by Jack Lee
This is a story of fiscal neglect, mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and incompetence. Look, if you’re already having a bad day, take some advice from the author, just don’t even bother going here, it’s really awful news.
The following started out with just one question, “Who pays the most state taxes of all the states in the USA?” Then one thing led to another and before you know it I’ve got a state performance assessment done! The internet is such a beautiful thing!
And now the question not everyone wants to know, the most taxed state in America is (drum roll please). . . California!
(Did you ever have any doubt?)
Yes, boys and girls, it turns out we are number one when it comes to wearing the heaviest yoke. But, the indignity doesnt stop there, (I’ve mentioned this one before) our legislators are paid more here than anywhere else too. For all this creative taxing and brilliant spending… we’ve got the best schools money can buy, the bestest highways, the lowest low in crime and… uh, wha… NO!?
Elected officials must be doing a great job, after all you keep re-electing 92% of incumbents on average, so says the FPPC who tracks such things.
Hmmm…ok, let’s really see what kind of job these legislators are doing to earn their big pay: Well, for starters California ranks 5th in violent crime according to one older study, I couldn’t locate this years stats, but I’ll bet we’re still in the top 10. And that’s not very good considering we spend about 13 billion a year on our criminal justice programs, this includes $9.7 billion for housing 171,000 inmates at the Marriott, just kidding, the Marriott would be cheaper. That big taxpayer tab breaks down to roughly $76,000 a year spent per inmate each and every year, including court costs. Crime marches onward and upward…not much bang for our buck is there?
Public Safety: In 1960 the state had a population of 15,717,204 and there were 616 homicides and by 2007 we had a population of 36,553,213 and there were 2,260 homicides, a 62% er capita rise. Now check this, back in 1960 there were 15,287 armed robberies and in 2007 this number rose to over 70,500! That’s a 100% per capita increase. Violent crime in general, it is up 91% (again, adjusted per capita). Who thinks this is a good trend? I’ve got a lot more crime stats I could toss out here that are just as bad, but you get the point. Clearly the our police and our prisons have not been given the tools they need to protect the public. The legislature has failed them and failed us. Can there be any other conclusion?
So how are we doing with education? We must be doing really, really great because we spend the largest amount of the state’s budget on education! I mean, money does buy results, right? I heard that somewhere.
A 2007 Rand Corp. study revealed the state’s K-12 school system has fallen from a national leader 30 years ago, to its current ranking near the bottom in nearly every objective category. Every “objective” category? Oh, no! But, we spend $11,562 per student each year, which should give our kids a world class education! No, even though California currently spends more than $50 billion each year to educate about 6 million elementary and secondary students about 12.8 percent of the nation’s school-age population we are still barely ahead of only two other states, Louisiana and Mississippi. In our most recent testing eighth-graders finished 42nd in math, 45th in reading; fourth-graders are 46th and 48th, respectively. Unbelievable…
What are these guys in Sacramento doing to justify their fat paycheck? This State is in a mess!
Healthcare in California costs more than just about anywhere else too! The same procedure in Arizona could be anywhere from 25-30% less than California. Sorry, we can’t give our legislators kudos for holding down healthcare costs either.
CA Sen. Dave Cogdill-R, 14th district, reports that California now ranks 49th (1 is best, 50th is worst) in domestic migration outflow and that most of this outflow are our richest and brightest. The more than 1.3 million who’ve packed up their bags and headed for the exits over the past decade believe they can do better elsewhere.
Maybe part of this exodus is because California is the 3rd most expensive state to do business in? And it doesn’t t help that we require Californian’s to get special credentials or licenses for 177 unique occupations the most in the nation. (Red tape)
When it comes to unemployment California is tied with Mississippi with the third-highest unemployment rate at 6.9 percent for June, I would almost hate to know what the current unemployment rate is, it’s surely much worse. (I just had to go check and guess what I found, it is worse! 21 counties are now above 10% unemployed, we’re over 8% overall) Legislator’s are you paying attention to any of this???
California has led the nation in foreclosures for 18 consecutive months and ranks dead last for housing affordability. Holy cow, isn’t there anything our legislators are doing right to help us? Yes… there are two groups that are actually doing pretty good here: Public employees and welfare recipients. California pays the highest average teacher salaries and the highest compensation for state employees in the country, as well as the second-highest welfare grant level. Does that make you feel any better? No? Me either.
The California legislature will have run this state $42b into the red by March….they can’t even manage the budget. Folks, there is virtually nothing left for them to screw up! They have flunked on managing public safety, highways, infrastructure, budget, education, taxes, etc. The State legislature has time after time absolutely failed miserably at everything; every single important issue to taxpayers has tanked with the help and guideance of our wonderful legislators and yet we keep re-electing them… that part is truly amazing.
It’s ironic that those Democrats you love to re-elect continue to insist that we now need to raise your taxes even higher because they overspent so much! Just spend more on the problem and it will magically get fixed, then we will all have the kind of California we want or so they claim. But, we’re already spending out the kazoo and paying the highest in the nation for every kind of state service imaginable and what are we getting in return? WHAT? Decaying freeways, high crime with gang ridden neighborhoods, bad schools turning out dumb kids, welfare for illegals and to top it off we are chasing off major businesses!!!!
With a 21% approval rate 79% should be unelectable, but unfortunately it’s not been working out that way. I’m all for a recall at this point. Citizens should be marching on Sacramento and demanding resignations of these dimwits. They have no business being our representatives, they are dangerous, because they are grossly incompetent …as the evidence proves beyond the shadow of a doubt!