In less than 50 years, they ruined my home state.
They over-taxed it, over-regulated it and bankrupted it. They strangled its vibrant economy, destroyed its education system and let its infrastructure crumble.
Who are these people who’ve turned the Golden State into Greece?
Not Big Business. Not the rich. Not the poor. Not millions of immigrants from Des Moines or Juarez.
“They” are the career politicians in Sacramento. Their excessive lawmaking, taxing and spending have transformed California into a European welfare state with a grim future.
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 this fall — 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 $95,000 salaries are sweetened by as much as $50,000 in tax-free per diem allowances. They are the highest-paid lawmakers in the country.
Compare California to Texas and Florida. In Texas they pay legislators $600 a month and the legislature meets 140 days a year. In Florida lawmakers get $30,000 a year and meet just 60 days.
The politicians in Texas and Florida do not make politics their careers. They have to have real jobs in the real world. When they’re not in Austin or Tallahassee, they must live and do business under the same laws they have written.
Part-time legislators are what the founding fathers wanted lawmakers to be. My father Ronald Reagan was a citizen politician. Politics was not a career for him. It was a service. He gave of himself.
People have repeatedly asked me to run for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein. But I think that a new job I have — chairing the “Citizen Legislature Act” — is better for me and the state.
California citizens are in the streets collecting signatures now to put the initiative on the fall ballot. The act would return the state to a part-time legislature. Lawmaking sessions would be cut from 230 days to 90 days. And legislators would be forced to produce on-time, balanced budgets or not get paid. What a concept.
The act also would end politics as a full-time career in California. Legislators would be paid $1,500 a month. At $18,000 a year, they’d have to find real jobs and see what it’s like to live under the dumb and/or bad laws they write by the thousands in Sacramento.
The “Citizen Legislature Act,” which I will work hard to see become law, would shock the systems of the politicians. They’d have to start serving the people of California, not themselves. And I bet they wouldn’t be passing any new bullet train legislation.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.
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As one who lived in Sacramento most of my life (I left for 10 years but moved back because I think it’s one of the best places to live, despite too many liberals) I frequently wonder if California can be saved. I don’t even go down south any more because it’s a ghetto cesspool and then there’s SF which ought to fall off into the ocean from the San Andreas fault.
Now it seems the Feds want to finish it off by driving agriculture out of the state with their water rules.
Maybe we should all leave California and move someplace else. Then all that would be left are illegal aliens, welfare queens, and politicians. Could there be any better fit for Brown?
I do have people that live in California. Not for long, the writing is on the wall. Yes, the Immoral Hollywood and homosexual community have enough money. But, when California Pension’s go bankrupt, there will be a street war, that can’t be stopped. When all of the cities are ablaze, then, and only then will the Criminal politicians and your lunatic Governor see it is too late. They will be slaughtered like the scum that they are. Hope it is sooner than later.
Hell no !!!!!! We need to hire Ucon Cornelio’s from Rudolf the red nose raindeer to use his pick to chip it off and let it float away in the ocean. We can also have him do the same to New York.
Wake-Up Proud Americans First California Must Do Some “Big Cuts” With Govt Employees And Salaries, Cut To The Bone, Ca Must Return To Part-Time Legislature, As Texas Did, From 230 Days To 90 Days, Yikeess, Plus Forced To Produce On-Time “Balanced Budgets” OR Not Get Paid. Follow The State Of Texas And See What Gov Rick Perry Has Done. Now First California Gets Rid Of Obamacare-Less, Than Obama Along With Gov Brown. Start Fresh Without The State Unions And Cut Most Of The State Depts, Because If We Do Not Cut, And Deep, Ca Is Hurting. Send The “Tree-Huggers, And Welfare Gimmie Groups With The Illegals Back To Mexico. God Bless America And Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Right on Mike. You nailed this one. With these career politicians sitting around all year long playing switchees (image: one thumb in the mouth and one in the, well you know, and switching periodically) and drawing a huge salary its little wonder they keep dreaming up ways to muck up the works. I say, kick their butts out of the capitol, lock the gate, put an armed guard on it, and if one of the “bahh-sterds” tries to get back in before the next legislative session begins, shoot him on sight. And pay them no more than Texas legislators are paid. Only then is there a reasonable chance of attracting people dedicated to serving the people and not a bunch of liars dedicated to serving themselves.
THE ONE CUT OBAMA CAN DO THAT WILL SAVE AMERICA …..FROM HIS LEFT EAR TO HIS RIGHT EAR