[Frank Stephens]
In less than 50 years, Democrats and Republicans ruined my state and turned it into Greece.
Democrats over-taxed it, over-regulated it and bankrupted it. They strangled its vibrant economy, destroyed its education system and let its infrastructure crumble.
Republicans caved in to Democrat demands for a bowl of porridge, i.e., Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres, was bought off for $400,000 to cast a 'yes' vote for the 12% increase in the state's gas tax, the first increase in 23 years, plus a 20 cent increase in diesel.
So it wasn’t Big Business. Not the rich. Not millions of illegal immigrants from Juarez. No, it was career politicians in Sacramento.
Their excessive lawmaking, regulations, taxing and spending have transformed California into a European welfare state with a grim future.
This is not the California I grew up in and yearn for. It’s hard for me to believe how things have deteriorated in California since the late 1960s. I can remember when Ronald Reagan was governor. We had a surplus. He actually gave money back to the people of California.
The state once was famous for having the best education system, the best business climate, the best roads and infrastructure in America. It was a growing, dynamic paradise where people came to pursue their dreams and hopes.
Now California’s a wreck that people and businesses are leaving in droves. And Gov. Brown and his gang are offering us more of the same — higher income and sales taxes and a bullet train no one wants but them.
To reverse its death spiral, California needs to return to a part-time legislature and turn its career politicians into part-time citizen politicians — which is what they are in 41 other states and what they were in California until 1967.
Today the state’s 120 legislators work year-round and their $104,115 are sweetened by as much as $50,000 in tax-free per diem allowances salaries plus gold plated benefits,. They are the highest-paid lawmakers in the country.
And California’s citizens just roll over and fork up the money to pay for their own destruction and to keep these thieves in their high priced lifestyle.
