Governor Jerry Brown - California Dreaming

Retread Socialist Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown has announced that California will have a balanced budget and even a surplus in the coming year.   Ha. Ha.  74 year old Brown is dealing with Prostrate Cancer, so maybe the Governor is on medical marijuana, which is legal in California.   In any case, this is delusional California Dreaming.   Even the best case scenario by independent analyst show California will need to borrow another $2 billion to pay its bills in 2013, this is in addition to billions of dollars of outstanding debt on the books.  It will probably be much worse. 

Here are the facts.  Unemployment in California is still above 10%; higher than the national average.   Home are selling, as result of record low interest rates; but at prices that are 30% or more lower than at the peak of the market in 2006.   People and companies are still voting with their feet to avoid California's high taxes, high utility rates, that are the result of wacko environmental laws and employment practice and other regulations that make doing business in California difficult, if not impossible.  There are 20 million people, out of 35 million, that are either on a government payroll, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps, Disability, or other government program.   Not all of these people are Takers, but a lot of them are, as Makers keep leaving the state.   This is a classic failed, Socialist state, what Obama is trying to do to the United States.  

The telling tale is that 30 years ago, when this Blogger was in Sales, California had about 250 major companies with 5,000 employees or more, headquartered in the state, when Texas had 80.   Today, California has about 106, while Texas, with a much more favorable business climate, has 220.   And, what is worse, though there may be about 106 major companies still headquartered in California, nearly all have moved existing or new operations out of California to other states, or outside the country.   It is no coincidence that though Apple is headquartered in California, all those I-Phones and I-Pads in every one's hands are made in China.   The same story could be told for most major companies in California.   The fact is that it is impossible to cost effectively manufacture anything in California.

Even this CEO Blogger, who owns a smaller global company, originally founded in California and still technically headquartered there, personally left the state years ago and I have also moved 90% of my company to Texas, or India to avoid crazy California taxes and regulations.  

These Socialists, owned lock, stock and barrel by the public employee unions, that run California, don't get any of this.   They keep raising taxes and adding more regulations to continue feeding at the trough.   Socialist Governor Jerry Brown has added new taxes into his calculations to announce that California will finally have a balanced budget.   NOT.   The fact is that recently enacted higher taxes will cause even more people and companies to move.   Further, retiring Baby Boomers, even former government employees, will retire to other states to avoid California income taxes, the highest in the nation, on their pensions and 401K distributions.   So, while Governor Jerry Brown may think California will finally have a balanced budget because of minimal spending cuts, it is just California Dreaming.