Betty Arenson | Realizing the True Condition of California

SCV Voices: Guest Commentary
SCV Voices: Guest Commentary
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The “progressive” element in California is destroying this state. Some will complain or make weak attempts to defend but both actions are vacuous because multiple facts support the reality.

Joe Vranich is a relocation expert who owns the very successful Spectrum Location Solutions.

He reported in December 2018 on California’s misery. Unfortunately, that distress has only worsened. 

Two years ago he was advising clients “to leave the business-hostile state because its business climate continues to worsen.” He even took his own advice and moved SLS to Pittsburgh. Exiting companies “built 133 million square feet of factory and office space” elsewhere. 

California’s 40-year hostile business practices forced $76.7 billion “investment capital” away at a cost of 275,000 jobs. That’s a lot of tax revenue and consumer spending gone. Of note is that the number may be understated as small businesses are not required to report their moves.

Vranch reported it’s not only California’s high taxes, on every level, but the Immigrant Worker Protection Act. Then Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 540, which “restricts public and private employers in California from admitting immigration inspectors to the workplace without a judicial warrant. It also requires employers to notify their employees before and after certain immigration inspections take place” (bing).

The 2018 report concluded that about one-third of the U.S.’s welfare recipients reside in California while they make up 12% of the country’s population. Forbes.com states nearly 21% of Californians live in poverty, the nation’s highest rate.

The American Tort Reform Foundation repeatedly ranks California’s business climate as the 49th in the nation. 

The Democrat-driven California Legislature loves lots of laws. In 2016, Brown ushered in 900 new laws for 2017; signing 898 with two more enacted without his signature (Sacramento Bee). In 2017 Brown signed 859 bills into law (Mercury News) and in 2018 Brown signed 1,016 new laws; most to be effective in 2019 (L.A. Times). For 2020 the Times reported Gov. Gavin Newsom will effect nearly 1,200 new laws that “most reflect the largely liberal viewpoint of the Legislature and its Democratic majority.” Make that super-majority!

Hang onto your already lightened wallet; this insatiable super-majority is zealously hustling to get more of your dollars.

Beware of the revisit to Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 (ACA1), which would increase the ability of this Legislature to enact new taxes with 55% of voters versus the present two-thirds as mandated by Proposition 13. 

Coincidentally, Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA5) mirrors the same percentages as ACA1 but applies to local parcel taxes for schools. 

The California Teachers Association is salivating at the idea of killing tax protections of property owners with the deliberate misinformation of the ill-named “California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act of 2020.” This is as full of lies as the wording Attorney General Xavier Becerra slapped on the “Yes on 6” ballot measure in 2018 that failed, thus saddling us with increased gas prices and increased vehicle registrations with the promise of fixing roads. Instead, in September 2019 Newsom signed his executive order to “redirect” all of the funds for “climate change” purposes. 

Get the picture yet? This Legislature cannot be trusted! When will the majority of voters finally wake up, tire of the blatant lies and get them out of office and out of control of our very existences?

Armed with such knowledge, DO NOT SIGN THE PETITIONS at tables set up outside businesses that hold a misleading sign referencing Proposition 13. It’s all a ruse in hopes uninformed voters will sign up because they fell for the superficial visual prop thinking they are keeping their Proposition 13 cover when in fact their signatures will put the measure on the 2020 ballot that will rip property tax protections from all businesses and reassess the properties at a much higher value. This will destroy more of California’s commercial viability as well as raise costs on goods and services on the rest of us; the customers/consumers will pay the prices. Moreover, this is no one-time thing; those assessments and increased taxes will be financial fodder and avarice for this ravenous Legislature every year. 

Know that if you already signed that phony measure you can undo it by visiting www.HJTA.org and erase your misled support.

Last but not least, if this super-majority gets by with shredding property tax protections for businesses, Proposition 13 has been undermined and next will be the erasure of tax protections for your home and all residential properties you own. Renters will certainly be affected as additional costs will be passed on to them. Know what you are signing; know what you are voting on. Can you afford to have your property taxes doubled? Can you afford to have your rent increased by 50%?

There’s more to come.

Betty Arenson is a Santa Clarita resident. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays and rotates among several local Republicans. 

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