George Rebane
We’re on a little RV trip to the NorCal coast with friends. This gives us a chance to sample the extent of care that California’s infrastructure has enjoyed under decades of leftwing leadership in Sacramento. Our roads are an absolute mess, the posterchild of which is the Pacific Coast Highway or State Highway 1. This is the state’s premier icon roadway that has been a tourist draw for decades, providing endless picture postcard views of the rugged coast punctuated by scenic beaches. The highway now is approaching ‘tank trail’ status familiar to combat arms veterans from their training days at army and marine bases with impact areas. When you decide take Hwy 1 today, make sure your tires and shocks are in good condition.
Sacramento’s most recent bamboozle response to this was SB1, the gas tax and registration fee increases signed by Gov Moonbeam, now as mindless as his progressive pals in the state’s legislature. Past increases in such taxes and fees have landed overwhelmingly in the general fund where they are used primarily to pay for underperforming state agencies and hold back the realization that the gap between payments to government retirees and the ability to continue these, as reflected in the plans’ unfunded liabilities, is rampantly growing.
Nevertheless, the state’s solidly liberal majority is ignorant of and blind to the fiscal fiasco in which California is now helplessly thrashing. The people who do headcounts tell us that the exodus of productive middle-class Californians is also on the upswing from the dull roar which we have experienced since it was clear that the state’s recovery stats were mostly cynical propaganda. The proximal cause is Agenda21 driven housing costs which have vaulted out of reach the ability of workers to own homes. And there is no sign that the draconian anti-development regulations will ever be rolled back to let the market determine what kind of houses will be built where. Stack and Pack in unaffordable urban areas remains the only game in the state.
In the meantime, the functional idiots in Sacramento are again talking about making fossil fuel use illegal for energy generation and transportation. After all, when it comes to diving for the bottom, California must maintain its hard-earned leadership position. The profusion of ‘potholes’ populate more than the state’s highways and byways.
[5may17 update] Enough Californians are not convinced about SB1 really going to fund infrastructure repairs that they are supporting an initiative filed by assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Orange County) to repeal the latest bamboozle. The Left, along with its usual suspects, continues to tell people that this time the money will actually go toward road repairs etc. The initiative will require a supportive petition signed by at least 365,880 voters; but the bad part is that we will not get to vote on it until November 2018. Do your part and send in $5 to support the petition drive. (more here and here)
rebanesruminations.com 
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