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All I have to say to Californians is "what the Hell happened?" and "How did all of you let such good things as what all of you had go out the window? And in such a small amount of time to?" I would've loved to have the California that all of you enjoyed even 10-15 years ago where I lived!
Like you said, California is liberal in a lot of good ways.
It is also liberal in a lot of bad ways. The legislature is addicted to spending and is corrupted by liberal special interst groups. Most notably, the unions. Now understand, I work in the public sector, and I have to be honest--we are spoiled by our inflated salaries and benefits. The benefits in particular, are inflated. This is even more true for police, firemen, and prison guards. The pay and benefits package of most civil servants is simply not sustainable (especially the pensions)
We also have a large illegal immigrant problem that the legislature pretends is not a problem. There are no two ways about it. Illegals cost more in services than they pay in taxes by a wide margin.
We also have a lot of regulations that other states don't have that make it more expensive to do business here. Many of these regulations are invisible to the general public because most of the voting public are not business owners; yet they are affected negatively by these regulations even though they are not even aware of them. Meg Whitman, who is running for governor and is former CEO of EBay, recently noted in an interview that EBay had to get thousands or permits to build a "green" campus in California. Most other states would not have made a company jump through so much expensive red tape.
We also have a lot of voters who pass state initiatives to issue bonds (borrow more money) for things like building new bullet train lines. Problem is, these expensive extras don't come with any tax increases attached to them, which further drains the state's general fund with debt payments.
Also, envioronmentalism sounds good, and it sometimes is. The state is definitely a leader in such things as vehicle emissions standards. We've made significant progress in reducing our air pollution here as a result. However, the state also has very restrictive land use policies, which means it's difficult to build new housing. Limited housing supply translates into sky high apartment rents and home prices. Environmentlism is often used as an excuse by rich elitists (or people who bought homes 20 or 30 years ago) to block any and all residential development.
There are other issues as well. But I think you get the general idea.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 10-10-2009 at 10:53 AM..
Like you said, California is liberal in a lot of good ways.
It is also liberal in a lot of bad ways. The legislature is addicted to spending and is corrupted by liberal special interst groups. Most notably, the unions. Now understand, I work in the public sector, and I have to be honest--we are spoiled by our inflated salaries and benefits. The benefits in particular, are inflated. This is even more true for police, firemen, and prison guards. The pay and benefits package of most civil servants is simply not sustainable (especially the pensions)
We also have a large illegal immigrant problem that the legislature pretends is not a problem. There are no two ways about it. Illegals cost more in services than they pay in taxes by a wide margin.
We also have a lot of regulations that other states don't have that make it more expensive to do business here. Many of these regulations are invisible to the general public because most of the voting public are not business owners; yet they are affected negatively by these regulations even though they are not even aware of them. Meg Whitman, who is running for governor and is former CEO of EBay, recently noted in an interview that EBay had to get thousands or permits to build a "green" campus in California. Most other states would not have made a company jump through so much expensive red tape.
We also have a lot of voters who pass state initiatives to issue bonds (borrow more money) for things like building new bullet train lines. Problem is, these expensive extras don't come with any tax increases attached to them, which further drains the state's general fund with debt payments.
Also, envioronmentalism sounds good, and it sometimes is. The state is definitely a leader in such things as vehicle emissions standards. We've made significant progress in reducing our air pollution here as a result. However, the state also has very restrictive land use policies, which means it's difficult to build new housing. Limited housing supply translates into sky high apartment rents and home prices. Environmentlism is often used as an excuse by rich elitists (or people who bought homes 20 or 30 years ago) to block any and all residential development.
There are other issues as well. But I think you get the general idea.
I'm on the same page with you...
I'm in the Health Care Sector and the amount of new regulations in the last 15 years boggles the mind... we have to hire new personnel just to keep on top of compliance issues... one even has the title of compliance officer.
Our sister facility is building a new facility and the budgeted cost per BED is 1 million dollars!!! An 80 bed facility equals 80 million dollars in costs and we all pay for it in the cost of Health care.
On the Facilities End of things there are many examples...
In the last 10 years we have to have a special permit and waiver just to maintain our Emergency Generator, new hazardous storage maps and procedures, Film Developing Manifests, Steam Boiler Stack Testing, Sterilizer Emission Permits, Cryo-Freezer License, Special Permit to store Oxygen on Site and the list continues...
The odd thing is most of the new permit requirements would not be necessary if the same equipment were not in CA or in my private home or ranch...
$800 here, $1500 there and pretty soon your into real money and this is only the permit/license fees... add to it the full time staff position required to ensure compliance...
I could see if we had ever had a medical problem or issue... we haven't and run a fully accredited facility that is well documented...
Why is it Diesel Trucks can park in the Safeway Parking Lot and idle their engines 24 hours days and keep perishables refrigerated and I'm limited to testing and maintenance operation of the Emergency Generator 20 hours per year and I have to pay $800 just for the permit to have it
Why is it Diesel Trucks can park in the Safeway Parking Lot and idle their engines 24 hours days and keep perishables refrigerated and I'm limited to testing and maintenance operation of the Emergency Generator 20 hours per year and I have to pay $800 just for the permit to have it
Simple! Because you're in CA with a dysfunctional legislature that has nothing better to do than create unnecessary regulations that drive up costs and drive out businesses.
Simple! Because you're in CA with a dysfunctional legislature that has nothing better to do than create unnecessary regulations that drive up costs and drive out businesses.
Elementary my dear Ultrarunner!
Sad... but unfortunately mostly true...
Anyone opening a new business here is hit with a barrage of inspections and license requirements... it is very hard... a little easier in the county for sure...
Slightly off topic... but, I will mention it anyway.
There is a open space adjacent to the Medical Facility... the city sent a certified letter giving 30 day compliance window to remove/reduce the hazardous fuel load on a parcel of property... basically clear anything above 6" from the land and limb tree branches less than 6' from the ground... I thought is was an excellent idea and asked the city if they could get the job done ASAP... because I was also concerned about it... the kicker is the land is city property... and now it's been 2 years and nothing has been done????
I have a 95 year old neighbor that was cited for having two dead/fire hazard trees at her home... she has a through lot and can only walk with a walker even though she lives alone... again the trees were on city property... the city did not believe us and a surveyor friend took a look to confirm... the city sent out a tree crew and then left because they needed the city survey crew to verify the trees were indeed on city land... a couple of weeks later, after 2 trips from the city tree crew, 3 trips from the fire Marshall and a visit from the City Survey Crew...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 10-10-2009 at 03:24 PM..
Well, let's see. In five years, hopefully, The People's Republic of Berkeley will have seceded from not just the state but the Union as well. Some entity will have built a wall around Los Angeles to totally contain it, thereby cutting crime in California, as well as the prison population, by 50%. Bakersfield will have advanced past the Grapes of Wrath days and San Francisco will have finally fallen into the sea. English will be an optional language.
Don't you mean the CSU system will be requiring English as a secondary language (to keep their bureacratic money maker rolling via extra requirements), since most will be speaking Spanish by then?
they want us to work for min wage but spend like the rich and famous.
It worse than that. They want us to work minimum wage with crap shifts, like 4 hours a night, 7 nights a week; still part time you know, so they don't have to pay benefits. This also makes it a b**** to find childcare (which costs money too) and puts the employee in the successively harder position of trying to find other part time minimum wage jobs to work around this crap schedule so they can hope to make ends meet.
It would be helpful if businesses could at least just give someone one minimum wage full time job, rather than get greedy and try to split it between several desperates in this employers economy.
And then of course they wonder why we can't get out, shop, eat, and stimulate the economy under these conditions.
One of the many things the state government could do is look at how many retirees are leaving the state. We may not be the most desirable demographic but we don't require school services and have money to spend, up to a point. We personally took our money out of CA and put it into Oregon. OR loves retirees. Retirees pay taxes and don't require a lot of services. We have Medicare so our medical bills are (mostly) paid. We invest in our homes and neighborhoods. We contribute to local libraries and do volunteer work. In our leisure time, we go out to dinner, go shopping and visit the theater. Here, in Oregon.
People taking our places these days tend to be poorer with large families requiring services. They don't put enough money into the system to balance what they take out.
So why drive us away? We'd have stayed if there had been a tax break on retirement income or something. Anything. Prop 13 is a joke. We didn't live in our house long enough for it to have made a difference (six years). Anyway, I don't see the sense in encouraging CA money to exit the state for places like Oregon, AZ and NV.
So why drive us away? We'd have stayed if there had been a tax break on retirement income or something. Anything. Prop 13 is a joke. We didn't live in our house long enough for it to have made a difference (six years). Anyway, I don't see the sense in encouraging CA money to exit the state for places like Oregon, AZ and NV.
Even MO. While our retirement income was adequate in CA, had we bought a house when we married late in life we'd have been house poor and likely upside-down now. Thankfully we didn't, lived frugally and saved and invested.
Now we own a lovely home in MO, have a comfortable amount more than the median income and our California-earned retirements are being spent here.
In the overall scheme of things we're decidedly small potatoes but every little bit counts in this economy. In MO we'll pay virtually pay no income tax because we're government (any U.S. government) retirees. All other costs and fees are well below CA's as well.
There was no contest!
CA is about as friendly to retirees and elders as it is to business.
So why drive us away? We'd have stayed if there had been a tax break on retirement income or something. Anything. Prop 13 is a joke. We didn't live in our house long enough for it to have made a difference (six years). Anyway, I don't see the sense in encouraging CA money to exit the state for places like Oregon, AZ and NV.
Don't forget there is also a ton of CA transplants in WA State...
A friend rented a U-Haul to take her Daughter to UC San Diego... the trailer rental was something like $40 one-way to CA or $90 round trip... the kicker was that it would be almost $300 one-way from San Diego to Seattle
I'm surrounded by Retiree's on my Street... most built their homes in the mid 50's to mid 60's and have no intention of leaving... that was part of the reason I liked the area... very well kept-up.... out of something like 30 homes on my street... no-one has children except the teachers at the top of the block...
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