More and more headlines look as if they are from the Babylon Bee. Let’s discuss the latest idiocrasy from la-la land.
Governor Gavin Newsom courtesy of the Hoover Institute
Background
In California, police don’t arrest criminals because prosecutors will just turn them loose. People and businesses are tired of the crime. The result is a campaign to roll back Soros-backed proposition 47 that made theft of less than $950 in goods a misdemeanor.
Stores are at the mercy of shoplifters and many merchants have decided to close up shop. Downtown San Francisco looks like a ghost town.
California Voter Revolt
The proposition 47 reversal has gathered enough signatures that it will be on the ballot.
However, the Progressive nut cases running the state propose an alternate measure with a laughable poison pill aimed at stopping the rollback.
The Wall Street Journal comments A Voter Revolt Grows in California.
The George Soros-backed initiative cut the state prison count, but Californians are paying a high price. Organized criminals exploit the law’s lax penalties. District attorneys say Prop. 47 prevents them from leveraging the penalty of jail time to induce addicts into treatment. Police often don’t arrest thieves or drug users because the crimes go unpunished. Retail theft, vagrancy and open-air drug use have spiked.
Thus the citizen initiative, which would toughen penalties for shoplifters and drug dealers. Someone with two prior convictions for theft could be charged with a felony on the third offense no matter the amount. The value of stolen property from multiple thefts could be combined for a felony charge.
The initiative would also make possessing fentanyl while carrying a loaded firearm a felony. Dealers could be charged with homicide if their clients overdose.
Democrats Alternative Solution
Democrats are advancing a package of bills to assuage public anger about surging crime. One would let courts issue restraining orders against thieves, as if this would stop them. Another would toughen penalties for organized criminals who steal more than $50,000 in goods.
Wow. Not even $50,000 currently gets much attention in California. People don’t bother reporting crimes because the police and prosecutors will not do a damn thing about anything.
Poison Pill
In a bizarre twist, Democrats last week threatened to blow up their own legislation by inserting language in the bills that would render them void if voters pass the Prop. 47 reform.
Let’s discuss how the Democrats bill would work.
Someone commits a 200 shoplifting crimes of which 25 get reported and 3 investigated. The three are immediately released because the amounts are under $950.
Ta Da!
The court issues a restraining order telling these shoplifters “Don’t do it again, or else”.
Or else what?
There is no or else what. Every criminal in California will be openly laughing how stupid this is.
Newsom’s Real Concern
Newsom’s real concern is not crime. He is living in a six-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot mansion in Fair Oaks.
Crime does not concern the governor.
What does concern Newsom is a huge budget deficit. If Prop 47 is reversed more people will be put in prison.
Thanks to union graft with Newsom in bed with union leaders, a need for more prison guards would further bust Newsom’s budget.
Annual Prison Guard Salaries
Image from ZipRecruiter, salaries as of June 10, 2024.
Newsom cant afford more prison guards, more teachers, more union anything because of outrageous base pay and then benefits on top of it.
On October 20, 2023 the Sacramento Bee reported In ‘major policy change,’ these state workers will get state-funded 401(k)s, plus pensions.
Lovely.
And please note correctional officers do not contribute to social security.
Other Benefits
Vision: An eye exam and one pair of glasses once every calendar year. The State pays 100% of the premium; employees pay a $10 (eye exam) and $25 (materials) deductible.
Paid Holidays: Each employee is entitled to receive pay for 13 State holidays observed throughout the year. Additionally, one personal holiday credit is earned each fiscal year.
Paid Leave: Employees receive leave credits for each qualifying pay period. Employees can be paid for accumulated annual leave and vacation credits upon permanent separation from State service.
Transit Subsidy: Employees may be eligible to receive a 75% discount on monthly transit passes and/or rideshare programs, up to $65 per month
Other benefits from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Reparations Committee
In Oakland, The Reparations Committee Wants $5 Million in Tax Dollars – Just to Come Up With a Plan
A California Bay Area committee appointed to design racism reparations for black residents wants two years and $5 million just to write a plan.
The funding request comes months after California’s most ambitious reparations plans have crashed and burned amid state and local budget woes. San Francisco abandoned its effort, citing the city’s deficits, after reparations committee members called for $5 million cash payments for every eligible black resident. Instead, local lawmakers settled for an apology.
The California legislature has ignored the idea of direct cash payments altogether, opting instead for ideas like subsidized property taxes and expedited business licenses for black citizens that critics warn may be unconstitutional. Like San Francisco, California is facing massive deficits after Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) rapidly increased spending even as the tax base shrank and the state’s economy lagged.
Local Oakland activist Seneca Scott, who supports reparations, said, “$5 million and two years to research [reparations] is stupid and a grift.” He added that reparations supporters by now should know what they should look like.
Alameda County has its own budget woes, with deficits predicted to reach as high as $100 million. Oakland by itself reported a $117 million shortfall this fiscal year and a likely $175 million shortfall for the next.
The Alameda County lawmaker who created the reparations committee noted the county’s woeful finances and that $5 million “is a hefty amount of funding,” particularly in light of the budget shortfall.
Idiocy in California is Apparently Unlimited
January 10, 2024: The Hotel California Wealth Tax Advances, You Cannot Leave to Escape It
February 4, 2024: Cost of Running a McDonalds Jumps $250,000 in CA Due to Minimum Wage Hikes
March 26, 2024: Proposition 103 Backfires, State Farm to Cancel 72,000 California Policies
March 26: California Restaurants Cut Jobs as Fast-Food Wages Set to Rise
March 30, 2024: California’s Deficit Is $222 Billion and the State is $1.6 Trillion in Debt
May 20, 2024: California Governor Escalates the War on Gasoline Impacting Neighboring States
Voting With Their Feet
Anyone with the means and an ounce of common sense is leaving these Progressive hell holes.
I offer Congratulations to NY, IL, LA, and CA for Losing the Most Population.
On a percentage basis, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and California lost the most population between 2020 and 2023.
On an absolute basis the top of the list is New York, California, and Illinois.
Texas gained 1,357,842 and Florida gained 1,072,510. Georgia was third with a gain of 315,456.
Twenty Percent of California Lives in Poverty, What’s Going On?
On a cost-adjusted basis, California leads the nation in percentage living in poverty. Blame the Progressive oligarchs like Governor Newsom.
Unemployment rates from the BLS through April. State level data lags by one month. Chart by Mish.
For discussion, please see Twenty Percent of California Lives in Poverty, What’s Going On?
“Today one in five Californians – many working – lives in poverty (using a cost-of-living adjusted poverty rate). The Public Policy Institute of California estimates another fifth live in near-poverty – roughly 15million people in total. With the exception of Asians, the state’s racial minorities do far worse – in education, incomes and homeownership – than they do virtually anywhere else in the country.”
“Even without adjusting for costs, no Californian metro area ranks in the US top 10 in terms of well-paying, blue-collar jobs. But four – Ventura, Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego – sit among the bottom 10.”
Congratulations Overdue
Apologies offered. I failed to congratulate California when it passed Washington D.C. to take the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
Anyone stupid enough to vote for these Progressive fools deserves what they get.
Unfortunately, the Progressives are taking everyone down with them. The only escape is to leave, as millions have done.
