Opinion: Brown ignores state’s high poverty rate
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
At the very end of his State of the State address to the Legislature last week, Gov. Jerry Brown – almost as an afterthought – tersely declared, “We have too many struggling families …”
Dan Walters
Well, yes, we do. In fact, according to an alternate Census Bureau method of calculating poverty that includes cost of living, nearly a quarter of Californians are mired in poverty, the highest rate of any state.
One would think that fact would have rated more than a throwaway line from the governor as he delivered a report on “the condition of the state.”
Dan Walters has been over the years a very intuitive and respected journalist. Sadly, we live in a State with no economic growth strategy and an unacceptable unemployment rate. The State fiscal solution is to take local government revenues because State officials have no clue how to balance a budget, force city and county leaders to raise fees and charges and even taxes to make up revenues, and then have the audacity to parade to the world that the State is solvent. No one seems to care about the people who live here and want to raise a family, send their children to school and purchase a home. Creating minimum wage jobs forces people in the State (and in South Lake Tahoe) to barely get by. We can and should protect our environment and grow our economy in in a manner that benefits all. “No one wins unless everybody wins.”(Bruce Springsteen) The people who live here deserve better.
HEY JENKINS! This guy, Walters, is a hack. Ever heard of ENRON? Ever heard of the $27 Billion they stole from California? Not from this guy Walters. California is again the 8th largest economy on the Planet… Italy 9th and Russia is 10th.
If you want to blame someone for the economic problems, look at ENRON then Arnold. ENRON stole the money and Arnold refused to chase down the crooks and settled for pennies on the dollar. Then Arnold tried to use a bond measure to dust it all under the rug. Funny how everyone said the sky would fall on California if Jerry Brown defeated Meg Whitmen in 2010. Please, be productive and look for little green men or something because your chicken little bit is getting old.