Hey, Californian’s voted for this idiocy
(Wall Street Journal) How many workers does it take to change an incandescent light bulb in California? Two. One to install its energy-efficient replacement, and another to ensure the job complies with government regulations. Behold Tom Steyer’s green jobs stimulus, which a new report from the Associated Press shows has been a colossal failure even by its proponents’ standards.
In 2012 the hedge-fund billionaire bankrolled a California ballot initiative (Prop. 39) hitting up corporations to finance green construction jobs. The referendum changed the way many corporations that do business across state lines calculate their tax liability. Half of the new revenues were to be earmarked for “clean energy†(e.g., LED and solar panel installations) with the rest flowing into Sacramento’s general fund for the politicians to spend.
Mr. Steyer and friends claimed the initiative would raise more than $500 million annually for green projects and create tens of thousands of jobs. Neither dream has come true. According to AP, the initiative’s clean-energy fund has raised $973 million over the past three years—about a third less than projections because companies have responded by seeking to minimize their tax liabilities.
And where is most of the money going?
Funding recipients have frittered away millions completing paperwork—energy surveys, audits, data analytics—to meet California Energy Commission’s guidelines, which require $1.05 of energy savings for every dollar spent. Schools have spent more than half of the $297 million that they’ve received on consultants and auditors. As if California’s regulatory compliance industry needed more work.
It was supposed to create 11,000 jobs a year. Instead, it created 1,700 in 3 years. From the AP article
There’s no exact way to track how corporations reacted to the tax code change, but it’s likely most companies adapted to minimize their tax burdens, nonpartisan legislative analyst Ken Kapphahn said. He also said the change applies to a very small number of corporations.
A massive tax “loophole” was supposed to be closed. Instead, shockingly, business adapted. Amazing, isn’t it? In Liberal World, they expect things to stay the same, that nothing will change. Many of the companies adapted right to different states, costing California tax revenue.
Neither the Energy Commission nor Tim Rainey, director of the California Workforce Investment Board, could identify the types of jobs created by Proposition 39 projects. They said that information would be available when the oversight board meets for the first time, likely in October or November.
The board has yet to meet because “not enough data has been collected for the nine-member oversight board…to meet.” A massive new government regulation was implemented, one which has real world consequences to citizens, and the board has yet to meet. And, as usual, the plan is failing.
Unshockingly, Tom Steyer is set to reap a big monetary reward for laws like California’s.
Creating rent-seekers isn’t creating jobs. It is creating parasites.
Green initiatives only make the politically-connected privileged class richer while making everyday Americans poor.
So that program has resulted in a shortfall of about 100 million per year
Well let’s see almost 40 million people
That works out to almost 2/3s of one penny per person per day
CA has always led the way towards a greener future and will continue to do so, at less than a penny a day
And the CA economy is booming,
Many many more companies are opening in ca than leaving. They do this for financial reasons CA economy has been doing very very well under Obama
the abusers of children and the elderly push the schemes to enrich george soros and take money from poor people. their knowledge of california is at best minimal but their ability to take talking points is good. like a sponge they soak up filth
The Cove’s resident Child Abuser (Desserttrash) actually makes a point but narrows the blame too much. The plutocrats (Repugs and Dems alike, in CA, TX, IN and everywhere) that run America have a single objective – transfer the productivity and wealth of the working classes to their own pockets – period. It’s a fact that conservatives ignore the needs of children, the poor and the elderly. It’s a fact that Republicans are worse.