LETTERS
Fixing California
The revised budget recently signed by Governor Davis reveals that California still faces a staggering multi-billion budget deficit next year. Economic and common sense suggest that the only way to dig the state out of this budget hole is to improve California’s economy. Unfortunately, the Legislature is considering numerous proposals that will eliminate jobs by imposing tens of billions of dollars in new fees, taxes and mandates on California employers.
Imposing new burdens on business and an economy that has already shed hundreds of thousands of high-wage manufacturing jobs is simply irresponsible. Employers unable to raise prices or absorb new costs have hard choices: Go out of business, relocate out of California, lay off employees, reduce benefits or reduce wages.
The California business community is taking a stand for our employees, the economy and jobs. We are calling upon every legislator to consider carefully the disastrous ramifications of legislative proposals that that will cost California jobs.
The Coalition for California Jobs intends to watch legislators closely and highlight to their constituents their votes on both “job killer” and “job creator” legislation. For more information, call the coalition at (916) 448-4266, or log on to www.cajobsfirst.org
Jack Stewart, Allan Zaremberg, Barbara deBoom
(Stewart is president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, Zaremberg is president of the California Chamber of Commerce and deBoom is president of the Orange Chamber of Commerce.)
If you want to get all the facts, figures and rhetoric on housing, you can find it at the Web site of the governor’s Secretary of Housing. They talk a great game.
But if you want to get the actual policy, go to the Coastal Commission Web site, and there you will see how, in daily practice, the state of California shuts down new housing opportunities with stunning nonchalance.
If the housing crisis is California’s oldest permanent emergency, the 134 people running for governor should know that it is also the easiest solved: We don’t need “gajillions” in government subsidies, new taxes or anything like that. We just need state and local government to get out of the way as we try and build what our customers are demanding so loudly: new homes. The resulting jobs and home equity build-up would help our economy blossom.
It is something the new governor could do his very first day in office. Or the existing governor could do right now.
Michael Pattinson, President
Barratt American
Carlsbad
Forget for a moment the issue of the “justice” of the recall. What is, is. The recall is an opportunity to make a choice at a particularly difficult time in the state’s progress.
The debate now has to be elevated to a higher level. We need to move from the minutia of blame or recall conspiracy theories and on to the immediate changes necessary to stop digging ourselves into any deeper a hole. We need to define a vision for the future and ways of getting there. It’s vision, I believe, that will lead to a better debate, clearer choices and potential for change.
It will be interesting to see if any of the major players have a real handle on the drivers of the state’s economy, the ramifications inherent in our changing demographics, the frustrations the people feel with the process of governance, and the potential of California given enlightened leadership and an energized population.
Timothy J. Cooley
Irvine
California needs help and most definitely new leadership, which is why I will vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor.
It is not that Arnold has all the answers or the experience. Arnold has something much greater: a contagious can-do and will-do attitude, exactly what is needed to pull us out of the deepening Sacramento mire.
Russell Niewiarowski
Santa Ana Heights
OC Wealth
I read with interest your Aug. 4 articles on wealth in Orange County. It’s always a fun subject.
I do take issue with how a couple of articles seemed to confuse income with wealth, and I also wish to point out certain flaws in the way the data is sorted and presented.
Your table that shows “OC’s Wealth by ZIP Code” should really be titled “OC’s Median Household Income by ZIP Code”.
While the young and upwardly mobile two-income families in Ladera Ranch have high household incomes, I have serious doubts that they are wealthier than the families in several older and more established areas where wealth would be accumulating longer through business ownership or other means.
Another thing to consider is how much sense does it make to compare incomes or wealth by ZIP code in the first place? Do you realize that all of Laguna Hills and Laguna Woods (Leisure World) share the same 92653 ZIP code?
It would seem that the randomness with which the U.S. Postal Service created ZIP codes had a great influence on the results, and that a caveat to that effect should be noted in your article.
Craig B. Moreland
President
Coast Label Company
Fountain Valley
El Toro, Cont’d
In response to last week’s letters from pro-airport activists Donald Nyre and Rex Ricks, whose only objective is to shift the nuisance of an airport from their backyard to another city, I’d like to shed some light on the subject.
Every stakeholder has rejected the county’s El Toro airport plan, after a lengthy public debate. The seriously flawed airport plan would’ve required the largest construction project in county history, yet regional air traffic restrictions would have limited the new airport to a capacity approximately equal to that served by John Wayne Airport today. John Wayne can handle nearly twice its current load, even with the current limits on night operations and without physically expanding the runway or terminal building.
Michael Smith
Mission Viejo
