When California politicians ignore political risks, often result – Marin Independent Journal

The governors and legislators of California have a very bad habit of creating important programs and projects without fully examining their downward risks.

The most spectacular example occurred in 1996 when a Republican governor, Pete Wilson and a democratically controlled legislator decided to revise the California electricity industry.

Legislation was screwed out in lengthy and secret negotiations that the participants described the “Steve Peace Death March” for the senator of the state senator who aroused the efforts. It was only put into force with fleeting public inputs.

When an autopsy of the following catastrophe from 2003 became: “The law was celebrated as a historical reform that rewarded consumers with lower prices that would revive the flabeting economy in California at the time and a model for other states. Six years later, the reforms of the reforms were found in the ruins.

Other examples of the bad habit are in abundance, for example with the establishment of a kettle pull that combines the two halves of the state with only rudimentary assumptions in its costs, the driver and other important factors – a project that limps almost two decades later.

A few more decades ago, the immensely costly expansion of pension benefits for public employees are the immense expansion of the local government and a great increase in unemployment insurance benefits without increasing income, which led to a still growing federal government of 20 billion US dollars.

This brings us to Senate Bill 769, which appears superficially as positive efforts for expanding infrastructure financing, but could be another example of unexpected consequences. The measure introduced by Senator Anna Caballero, a Merced Democrat, would create the Golden State Infrastructure Corporation, a state non -profit company that borrowing or borrowing and providing funds for public or private infrastructure projects.

The state treasurer Fiona Ma is the sponsor of the law and would appoint the company's top manager who would answer a five-member board of chosen officials and governors of the agents.

“The partnership with public and private capital enables SB 769 critical investments in climate management, water systems, energy infrastructure, living space and transport, creation of jobs and future -proof California for the coming generations,” claims Caballero's office.