California shows folly of ‘progressive’ model
SOME activists blame Oklahoma’s problems on conservative governance. As we’ve noted, that narrative is more hype than reality. Only one significant tax cut — a quarter-point reduction in the income tax rate for those earning more than $8,700 — has been enacted in the past eight years, and few conservative reforms have been advanced since workers’ comp reform in 2013. That’s hardly conservatism run amok.
Even so, given that critique, it’s worth noting how things are going in states that bear-hug left-wing ideology, and there’s no better “laboratory of democracy” to demonstrate the results than California, where conservatives are an afterthought.
A new report from the conservative Hoover Institution tallies the results. It’s no picture of Nirvana.
Hoover notes California ranks 49th in the country in housing affordability and 49th in new home construction. Fewer than one in three households can afford the median-priced home. While California is home to a little over 12 percent of the nation’s total population, the state has 25 percent of the country’s homeless. Nearly 40 percent of Californians live at or near poverty levels. Nearly one-third of the country’s welfare recipients live in California.
Also, its public K–12 schools rank 41st in the country “despite substantially higher spending on schools.”
California’s public infrastructure receives a grade of D-plus by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The state has “unreliable water supplies” and residential electricity prices that are “among the highest in the country and are roughly twice as high as those in Texas.”
Those statistics aren't the result of fiscal austerity that prioritized low taxation over government spending. Quite the opposite. Hoover notes California has the country’s sixth-highest tax burden but ranks 40th in inflation-adjusted, after-tax income. So Californians have less money than people in most states but give far more of their limited resources to government. And the government isn’t making good use of the funds.
California’s woes, Hoover officials argue, owe much to poor political leadership: “Poorly designed economic policies have either created or significantly contributed to these problems.” The institute offers several reforms to dramatically improve conditions.
Among the suggestions offered, Hoover officials say Californians would save roughly $330 billion over the next 10 years if consumer-driven health care reforms were enacted, such as increased access to high-deductible, low-premium health plans. The state's economy would grow an additional $800 billion annually if land-use regulations and restrictions were simply rolled back to those in place in 2000. California would accumulate an additional $16.6 trillion in economic growth by adopting education reforms focused on teacher effectiveness and learning outcomes. Water shortages could be addressed by simply “allowing the price of water to respond to changes in water supply and demand.”
California has many economic advantages that Oklahoma does not, yet it ranks alongside Oklahoma or worse on many key measures. Thus, that state's liberal governing model doesn’t offer a way forward so much as a cautionary tale.