State’s Problems Caused By Disconnect Between Voters And Elected Officials

State’s Problems Caused By Disconnect Between Voters And Elected Officials

Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, Bakersfield Californian, 2/11/14

I am often asked, especially by people in other states, why California always seems to be in a crisis of some kind. California is like the celebrity that’s continually in the news due to some new outrageous and completely avoidable escapade. While the problems vary – budget deficit, water shortage, pension debt, unemployment, energy crisis – the cause is almost always the same: a sense of entitlement by those in power and a disconnect from the people they are elected to represent.

Take for example Governor Brown’s recent proposal to spend $250 million of cap-and-trade revenue on the state’s deeply flawed high-speed rail project. With its inflated cost and ridership projections, the entire rail scheme is growing increasingly unpopular. This particular proposal is also on shaky legal ground. Per Assembly Bill 32, the so-called “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006,” cap-and-trade revenue must be put toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions leading up to 2020. Constructing a high-speed rail system will no doubt have the opposite effect on emissions in the short term. But all of this hasn’t stopped Governor Brown and his allies from pushing forward against the will of the people, many of whom think that tax dollars would be better spent fixing roads and bridges.

Another illustration of this disconnect is the years of irresponsible water planning and decision-making by our government leaders. California’s water situation is so dire that the Department of Water Resources recently announced that it is cutting all water allocations for purposes beyond drinking and public health. But our water shortage can’t just be blamed on a couple of dry winters. For years, environmentalists and their friends in the Democrat party have prioritized fish over farmers and families.

For example, about 1,000 acre-feet of water is released from Friant Dam near Fresno every day in an idealistic attempt to restore fish habitat. To put that in perspective, just one acre-foot of water is enough to flood an entire football field with a foot of water. That water is currently flowing right past the farmers who need it and out to the ocean. These misguided priorities have forced Valley farmers to give up growing crops on much of their once fertile land, resulting in lost jobs, lower food supplies, and higher prices at the grocery store. Though we’re experiencing very little rainfall this winter, our current water emergency is definitely a manmade problem.

Meanwhile, millions of Californians are still struggling to find work. Unemployment, especially in the Central Valley, remains well above average and when accounting for expensive living costs, California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. But like most of our problems, it doesn’t have to be that way. The Monterey Shale Formation, much of which lies under our feet in Kern County, contains what the U.S. Energy Department estimates to be at least 15 billion barrels of oil. This is more than three times the volume of the oil reserves found in North Dakota, where enthusiastic oil exploration has led to prosperity and made North Dakota the fastest growing state with the lowest rate of unemployment.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Kern County and the surrounding area could be Boomtown, USA if only state leaders had the political will to make it happen. Unfortunately, many of our elected officials cling to irrational fears about oil and gas, all at the expense of the people who so desperately need good-paying jobs to provide for their families.

The problems that constantly plague California are serious, but they can be solved. By electing leaders that encourage growth and support policies that allow people to prosper, I believe that California can regain its place at the top.