CA: Kiss And Make Up? Don't Count On It

That was Democratic/Labor strategist Gale Kaufman's one request this morning from those of us in the Capitol press corps. The finality of her sentiment-- her side as winners, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's camp as the losers on Election Day-- is one that seems to contrast with an often repeated thought in recent days: that everyone now simply needs to find a way to get along and get to work on the state's problems.

Interestingly enough, the need to "get along" is exactly what it sounds like the governor has decided to do, said his deputy chief of staff Rob Stutzman this afternoon.

"The voters of this state want the problems of this state to be resolved here in Sacramento," said Stutzman. But he nonetheless drew a not too subtle line back to the Legislature itself, saying that the governor will have to "cajole" lawmakers to do their part.

And the "day after" story in much of the media is likely to focus on whether Governor Schwarzenegger is sorry that he dragged the state through an election, and/or whether he regrets it.

Union leaders, in a morning news conference at the California Teachers Association headquarters, clearly said they think an apology is due. They also were pretty proud of their victory over Team Arnold.

But Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman said the governor doesn't see the need to apologize, and he dismissed the union comments as merely the day's "talking points."

The ink isn't even dry on the election returns (and not all absentee ballots have been counted)... so don't expect perfect harmony inside the hallways of the Capitol anytime soon. And that fact alone leaves one to imagine what it'll be like inside the governor's private office tomorrow, when he's scheduled to sit down with the four legislative leaders and talk about what's next.

What do you want to bet that the exodus of JOBS from the state will accelerate. Why stay? The school system protects incompetent teachers, the union bosses don't answer to their members, the politicians have gerrymandered their districts for lifetime offices regardless of performance, children get abortions without parents even getting phone calls and English is quickly becoming a second language.

Have I missed anything?

Yeah, Spanish used to be the dominant language in CA, then gold was discovered and railroads were built and Chinese became the language spoken by the most number of Californians.

It took a while for English to get a good foothold.

Fortunately all is not lost. A Spanish language station in LA has begun running Reggaeton music and has a lineup of bilingual and Spanglish speaking DJs to keep things moving.

Without a great deal more effort Southern California will be more like Queens, NY than TJ City, eh?!

I wouldn't bank on it. The average person we see leaving CA is GOP or GOP leaning, above average in come and cashing out from their high priced home in CA. They are older and don't need the jobs and they are bring their money with them. (That means they are net consumers and taxpayers). They are also more likely to be professional and small business owners or self-employed.

Its not the janitors, waiters and court clerks who are leaving - you get to keep those. Its the upper income, upper skill people who can base themselves from another neighboring state while they still do work in CA.

I know of one developer who used to live in LA, moved to NV and does all of his developments in Asia. He used to live in LA and pay the taxes on all of his income but since his own state made it so prohibitive for him to do any building in his own state he finally just decided to get the hell out and stop paying taxes for income he is creating in other countries. And probably 50 manufacturing companies have left CA in the last 3 years to move to North Las Vegas and the different in taxes alone paid for the move AND warehouse costs each year. And these aren't even the companies which have been forceably unionized.

CA is literally bleeding businesses and intellectual capital. Lets face it, if Massachusetts can become a high tech nexus and steal companies away from moving to Silicon valley then you are really up the creek. Arnold might have been able to stem some of the bleeding but the patient is still terminal.

And none of this includes the the profligate government spending which drives down the credit rating of the state and increases the cost of every bond that gets voted into effect. And you still have to factor in crime, racism, traffic, poor infrastructure/population investments, natural disasters and cultural erosion which destabilizes families and social institutions.

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