Assembly has more at KenMettler.com.
