☆ Waite: time to undo government’s “flawed economic intervention”
Will voters elect candidates to rein in the destructive public policies that cripple California? In an ongoing Opportunity Now exclusive series on November’s election, SVBA’s Pat Waite makes the case that state-level dysfunction in energy, housing, and education are rooted in bad governance. When will the electorate realize the solution is not more government?
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” – Ronald Reagan
At some point, voters must recognize the fundamental truth of Reagan’s quip and start voting for candidates willing to get government out of the way of progress on issues critical to our quality of life.
Virtually all major issues identified by voters: the high-cost gas and electricity, cost and availability of housing, homelessness, and the sad state of our public education system have been exacerbated by government actions. Often well-intentioned, government solutions frequently result in unintended consequences.
For instance, California’s highly regulated electrical rates are more than double the national average. This isn’t due to higher generation costs, which are about 10% higher than the national average. It is because of “good” programs such as Net Energy Metering, wildfire abatement, and energy efficiency and public-purpose programs.
Gasoline is ridiculously expensive in California, in part due to state taxes. However, the chief culprit is significantly reduced refinery capacity. No new refineries have been built in California since 1980 while closures have reduced capacity by half. Gasoline demand is now about equal to supply, allowing little room for the inevitable glitches that reduce refinery output. Government regulations drove this supply decline and worsened it by requiring gasoline blends unique to California.
Housing is exorbitantly expensive. The population has increased by 33% since 1990 while the housing stock grew only about 25%. This mismatch is largely driven by restrictive zoning measures and inordinate fees levied upon new developments.
Government created these problems, yet voters fantasize that the existing government can help fix them. Someday, voters need to heed President Reagan’s words and start electing representatives willing to do the hard work of undoing decades of flawed economic intervention by government.
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