COMMUNITY OPINION: Imagine you own California

If you can for a moment, forget about politics, the Democrat and the Republican parties, social media, and the news. We will come back to those things later.

Now pretend that you own California. Let’s see how this thing you own is doing.

According to the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Public Policy Institute of California, roughly 35.2% of Californians live in or near poverty. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau, in a Sept. 15, 2020 report, says California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, at 17.2%, almost 5 points higher than the national average. Having the overwhelming largest population, the number of residents living poor is staggering. 

Hey owner: your people are really poor.

The poverty rates above reflect the cost of housing. According to Cal-Matters, restrictive land zoning processes, arbitrary building standards and crushing fees, make it nearly impossible to build cost-effective housing for low- and moderate-income families and the shortage of such housing drives up rents.

Hey owner: millions of your people can’t afford to own or rent a decent home.

According to Capitol Weekly, nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 in California lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence. The California Department of Education had recently decided not to release the the 2022 Smarter Balanced test results (but then reversed itself, although have not released the data yet). There may be a reason why there is a delay in the release: embarrassment before the mid-term elections. While there are many different statistics, not one places California anywhere far from the bottom in the nation. CBS Reports pre-Covid we are 44th for math test scores and 38th for reading. I have seen other reports that California is worse than those. 

Hey owner: you are not educating the vast majority of the 5,892,240 students enrolled in 10,558 schools in California being taught by 319,004 teachers.

According to the Public Policy Institute of Caifornia, violent crime rose in 11 of the state’s 15 largest counties, and 3 saw increases of at least 10%. Fresno faced the biggest jump, by 24.1%, homicides jumped by 41.2% and aggravated assaults by 18.0%. Gun-related homicides and aggravated assaults surged by 52% and 64%. Property crime rose in 24 counties in 2021—including 7 of the 15 largest. In 13 counties—including 2 of the 15 largest—the property crime rate jumped by at least 10%. San Francisco saw the largest increase, by 16.9%. Our own sheriff reported across-the-board increases here in San Benito County. 

Hey owner: your residents are not as safe as they need to be.

According to TurboTax, California has the highest income tax in the nation. According to AAA, California has the highest gas prices in the nation. According to statistical.com, we are the 2nd highest in the nation (with Hawaii understandably being higher) for electricity costs.

According to the PPIC, about 7.5 million people moved from California to other states, while only 5.8 million people moved to California from other parts of the country. According to Department of Finance estimates, the state has lost residents to other states every year since 2001.

Hey owner: many people are voting with their feet, as many industries have.  Remember the airliner and car manufacturing industries? They all left too.

I did not need the Democrat or Republican Party, CNN or Fox News to tell you these things. They are just facts.

Benitolink Readers: We are the owners of this mess! The overwhelming problem is that California is being run by people that have one set of values and priorities. When you look at the data, clearly that is not enough.  We need outside to help identify the problems and show us other ideas on how to fix them. That outside help is here and on the ballot.

• Ignore the rhetoric being fed us through social media and news outlets about people that have almost nothing to do with our mess.  They are selling headlines about Washington D.C., and not reporting our problems in California.
• Acknowledge we have problems with one-party rule in California, and they are significant. Ask yourself if Republicans being totally irrelevant today in California has served us well? Review the data above again if unsure.
• Acknowledge the potential that what we see in the headlines is what the elected feed the cooperating media to focus your attention on those national narratives instead of the problems above. The problems are so huge, we can’t care about Texas or Florida or any other state; we have to take care of our California and not be distracted.
• Vote for California Republicans that when in office locally and in Sacramento, can become relevant by having enough votes that the Democrats have to perhaps moderate their positions to get new legislation through. Diversity as between our two parties will be a good thing for the owners, you and me.

One more thing: individuals, businesses, trade associations, even some could say the California Republican Party, have given up on the state. Let’s reverse that and make California a great place for everyone.  Let’s get homeownership up, rents down, gas, energy, and food affordable, crime reduced, schools educating and not parenting, and reestablish opportunity to rise standards of living for all.  We can do this if we stick to the facts and create honest solutions. I want to stay in California, and want you to stay also.