The ballot measures voters will decide on today, for the most part, address immediate problems with the state budget. Proposition 1A is aimed at making a longer term fix. But none of the measures address the core problem with California’s seemingly endless fiscal problems. It’s all about jobs.
If California is to flourish and get past the constant budget battles, state leaders have to concentrate on creating jobs, keeping jobs from fleeing to other states, and improving the state’s economy.
It’s a simple formula: Putting people to work means citizen’s can be more self-sufficient and less reliant on government. At the same time, productive citizens pay taxes and the state and local treasuries are enriched without resorting to tax increases while relieving the stress of budget battles.
Yet, many in the legislature don’t seem to get it. There is a constant fight to defeat legislation that kills jobs, or to pass legislation that creates jobs. To that end, The California Chamber of Commerce has done an admirable job over the years of pointing out job killer bills. Through the chamber’s efforts, with help from their allies, most of the job killer bills have been stopped, many by vetoes from Governor Schwarzenegger.
This year the Chamber added a new list of bills to promote job creation in the state. This one two punch of stopping job killers and advancing job creators can go a long way in improving California’s economy and preventing all of us from going through more elections to deal with the California fiscal rollercoaster.
The Chamber’s 2009 list of job killer bills with brief descriptions can be found here.
The job creator list is here.