What if someone put a gun to your head and forced you to make a decision between your job and the environment? It’s not a fair choice, is it? No one should be forced to choose between having a job and taking care of the planet. Yet all too often this choice is being made for you—in Sacramento—as politicians adopt extreme environmental policies that kill jobs.
The laws passed each year by the Legislature often sound good. They are disguised with friendly sounding names. Yet history has proven and our current record unemployment numbers illustrate that these new laws often create more problems than they have solve. They spend your tax dollars to establish new agencies filled with state bureaucrats. These bureaucracies grow, not only with more government workers but with the power to change your life. These government agencies impose mandate upon mandate on everyone from small business owners to school teachers.
For example, an unelected body in this state, the California Energy Commission, recently imposed new regulations that are sure to kill more jobs in this state by limiting the types of televisions that can be sold. They did this without any scientific proof that limiting TV sales will actually improve the environment.
If all of this weren’t enough, a bunch of environmental lawyers now make a living suing folks to advance an ideological agenda. They abuse the judicial system to pressure state regulators and unelected judges to impose costly requirements on Californians—with little regard to how much these decisions will cost taxpayers or whether they will stifle job creation.
The growing mountain of taxes and regulations is suffocating California’s economy and costing jobs. The exact number of jobs is difficult to know for certain, but a number of recent studies suggest it may be quite large.
A recent Milken Institute study found that high taxes and an “onerous regulatory climate” have cost California 476,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs. And that’s not all: those missing jobs would have spurred the creation of an estimated 1.17 million more jobs throughout the economy, in addition to other benefits.
Another study, specifically requested by the State Legislature, attempted to quantify the costs of regulations on small businesses. The study found that regulations cost each small business $134,000, which equates to a reduction of 3.8 million jobs—a tenth of the state’s population!
My Republican legislative colleagues and I have sounded the alarm for years, yet our cries have fallen on deaf ears in the Legislature. But at least now a few prominent Democrats finally appear to be waking up to the monster they’ve created.
Earlier this year, Senator Feinstein, when confronted with the anticipated closure of California’s last remaining auto manufacturing plant, said that California “needs to come to grips” with the fact that it has “a cost-of-doing business problem.”
At a recent legislative hearing, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer scolded his fellow Democrats, urging them to stop pushing for tax increases and instead “become more efficient about spending the money we’ve got.” He said that most of the bills he sees come out of the State Assembly are “junk.”
Attorney General Jerry Brown has said “we’re overlaid too much with too many rules.” His prescription: “We’ve got to downsize government to the maximum degree. We’ve got to make it efficient and bring it to the community.” Considering that he’s had a hand in creating many of those rules over the years, that’s quite a statement!
The simple truth is that when it comes to jobs and the environment: a vibrant, growing economy need not be at odds with clean water, clean air and healthy forests. In fact, quite the opposite is true: economic advances have provided the technology necessary to achieve the environmental advances we all desire.
It’s time California officials paid more attention to the economic consequences of their actions. For months I’ve been warning that excessive regulations were putting a cement company at risk in my district in San Bernardino County. CalPortland Cement has been providing good paying, private sector jobs for more than a century. Unfortunately, in large part as the result of suffocating regulations, CalPortland has announced that they are shutting down most of their operations immediately, costing our region nearly 100 high paying jobs.
To stop further job losses, Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature should require all government entities to conduct a top to bottom review to identify regulations that are out-of-date or killing jobs.
Rather than waste taxpayer dollars to produce more red tape, California’s leaders should put the brakes on any bills that would cost private sector jobs. In addition to truly balancing the budget, legislators should devote their energy next year to identifying and repealing the bad laws and regulations that needlessly stifle California’s economy.
Our state can and should prosper both environmentally and economically. It’s time we stop putting a gun to our head and instead point it at the real problem: excessive and ridiculous regulations.
Senator Bob Dutton (Rancho Cucamonga) serves as the 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.