The nation is mired in the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and job losses continue to mount. But as bad as things are nationally, California is faring far worse—with a double-digit unemployment rate exceeding the national average by more than two percent. In the Inland Empire, which I represent, unemployment is now above 14%.
Yet state lawmakers and regulators seem oblivious to the hard times ordinary Californians are facing. They continue to suck the life out of the Golden State’s economy by prescribing more taxes and red tape.
Take for instance a recent decision by the State Water Resources Control Board. Not content to wait for federal standards, the board voted to impose burdensome and questionable new requirements on construction projects across the state. Businesses who fail to meet these restrictive new regulations face fines of up to $27,000 per day.
It’s hard to guess what is going through the minds of these unelected board members—who receive taxpayer-funded six-figure salaries to make these types of decisions. In their thirst to command and regulate, it’s clear they didn’t consider the economic impact their actions will have on California’s fragile business climate, and in particular, construction jobs.
California’s construction industry is being hard hit by this recession. In the past year, more than 140,000 construction jobs have vanished—a startling 18.6% decline. By comparison, government jobs have only declined 1%. If there was ever an industry that could use a reprieve from costly new regulations, construction is it.
The water board’s new regulations do nothing to aid the ailing industry; nor will they create new jobs—except perhaps for government bureaucrats. Instead, construction firms and their contractors could be driven out of business, courtesy of state regulators and environmentalist lawyers who target the private sector with frivolous punitive actions.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a strong advocate of clean and safe drinking water for Californians, and I support reasonable measures to protect our lakes, rivers and streams from contamination.
But the water board’s new requirements do nothing to protect our drinking water and are anything but commonsense. Instead, these job-killing regulations, without a proven scientific basis, impose daily new reporting requirements on every single project in the state. Rather than target the bad actors, state bureaucrats once again are punishing everyone. It’s no wonder employers avoid California like the plague!
This is not the time for new regulations that cost California taxpayers their jobs. State lawmakers and regulators should be prioritizing jobs rather than putting them at risk. We should be helping businesses by eliminating pointless paperwork and policies that don’t provide clear, proven benefits for the people of California. We should be seeking greater conformity with national standards to improve our state’s competitiveness.
Given that bureaucrats don’t seem to understand these basic realities, the Governor should issue an executive order immediately freezing all pending fees, regulations and taxes until further notice. The Legislature should take similar action on pending legislation.
If California could simply lower its unemployment rate to match the national average, we could provide jobs for more than 400,000 unemployed workers.
Let’s put the state’s bureaucracy to work looking for ways to end the regulatory nightmare for our state’s job creators.
Every job matters. It’s time we stop killing them.
Senator Bob Dutton (Rancho Cucamonga) serves as the Senate Republican point person on jobs and budget issues. Mr. Dutton has more than thirty years of experience in the private sector and is the founder and owner of a successful Inland Empire business. For more information, please see www.sen.ca.gov/Dutton.