As a California resident, I loved hearing the governor talk
about cutting spending, reforming taxes, mandating accountability measures in
education, and limiting the power of public sector unions. I love hearing a
governor boast in majority support in both chambers of the state assembly, yet
at the same time offering to work with the opposition for the greater good of
the state.
Unfortunately, the governor I am referring to is not Jerry
Brown, but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who was giving a speech at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Shortly after being elected Vice
Chair of the Republican Governor’s Association, whose ranks have risen to
thirty members in spite of the Democratic resurgence in Washington D.C., Walker
outlined to his conservative audience the successful results of his reforms, in
spite of heated opposition.
Like a sinister, spendthrift left-wing doppelgänger, California
has a Democratic Governor, who has received a supermajority of like-minded
partisans in both chambers of the state legislature. Within weeks after the
election, one state senator proposed tripling the car registration fee. A new
massive tax increase leaves a billion dollar deficit. The legislature has proposed
no comprehensive pension reform, and collective bargaining reforms failed once again.
California has become the anti-Wisconsin. Higher taxes, more regulations, prolix
taxcode, no limits on public sector unions, all coupled with unsustainable,
untouched entitlement obligations are pushing the Golden State closer to
bankruptcy.
At least one governor in California outlined a return to
prosperity in my state. Sadly, not mine.
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