California’s Collapsing Infrastructure

Wall of Debt = $443 billion. Sacramento Doesn’t Care, Demands Sanctuary State Legislation

No money for road repairs, but millions of dollars to spend on illegal immigrants.

Three California news stories underline the collision course that the state is barreling down. First, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office found that repairs to the Oroville Dam as well as other fixes to old levees and water ways must be completed before the next rainy season. While the LAO didn’t give a specific cost to complete the many projects, it estimated the sum to be “tens of billions of dollars.” Read the LAO report, “Managing Floods in California,” here. But, California is broke – no money for critically important maintenance.

The second story making the rounds is that Gov. Jerry Brown admitted that California’s budget deficit will hit $1.6 billion. Worse, California’s Wall of Debt that includes all of its outstanding liabilities from borrowing, deferrals and other unfunded financial obligations is $443 billion.

But neither the first nor the second story dominates California’s news cycle. Instead, Sacramento and the California media are focused on SB 54, legislation that would make California a sanctuary state. The proposed legislation is winding its way through Sacramento as Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León cheers it on. Sanctuary California would add millions more of dollars to the billions the state already spends on illegal aliens.

Responsible leadership, acutely missing in the California Legislature, would realize that the day of fiscal reckoning is fast approaching. Instead of bemoaning President Donald Trump’s election, and excoriating his commitment to deporting criminal aliens and reducing illegal immigration, the legislature and Gov. Brown should acknowledge that less immigration means fewer students to educate, fewer patients to tend to, and fewer felons to incarcerate. California can’t afford not to join the White House in its goal to end illegal immigration.

Please go to the CAPS Action Alert page here to urge Sacramento officials to oppose SB 54.