Perhaps it is just coincidence, but it seems that there is a relationship between the growth of the public sector in LA, the decline of public services and the decline of the private sector.

Despite what Rep. Charlie McDonald, D-Bastrop, and other politicians may say, the state budget continues to growth exponentially. From 1812 until 1996, the state budget grew from $1 to $10 BILLION. From 1996 through the current fiscal year, the state budget grew from $10 BILLION to almost $27 BILLION. Even worse the recurring expenditures are dependent upon one-time money as a result of catastrophes.

Return on the investment of our tax dollars:

1. LA remains last or next to the last in every positive category in comparison to the other states and first or near the top three in all the negative categories.
2. Individual and business taxes are in the upper levels among the states.
3. Spending on the poor increases yet poverty continues to rise. Perhaps hand-outs are not the answer.
4. While the level of effort to improve public education may have increased, public elementary and secondary education is failing us.
5. Colleges continue to graduate students qualified enough to find good-paying jobs in other states, but not in LA.
6. Insurance rates are rising to the point of being un-affordable and in many cases unavailable.
7. Availability and quality healthcare continues to decline.
8. Roads and other infrastructure, except state offices and office buildings, continue to decline in quality and quantity. The state just took on another guaranteed money-loser, Hodges Gardens.
9. Out-migration of our “best and brightest” not only continues, but has increased in the past year.
10. Since this time last year, estimates are that the overall state population has shrunk by as many as 400,000. Yet the size of government and government spending has increased.
11. In all likelihood, LA will lose another Congressman after the 2010 Census. While that does not in and of itself mean a net population decline, it is certainly an indicator that LA is not growing as fast as our sister states in the Sunbelt.
12. Businesses and their jobs continue to leave faster than they come in. Saturday, we learned of another business and its 167 jobs in Alexandria will be gone by early next year. (Story here.)
13. Corruption continues unabated. The leges idea of stopping corruption is to make legal what was previously illegal. More exceptions are made to the state’s Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Law while the Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Board finds loopholes where there are none or at least none intended through which politicians and those with influence can escape.

More questions

How long will be continue to pour more of the hard-earned tax dollars of fewer and fewer taxpayers into the growth of government while the private sector shrinks and the return on investment is so dismal? Making an investment is one thing. Pouring money down a rat hole is quite another.

When are we going to stop accepting platitudes and promises from our elected officials and start demanding accountability?

When are we going to demand that our public officials fix some the problems of the state before they ask us for more money? If one manufactures defective widgets which because of the defect nobody will buy, one does not improve profits by raising the prices of the widgets.

How long will we accept government growth while the population, businesses and jobs shrink? If the past is any indication, until we decide to vote against it by moving elsewhere.

Don’t worry; be happy; leave when you’ve had enough.

C.B.