I am not a native Californian. I grew up in Tennessee. I didn’t know anyone from California and hadn’t met anyone from California but I understood the power and allure of this state. We took the California Aptitude Test in school, the Beach Boys were huge, we knew about Walt Disney’s park in LA and that all the trends sweeping the nation started here. All that and so much more was California. This state was the preeminent state in the nation.

Our state still leads the way but I don’t like the way we are leading. Our budgets aren’t balanced, our water is disappearing, people are here illegally using our services and it seems the people in charge aren’t doing what they need to do in order to correct the problems. Long term planning for the Sacramento liberals is next week and they don’t understand a thing about what it means to own and operate a business in California.

It seems the legislature in California is doing everything it can to drive businesses out of California. Higher taxes, out of control spending, more regulations and pandering to special interests are at the core of our economic problems. The state government has made it nearly impossible for businesses to survive because they do not understand the cause and effect their actions have on businesses in California.

The loss of these organizations to other states means a loss of private sector jobs, the source of government revenues through taxes. Instead of creating an environment conducive to free enterprise and job creation, our state government is making California suitable only for endangered species and those who believe the solutions to our problems exist in government. The exodus of business enterprises leaving California is of Biblical proportions.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Our economy is in a shambles. We are spending too much money and the legislators think that the solution is more taxes. That false thinking has been proved false time and time again. Fewer taxes are what we need. A reduction in taxes increases economic activity and greater revenues, a smaller piece of a bigger pie. That combination, reduced taxes and reduced spending, is what is vitally needed, in fact, necessary in order for our state to remain solvent.

Taxes are too high in California. We have been voted numerous times as one of, if not the most, taxed state in the union. In what I’m sure was initially a desire to provide for the less fortunate among us, our tax structure has become a mill stone around the neck of private enterprise and the citizens of California. Businesses are being driven out of our state taking their jobs with them and are being welcomed by our neighboring states with promises of tax credits, no income taxes and other incentives.

The current water problems we are having in California should never have happened and point out one of the major problems with the folks who are in charge. There is precious little long term planning going on in Sacramento. We should have had more reservoirs in the mountains years ago catching all the run off that is currently ending up in the ocean. Now we have an out of control EPA and an attitude among some of our representatives that fish are more important than people’s lives.