Robert Bernosky writes that we need balance in government.
This community opinion was contributed by resident Robert Bernosky, a candidate for California Secretary of State. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. BenitoLink invites all members of the community to share their ideas and opinions. By registering as a BenitoLink user in the upper right corner of our homepage and agreeing to follow our Terms of useyou can write counter-opinions or share your views on current issues.
If you can for a momentforget about politics, democrat and republican parties, social media and news. We will come back to these things later.
Now claim California is yours. Let’s see how this thing that you have behaves.
According to the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Public Policy Institute of California, approximately 35.2% of Californians live in poverty or near poverty. In fact, the US Census Bureau, in a September 15, 2020 report, claims that California has the highest poverty rate in the country, at 17.2%, nearly 5 points higher than the national average. Having the overwhelming largest population, the number of residents living in poverty is staggering.
Hey owner: your people are really poor.
The poverty rates above reflect the cost of housing. According to Cal-Matters, restrictive land zoning processes, arbitrary building standards and crippling fees make it nearly impossible to build profitable housing for low- and middle-income families and the shortage of such housing drives up rents.
Hey Homeowner: Millions of people can’t afford to own or rent a decent home.
According to Capitol Weekly, nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 in California lack the skills to decipher the words in this phrase. The California Department of Education had recently decided not to release the 2022 Smarter Balanced test results (but later reversed, although it has yet to release the data). There may be a reason for the delay in publication: embarrassment ahead of the midterm elections. Although there are many different statistics, none put California far from the bottom of the country. CBS Reports pre-Covid we’re 44th in math test scores and 38th in reading. I’ve seen other reports that California is worse than these.
Hey owner: you are not educating the vast majority of the 5,892,240 students enrolled in 10,558 schools in California and taught by 319,004 teachers.
According to the Public Policy Institute of Caifornia, violent crime increased in 11 of the state’s 15 largest counties, and 3 saw increases of at least 10%. Fresno faced the biggest jump, by 24.1%, homicides jumped 41.2% and aggravated assaults by 18.0%. Firearm-related homicides and aggravated assaults increased by 52% and 64%. Property crimes increased in 24 counties in 2021, including 7 of the largest 15. In 13 counties, including 2 of the 15 largest, the property crime rate jumped at least 10%. San Francisco saw the biggest increase, at 16.9%. Our own sheriff reported general increases here in San Benito County.
Hey landlord: your residents aren’t as safe as they should be.
According to TurboTax, California has the highest income tax in the country. According to AAA, California has the highest gas prices in the country. According to statistics.com, we are the 2nd highest in the country (Hawaii naturally being higher) for electricity costs.
According to the PPIC, about 7.5 million people moved from California to other states, while only 5.8 million people moved to California from other parts of the country. According to Treasury Department estimates, the state has lost residents to other states every year since 2001.
Hey Owner: Many people vote with their feet, as have many industries. Do you remember the airliner and car manufacturing industries? They all left too.
I didn’t need the Democratic or Republican Party or CNN or Fox News to tell you these things. These are just facts.
Benitolink Readers: We own this mess! The major problem is that California is run by people who have a set of values and priorities. Looking at the data, it is clear that this is not enough. We need the outside to help us identify problems and show us other ideas on how to solve them. This outside help is here and on the ballot.
- Ignore the rhetoric we get from social media and news outlets about people who have next to nothing to do with our mess. They sell headlines on Washington DC and don’t report our problems in California.
- Recognize that we have problems with one-party rule in California, and they are significant. Ask yourself if the fact that Republicans are totally irrelevant today in California has served us well? Check the above data again if in doubt.
- Recognize the potential that what we see in the headlines is what elected officials feed into the cooperating media to focus your attention on these national narratives instead of the issues above. The problems are so huge that we don’t care about Texas, Florida or any other state; we need to take care of our California and not be distracted.
- Vote for California Republicans who, when in power locally and in Sacramento, can become relevant with enough votes that Democrats may need to moderate their positions to push through new legislation. The diversity between our two parts will be a good thing for the owners, you and me.
One more thing: Individuals, corporations, professional associations, even some might say the California Republican Party, have given up on the state. Let’s reverse that and make California a great place for everyone. Let’s get homeownership up, rents down, gas, energy and food affordable, crime down, schools educating not parents, and restoring the ability to raise the standard of living for all. We can do this if we stick to the facts and create honest solutions. I want to stay in California, and I want you to stay too.