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The California Prison Guards Union benefits from nonsensical laws which increase the prison population
Prisons are a disaster in this country. Between the state employed prison guards and the private prisons run by corporations which seek to keep beds and cells filled for fear of hurting the bottom line, who also lobby for tougher sentences, we have got some real issues in this country.
We imprison a higher percentage of our population than any other country, and that seems a bit odd in the land of the free.
Companies have even lobbied successfully to access prison labor at less than a dollar an hour. That is, less than a dollar an hour for the company. It costs more than a dollar an hour to imprison most prisoners. The company makes out twice with almost slave labor which is also subsidized by taxpayers.
Like I said, prisons in this country are seriously messed up. Almost as messed up as our drug laws. But not quite.
In this article by Sagar Jethani he examines the California Prison Guards Union and their exploits in Sacramento and behind the grey walls of the clink.
(From Policymic)
Enter the California Correction Peace Officer’s Association, CCPOA, better known as the prison guards union.
Thanks to the mandatory dues paid by its members, the union raises about $23 million a year, and spends about $8 million of it on lobbying. According to Joan Petersilia, a longtime observer of California’s correctional institutions, CCPOA’s lobbying goal is simple: “more prisoners lead to more prisons; more prisons require more guards; more guards means more dues-paying members and fund-raising capability; and fund-raising, of course, translates into political influence.”
View full post on AgainstCronyCapitalism.org
California taxpayers played for chumps? Most of new tax increase goes to govt employee pensions
California is so beautiful. There was a time when people dreamed of moving there. Now people are trying to get out. At least many of the people in private industry. The Golden State is golden no longer.
The state recently passed a voter approved tax increase of $50 billion over 5 years. It was a huge increase and passed as the “Temporary Taxes to Fund Education” initiative.
But what the initiative is mostly funding are the pensions of California’s army of public employees.
The state made promises it could not keep and now the bill is coming due. And you thought the money was going to the kids. Sucker.
(From Bloomberg.com)
What if a corporation raised $500 million in a securities offering on the premise that the proceeds would go for operating expenses, then disclosed a few months later that $300 million of this amount would instead be used to service a debt that wasn’t disclosed in the offering document?
This would be false advertising, subject to sanction by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unfortunately, the SEC doesn’t have jurisdiction over state politicians engaging in the same behavior, and, in the case of California, involving sums that are 100 times bigger.
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American • Chinese birth tourism booms in Southern California
Chinese birth tourism booms in Southern California
Any child born on U.S. soil is granted citizenship. Hundreds of expecting moms from Mexico have been crossing the border into Arizona to deliver their babies for years as a result. Now, a growing number of pregnant Chinese women are flying to the U.S. to secure their child that prized U.S. birth certificate, and Southern California has become a hot bed of what’s called “birth tourism.”
The Santa Anita Inn in Arcadia, Calif., is operating as what some are calling a "baby factory." (KTLA)
This week KTLA-TV reported on a motel in Arcadia where expectant women from China are checking in to give birth. Every three to four months a new group arrives. The hotel provides guests with a full-time nursing staff, meals and a nursery. The women are typically wealthy and pay a China-based agency about $25K in fees for travel, medical, visa and other related expenses.
After giving birth and receiving their newborn’s U.S. birth certificates and passports, the women and their babies fly back to China. As U.S. citizens the children can return when they’re older to attend school and take advantage of other benefits that go along with citizenship. Some women are also making the trip as a way to get around China’s one-child policy because the restriction doesn’t apply to those who deliver out of the country.
While hotel employees are denying that they’re running a “baby factory,” Arcadia Asst. City Manager Jason Kruckeberg told KTLA that the city is aware of the hotel’s underground operation. Even though some locals disapprove of the situation, Kruckeberg says the city has no power to stop it because nothing illegal is happening. Equipped with tourism or business visas, these women aren’t violating federal immigration laws.
Last month, the media covered a similar situation in Chino Hills where a residential home was transformed into a maternity hotel for women traveling from China. Some neighbors were so outraged by the the activity generated by the operation that they picketed outside the home.
Chino Hills resident Rossana Mitchell told CBS: “When people think of the American dream, they’re not thinking about birth tourism. They’re thinking about people who come here, immigrate here, work hard, pay their taxes, become citizens and become Americans.”
Authorities eventually shuttered the maternity hotel due to zoning issues, according to NBC.
The United States is one of many countries in the world where a child automatically receives citizenship at birth. “The U.S. law dates back to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War to ensure that all freed slaves and their children would be American citizens,” according to NBC.
Some lawmakers want to see an end to the practice. Representative Phil Gingrey (R-Ga) thinks the 14th Amendment should be reinterpreted so only children with at least one American parent receive citizenship. Earlier this year he introduced a legislation aimed at ending birth tourism.
But just how big is the birth tourism problem and is a new law really necessary?
NBC reports:
The most recent statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that births of babies on American soil to foreign mothers increased from 5,009 births in 2000 to 7,462 births in 2008. This is a tiny percentage of the more than four million babies born in America each year. There is no tracking system in place to record which countries the mothers are from or why they are in the United States.
Angela Kelley, the vice president of immigration policy and advocacy for the Center for American Progress, isn’t convinced that the birth tourism issue is big enough to warrant a reinterpretation of the Constitution.
“I don’t see this type of legislation having any traction, or being taken seriously,” Kelley told NBC. “I think something as really fundamental and integral to this nation’s character: that you’re born here, you belong here, that we’re not a country club that you apply to– that would be met with enormous resistance from all sorts of quarters…from left and from the right.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2013/03/1 … alifornia/
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:54 pm
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This Is What It’s Like to Take on School Unions As a Democratic Leader in California
I know a number of people who align themselves generally with the Democratic Party who are very much in favor deep reform in public schools, and school choice. But the teachers unions roll all over these folks.
Many teachers are under the mistaken notion that schools exist for their employment. They like things the way they are. They like having summers off. And a week off at Christmas. And another at Easter. And snow days. They like state and county funded pensions. That the public school system has been failing in many parts of the country for decades (and it is certainly not due to lack of funds) is simply not as important to many teachers (but absolutely, definitely not all teachers) as getting a check.
Reforms are fought on all fronts by the unions, to the detriment of our young people.
(From Reason Magazine)
Reason: Describe what it’s like to try to challenge union control of the education system as a Democrat.
Romero: Where do I begin? When we talk about education and education reform, it automatically means change agents have to take on and confront the No. 1 political force in California, and that’s the [California Teacher’s Association]. Simply to talk about education reform, to enact legislation means you’re dealing with the power of money. Unfortunately we’d been stymied in many of our reform efforts because of the power of money. I still think we have to try. We have made progress. We’ve gone two steps forward, one step back. If we can’t get it through the ballot box or legislature, we have to go through the courts.
The post This Is What It’s Like to Take on School Unions As a Democratic Leader in California appeared first on AgainstCronyCapitalism.org.
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Health • California plan could affect toxic flame retardants in prod
California plan could affect toxic flame retardants in products across U.S.
By Michael Hawthorne Sam Roe and Patricia Callahan
10:30 a.m. CST, February 8, 2013
In a move that could affect consumers nationwide, California officials today unveiled plans to scrap an obscure 1975 rule that led to the buildup of toxic flame retardants in sofas, loveseats and upholstered chairs in millions of American homes.
The proposed changes, slated to be officially adopted later this year, mean the foam cushioning in furniture and baby products soon might be free of flame retardants, which are linked to cancer, developmental problems and impaired fertility. The new rule instead would require upholstery fabric to resist smoldering cigarettes — the biggest cause of furniture fires.
Furniture makers have said they can meet that standard without adding chemical flame retardants to foam or fabric.
California announced last year that it would overhaul its 38-year-old flammability rule after a Tribune investigation documented how the chemical and tobacco industries waged a deceptive, decades-long campaign to promote the use of flame retardants, even though government and independent research shows the chemicals don’t provide meaningful protection from furniture fires.
"Everybody will be healthier if we can have increased fire safety without toxic flame retardants," said Arlene Blum, a University of California at Berkeley chemist who has drawn attention to the hazards.
Under the current rule, known as Technical Bulletin 117, foam cushioning must withstand a candle-like flame for 12 seconds, a standard that many manufacturers meet by adding flame retardants to products sold across the country. Gov. Jerry Brown called for a sweeping overhaul last year after the chemical industry thwarted multiple attempts by California lawmakers and health advocates to change the rule with legislation.
When lawmakers in recent years considered eliminating the candle test, the chemical industry’s star witness, burn surgeon David Heimbach, testified about babies burned to death in fires started by candles.
But the Tribune series proved that the babies he described didn’t exist.
The newspaper also documented that the group sponsoring Heimbach – the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute — actually was a front group for the largest manufacturers of flame retardants. The industry has since shut down that group.
Before the proposed rule becomes final, industry officials and other interested parties will have a chance to weigh in and potentially challenge the new tests, making it unlikely that a standard will take effect before fall.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watc … 6295.story
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:50 am
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Oil And Gas • Is California Going to be the Next Bakken, only Bigger?
Is California Going to be the Next Bakken, only Bigger?
http://www.righands.com/news/news-detai … igger–289
Where’s the next oil-boom going to happen? The answer may shock you!
Everyone has been watching the race for Arctic-circle riches and the explosive growth of the Bakken. Now the New York Times is now reporting that things are heating up in a big way in… California!
When people talk oil, certain names always come up; Texas, Alaska, and of course, North Dakota, but not everyone realizes that California is number for on the list of oil-producing states. The San Joaquin valley stretches 400 miles from just south of the border with Oregon down to the town of Bakersfield, just north of Los Angeles. That’s about the same length as the distance between Dallas and Laredo in Texas. At the southern tip of the valley is the Midway-Sunset oilfield. Between the day it was first drilled in 1894 and 2006, Midway-Sunset produced nearly 3 billion barrels of oil and by 2008 there was still an estimated reserve of roughly 532 million barrels.
Just to the east is the "Monterey Shale" formation, estimated to contain two-thirds of America’s total estimated shale oil reserves. According to the U. S. Energy Information Administration, the play has thought to have 15.4 billion barrels, which would be more than four times the reserves of the Bakken Shale in North Dakota.
Of course the oil has always been there, but only now is the technology available to extract it profitably. Although the oil in the Midway-Sunset is usually less than 2,000 feet beneath the surface, in the Monterey Shale, the black gold lies 6,000 to 15,000 feet down. Advanced techniques now allow economical ways to access the reserves and some of the big names in oil exploration, including Occidental, Hess and Venoco are already lining up.
Landmen have also been talking with individual landowners and buying mineral rights, and snapping-up leases on federal land, often bidding upwards of a thousand dollars an acre in auctions that once drew only the minimum of two dollars.
All this has not gone unnoticed by "environmental groups", some of whom, including the Sierra Club, have sued the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Conservation, hoping to block exploration and force stricter regulatory oversight. Given America’s insatiable appetite for oil, it seems unlikely that they’ll be able to halt the march of progress. When the action starts in earnest rig hands will be able to move to California, far from the freezing cold of the Bakken and the blistering heat of Texas
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:23 pm
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California Irrigation Supplies Water to Phoenix
Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger
California’s Central Valley is one of the true wonders of the agricultural world. Prior to settlement, it was grassland in its northerly regions (around Sacramento) and desert at the southern end (Bakersfield). As a result of irrigation from water stored both in the ground and in the many rivers that drain into it, this 1 percent of the nation’s cropland produces 8 percent of our national agricultural output (by value). That doesn’t count the equally productive but much smaller Salinas Valley, which is likely where your artichokes came from.
John Christy, a fellow-lukewarmer (and a Valley native) who is also state climatologist for Alabama, has published extensively that irrigation has changed the Valley’s climate, resulting in a warming produced not by carbon dioxide but by water vapor, which tends to skew heating into the night.
Everything else being equal, increasing the surface moisture in a hot-as-heck environment (like the Central Valley) will increase atmospheric instability, and, given proper conditions, should result in increased convective (thunderstorm) activity. Add in that prevailing mid-atmospheric winds in this region blow from west to east, and you wind up running the increased water vapor uphill into the Sierras, the Wasatch, and the Rockies. That’s pretty much guaranteed to increase thunderstorm activity.
A newly published study fleshes this out with a computer model, and finds that irrigation in the Central Valley of California not only adds water to the local environment but also alters the regional climate across the Colorado River Basin, increasing summer precipitation by 15 percent and Colorado River flow by nearly 30 percent. Those are big numbers and important ones, given the water needs of some 35 million people from Las Vegas to Phoenix to L.A.
Min-Hiu Lo and James Famiglietti, researchers at the University of California-Irvine, added the 350mm of water annually delivered by irrigation to the 52,000 km2 Central Valley to a climate model developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). They then compared the climate model output when run with and without the Central Valley irrigation.
Figure 1 shows the difference between the irrigated run and the control run of the model, in terms of summer monthly total precipitation. The blue areas show precipitation increases that result from the Central Valley irrigation. Lo and Famiglietti report that the boost in summer precipitation is between 10% to 20% depending on the location. And better still, the increased precipitation leads to an increase in the summer flow rate of the Colorado River by 28%.
Figure 1. The difference in monthly total precipitation (mm/month) as calculated by the NCAR climate model between the irrigated and the non-irrigated Central Valley runs (Source: Lo and Famiglietti, 2013).
The mechanism by which this happens is the one hypothesized above, with an additional adjuvitant: the increasing upward motion draws in more moist air that originates from the Gulf of Mexico and causes the summer monsoon. The amount of irrigation water added to the Central Valley turns out to be about equal to the amount of extra water delivered from the enhanced monsoon over the Southwestern U.S. That is double the bang for the buck. What’s not to like?
Probabilities argue that the pressers at Cal-Irvine know which way the political winds blow political $$$, so leave it to them to find the horror:
While the additional water supply can be a good thing, the transport pattern also accelerates the severity of monsoons and other potentially destructive seasonal weather events.
Note to the UCI press: The water you drank this morning came courtesy of rain and snow in the Rocky Mountains. More people want more water. It is a fact that summer rainfall will increase (according to these models) because of the water we use to grow food evaporates, moves east, condenses as thunderstorms, and then runs back downhill to your faucet or appears as your salad. Yes, it is a fact that water flowing downhill creates erosion—that’s why there’s the Grand Canyon of the Colorado—but the benefits of enhanced precipitation out West are patently obvious.
Prima facieevidence is the extensive hand-wringing by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (see here for their work and here for our response) over their projection of decreased precipitation over precisely the same region. Their models didn’t include the influence of California irrigation.
And you thought human’s only negatively affected the climate!
Now before we go and get overly excited about this good climate news, we’ll point out that the result was found in computer models, rather than demonstrated in the real world. But, if computer climate models are good enough to scare us about climate change, then they ought to be good enough to give us some positive news as well.
Other recently published results suggest something similar. Research led by Yanhong Gao of the University of Washington found that when the resolution of climate models is improved so as to better capture the complex terrain in the southwestern United States, the models produce a lot less future drying and a lot less snow loss from higher elevations. Gao et al. (2011) wrote that apparently “runoff in the Colorado River Basin is less susceptible to a warming climate” when the higher resolution models are used.
Coupling better models with a more complete picture of anthropogenic influences yields a much less dire picture of the future hydroclimate of the Southwestern United States, including flows in the Colorado River.
Hopefully the EPA and the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program are paying attention.
Alas, they most certainly are not.
References:
Christy, J.R., et al. 2006. “Methodology and results of calculating Central Valley California surface temperature trends: Evidence of human-induced climate change?” Journal of Climate 19: 548-563.
Gao, Y., J. Vano, C. Zhu, and D. P. Lettenmaier. 2011. “Evaluating climate change over the Colorado River basin using regional climate models.” Journal of Geophysical Research 116, D13104, doi:10.1029/2010JD015278.
Gao, Y., et al. 2012. “Moisture flux convergence in regional and global climate models: Implications for drought in the southwestern United States under climate change.” Geophysical Research Letters 39, L09711, doi:10.1029/2012GL051560.
Lo, M-H., and J.S. Famiglietti. 2013. “Irrigation in California’s Central Valley strengthens the southwestern U.S. water cycle.” Geophysical Research Letters 40, doi:10.1002/GRL.50108.
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Agriculture • California deep freeze continues; farmers hard hit
California deep freeze continues; farmers hard hit
January 13, 2013 | 7:35 am
Southern California endured another night of freezing temperatures as the cold snap that has gripped the region continued.
According to the National Weather Service, many San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley areas recorded temperatures in the low 30s — and some in the high 20s — overnight. Lancaster and Palmdale recorded 16-degree lows. Even coastal areas such as Long Beach had lows in the 30s.
Temperatures will hit the 50s and low 60s Sunday.
A high-pressure zone sitting off the Pacific coast has channeled a blast of cold air from the Gulf of Alaska down the backbone of the state. Temperatures on Saturday night were expected to dip as low as 25 degrees, triggering freeze warnings across Southern California.
"It’s not unusual for us to get these cold snaps this time of year, but it’s one of the colder ones we’ve had in awhile," said Curt Kaplan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.
Starting Monday, cold Santa Ana winds will sweep in from the desert. By Wednesday, temperatures should begin to rise.
The cold snap has been a particular concern for citrus farmers across the state, who have been up all night since Thursday. There are $1 billion in oranges, lemons, tangerines and grapefruit still on trees in California, the nation’s largest producer of fresh citrus.
The year had been off to a good start, with a particularly flavorful crop of mandarins and good sugar content across the state. The association has sold up to $300 million in citrus already, with another $1 billion still on the trees.
"We were looking at a very profitable year," said John Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, an association of the state’s 3,900 citrus growers, the majority of which are family farmers.
But a cold snap can change that in hours. In January 2007, citrus growers lost 60% of the state’s crop to freezes. In 1998 it was 85%. The worst season in memory was the Christmas freeze of December 1990, when a week of temperatures in the teens defoliated the orchards, leading to a total loss for that season and the one after, Nelsen said.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 … d-hit.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:16 pm
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American • Reasons Why California Is The Worst State In America
Reasons Why California Is The Worst State In America
By Michael, on December 12th, 2012 Why in the world would anyone want to live in the state of California at this point? The entire state is rapidly becoming a bright, shining example of everything that is wrong with America. It is so sad to watch our most populated state implode right in front of our eyes. Like millions of Americans, I was quite enamored with the state of California when I was younger. The warm weather, the beaches, the great natural beauty of the state and the mystique of Hollywood all really appealed to me. At one point I even thought that I wanted to move there. But today, hordes of Californians are racing to get out of the state because it has become a total nightmare. It is the worst state in the country in which to do business, taxes were just raised even higher, unemployment is more than 20 percent higher than the national average and the state government is drowning in debt. Meanwhile, poverty, gang activity and crime just seem to get worse with each passing year. On top of everything else, the insane politicians in Sacramento just keep on passing more laws that make the problems that the state is facing even worse. Unfortunately, what is happening in California may be a preview of what is coming to the entire nation. The old adage, "as California goes, so goes the nation", has been proven to be true way too many times.
In dozens of different ways, the state of California is showing the rest of us what not to do. Will we learn from their mistakes, or will we follow them into oblivion? Please share the list below with as many people as you can. In addition to a large amount of new research, this list also pulled heavily from one of my previous articles and from outstanding research done by Richard Rider. The following are 55 reasons why California is the worst state in America…
1. One survey of business executives has ranked California as the worst state in America to do business for 8 years in a row.
2. In 2011, the state of California ranked 50th out of all 50 states in new business creation.
3. According to one recent study, California is the worst-governed state in the entire country.
4. Thanks to Proposition 30, California now boasts the highest state income tax rate in the nation.
5. Even though California just raised taxes dramatically on the wealthy, state revenues are falling like a rock. State revenue for November 2012 was 10.8 percent below projections.
6. California has the highest sales tax rate in the United States.
7. California has the 8th highest corporate income tax rate in the country.
8. California has the highest "minimum corporate tax" in the country. Each corporation must pay at least $800 to the state even if a corporation does not make a single dollar of profit.
9. California is tied with New York for the highest gasoline tax rate in the country.
10. California is the only state in America that taxes carbon emissions.
11. The state of California issues some of the most expensive traffic tickets in the nation. This is another form of taxation.
12. As of October, only Nevada and Rhode Island had higher unemployment rates than California.
13. The unemployment rate in California is more than 20 percent higher than the overall unemployment rate for the rest of the nation.
14. The state of California requires licenses for 177 different occupations (the most in the nation). The national average is only 92.
15. California teachers are the highest paid in the nation, but California students rank 48th in math and 49th in reading.
16. California accounts for 12 percent of the U.S. population, but a whopping 33 percent of Americans that receive TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) live there.
17. Only the state of Illinois has a lower bond rating than the state of California does.
18. Including unfunded pension liabilities, the state of California has more than twice as much debt as any other state does.
19. Average pay for California state workers has risen by more than 100 percent since 2005. That is good news for those state employees, but it is bad news for the taxpayers that have to pay their salaries.
20. More than 5,000 California state troopers made more than $100,000 last year.
21. One highway patrol officer ended up bringing home almost $484,000 in 2011.
22. One state psychiatrist in California was paid $822,000 in 2011.
23. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
24. Sadly, an astounding 60 percent of all students attending California public schools now qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.
25. The American Tort Reform Association has ranked the state of California as the worst "judicial hellhole" in America.
26. Businesses all over the state of California are being absolutely suffocated to death by ridiculous regulations.
27. According to the Milken Institute, operating costs for California businesses are 23 percent higher than the national average.
28. According to CNN, the state of California had the worst "small business failure rate" in America in 2010. It was 69 percent higher than the national average.
29. The number of people unemployed in the state of California is roughly equivalent to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
30. Residential customers in California pay about 29 percent more for electricity than the national average.
31. So many poor people and illegal aliens have taken advantage of the "free" healthcare at emergency rooms that many of them have been forced to shut down in California. As a result, the state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people.
32. Political correctness is totally out of control in California.
33. One California town is actually considering making it illegal to smoke in your own backyard.
34. The traffic around the big cities is horrific.
35. Los Angeles
36. San Francisco
37. Oakland
38. Stockton
39. Sacramento
40. The rampant gang activity in the state gets even worse with each passing year.
41. Crime continues to rise all over the state.
42. Just recently, the city attorney of San Bernardino, California told citizens to "lock their doors and load their guns" because there is not enough money to pay for adequate police protection any longer.
43. The murder rate in San Bernardino is up 50 percent this year.
44. In Oakland, burglaries are up 43 percent so far this year.
45. Today, Oakland is considered the 5th most violent city in the United States.
46. There have been more than 250 gold chain robberies in Stockton, California just since the month of April.
47. In Stockton, the police budget cuts got so bad that the police union put up a billboard at one point with the following message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops."
48. Jerry Brown.
49. The absolutely insane California state legislature.
50. Wildfires.
51. Mudslides.
52. The state of California lies directly along the infamous "Ring of Fire". Approximately 90 percent of all the earthquakes in the entire world happen along the Ring of Fire and the "Big One" could hit the state at any moment.
53. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 100,000 more people moved out of the state of California in 2011 than moved into it.
54. During 2011, more than 58,000 people moved from California to the state of Texas.
55. Overall, the state of California has experienced a net loss of about four million residents to other states over the past 20 years.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … in-america
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:18 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
55 Reasons Why California Is The Worst State In America
Why in the world would anyone want to live in the state of California at this point? The entire state is rapidly becoming a bright, shining example of everything that is wrong with America. It is so sad to watch our most populated state implode right in front of our eyes. Like millions of Americans, I was quite enamored with the state of California when I was younger. The warm weather, the beaches, the great natural beauty of the state and the mystique of Hollywood all really appealed to me. At one point I even thought that I wanted to move there. But today, hordes of Californians are racing to get out of the state because it has become a total nightmare. It is the worst state in the country in which to do business, taxes were just raised even higher, unemployment is more than 20 percent higher than the national average and the state government is drowning in debt. Meanwhile, poverty, gang activity and crime just seem to get worse with each passing year. On top of everything else, the insane politicians in Sacramento just keep on passing more laws that make the problems that the state is facing even worse. Unfortunately, what is happening in California may be a preview of what is coming to the entire nation. The old adage, “as California goes, so goes the nation”, has been proven to be true way too many times.
In dozens of different ways, the state of California is showing the rest of us what not to do. Will we learn from their mistakes, or will we follow them into oblivion? Please share the list below with as many people as you can. In addition to a large amount of new research, this list also pulled heavily from one of my previous articles and from outstanding research done by Richard Rider. The following are 55 reasons why California is the worst state in America…
1. One survey of business executives has ranked California as the worst state in America to do business for 8 years in a row.
2. In 2011, the state of California ranked 50th out of all 50 states in new business creation.
3. According to one recent study, California is the worst-governed state in the entire country.
4. Thanks to Proposition 30, California now boasts the highest state income tax rate in the nation.
5. Even though California just raised taxes dramatically on the wealthy, state revenues are falling like a rock. State revenue for November 2012 was 10.8 percent below projections.
6. California has the highest sales tax rate in the United States.
7. California has the 8th highest corporate income tax rate in the country.
8. California has the highest “minimum corporate tax” in the country. Each corporation must pay at least $800 to the state even if a corporation does not make a single dollar of profit.
9. California is tied with New York for the highest gasoline tax rate in the country.
10. California is the only state in America that taxes carbon emissions.
11. The state of California issues some of the most expensive traffic tickets in the nation. This is another form of taxation.
12. As of October, only Nevada and Rhode Island had higher unemployment rates than California.
13. The unemployment rate in California is more than 20 percent higher than the overall unemployment rate for the rest of the nation.
14. The state of California requires licenses for 177 different occupations (the most in the nation). The national average is only 92.
15. California teachers are the highest paid in the nation, but California students rank 48th in math and 49th in reading.
16. California accounts for 12 percent of the U.S. population, but a whopping 33 percent of Americans that receive TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) live there.
17. Only the state of Illinois has a lower bond rating than the state of California does.
18. Including unfunded pension liabilities, the state of California has more than twice as much debt as any other state does.
19. Average pay for California state workers has risen by more than 100 percent since 2005. That is good news for those state employees, but it is bad news for the taxpayers that have to pay their salaries.
20. More than 5,000 California state troopers made more than $100,000 last year.
21. One highway patrol officer ended up bringing home almost $484,000 in 2011.
22. One state psychiatrist in California was paid $822,000 in 2011.
23. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
24. Sadly, an astounding 60 percent of all students attending California public schools now qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.
25. The American Tort Reform Association has ranked the state of California as the worst “judicial hellhole” in America.
26. Businesses all over the state of California are being absolutely suffocated to death by ridiculous regulations.
27. According to the Milken Institute, operating costs for California businesses are 23 percent higher than the national average.
28. According to CNN, the state of California had the worst “small business failure rate” in America in 2010. It was 69 percent higher than the national average.
29. The number of people unemployed in the state of California is roughly equivalent to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
30. Residential customers in California pay about 29 percent more for electricity than the national average.
31. So many poor people and illegal aliens have taken advantage of the “free” healthcare at emergency rooms that many of them have been forced to shut down in California. As a result, the state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people.
32. Political correctness is totally out of control in California.
33. One California town is actually considering making it illegal to smoke in your own backyard.
34. The traffic around the big cities is horrific.
35. Los Angeles
36. San Francisco
37. Oakland
38. Stockton
39. Sacramento
40. The rampant gang activity in the state gets even worse with each passing year.
41. Crime continues to rise all over the state.
42. Just recently, the city attorney of San Bernardino, California told citizens to “lock their doors and load their guns” because there is not enough money to pay for adequate police protection any longer.
43. The murder rate in San Bernardino is up 50 percent this year.
44. In Oakland, burglaries are up 43 percent so far this year.
45. Today, Oakland is considered the 5th most violent city in the United States.
46. There have been more than 250 gold chain robberies in Stockton, California just since the month of April.
47. In Stockton, the police budget cuts got so bad that the police union put up a billboard at one point with the following message: “Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops.”
48. Jerry Brown.
49. The absolutely insane California state legislature.
50. Wildfires.
51. Mudslides.
52. The state of California lies directly along the infamous “Ring of Fire“. Approximately 90 percent of all the earthquakes in the entire world happen along the Ring of Fire and the “Big One” could hit the state at any moment.
53. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 100,000 more people moved out of the state of California in 2011 than moved into it.
54. During 2011, more than 58,000 people moved from California to the state of Texas.
55. Overall, the state of California has experienced a net loss of about four million residents to other states over the past 20 years.
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