By Conn Carroll
We Americans love to tell stories about ourselves. Californians may be the best ones at it. During his State of the State Address in January California Gov. Jerry Brown spun a tale that reached all the way back to the first Spanish Missions through the gold-seeking 49ers and up to the founding of Apple.
What is this but the most diverse creative and longest standing mass migration in the history of the world Brown said of the Golden State. The rest of the country looks to California. Not for what is conventional but for what is necessary to keep faith with our courageous forebears.
Its a nice story. And up through the tech boom in the late 1990s it was largely true. California was an engine for innovation and job growth. It was a prime destination for middle-class families throughout the country who were looking for a better life.
But it isnt true anymore. More Americans now emigrate from California to other states than immigrate from other states to California. This exodus has cost California more than 1.5 million residents since 2000. And the reason is simple -- the jobs are fleeing first.
In his state of the state speech Brown claimed California lost 1.3 million jobs in the Great Recession but we are coming back at a faster pace than the national average. The first half of Browns statement is true but the second half is not. California has only gained back 556000 jobs since the recession ended or 42 percent of those lost -- well below the national average of 60 percent regained. As a result Californias unemployment rate is still near double-digits at 9.8 percent. By comparison Texas which lost 427000 jobs during the recession has gained them all back and created an additional 265000.
California is no longer a model that other states want to or should emulate. It currently has the nations third highest unemployment rate its highest poverty rate and more than one-third of the nations welfare recipients.
What happened?
To make a long story short the same political constituencies that have made Browns Democratic Party invincible at the ballot box have also made the state unable to compete economically. California public employees who are represented by the nations most politically powerful government unions benefit from some of the nations most generous compensation packages. These unions have made it nearly impossible to keep spending down thus making debt and higher taxes inevitable.
These unions also make it impossible to improve how government services are delivered to taxpayers. As a result while California once had the most admired education system in the nation it now ranks near the bottom in almost every measured educational category.
The states powerful environmental lobby has secured a slew of green energy regulations including strict clean air rules the nations first carbon cap-and-trade program and an ambitious renewable energy mandate. As a result energy prices have shot up consumers now have less to spend on everything else they need to survive and many manufacturers cant stay profitable in the state.
Finally wealthy urban environmentalists have completely inverted the infrastructure spending priorities that once made California an engine of economic and population growth. Endangered species of wildlife are now favored over farmers and food. Highways and suburbs are losing out to mass transit and urban centers. The emerging result is a disappearing middle class and whats left of the state is split between a highly educated landed wealthy and elderly elite and a poor government-dependent uneducated lower class.
Over the next four days
The Washington Examiner will look at what ails California and how it got to its current state of failure. We will look at the states out-of-control budget and debt the powerful union interests driving it the decline of its education system the failure of its clean energy initiatives and the environmental regulations that are wrecking the economy in many regions of the state.
The current trends in the Golden State point to a failing state -- a California in crisis.
Tomorrow: The California spending rush.
Conn Carroll (ccarroll@washingtonexaminer.com) is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. Follow him on Twitter at @conncarroll.
