Former California Lawmaker Flees to Red State, Credits Trump with Saving America
A former California Republican legislator argues that California, far from being a model for the future of the U.S., is a cautionary tale. Further, President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 saved the country from the once Golden State’s sad fate.
Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday, Chuck DeVore — who served in California State Assembly for multiple terms until 2010 — said, “The reason why this is an issue right now, is you may have seen the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey tweeted out a piece by Ruy Teixeira (contending that) California is the future and that California is this wonderful utopia.”
He continued, “and the reason that happened (according to Teixeira and co-author Peter Leyden) is they absolutely crushed the Republicans and conservatives in California, and now liberals run the place.”
“I thought, ‘This is insane. This isn’t reality,’” said DeVore of the article’s very premise. The former assemblyman moved to Texas in 2011, after an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.
Below is Twitter CEO’s post endorsing the article titled, “The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War.”
Great read https://t.co/O2djSQf8Qv
— jack (@jack) April 6, 2018
Now a vice president with the Texas Public Policy Foundation — DeVore believes some important statistics regarding California speak for themselves and explain why many people have left the state.
Chuck Devore: "If you're a member of the working poor, if you're anyone other than the elite from Silicon Valley and Hollywood, it's tough to make ends meet, to put food on the table and put a roof over your head in California." https://t.co/B7Ica5qOwk pic.twitter.com/7IsYg4KdWh
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 17, 2018
First, he noted the poverty rate in California is 20.4 percent versus 14.7 percent in Texas, which is the second most populous U.S. state after California and also shares an extensive border (1,900 miles) with Mexico.
In other words, the Golden State’s poverty rate is 39 percent higher than the Lone Star State’s.
Additionally, DeVore noted that California for years has experienced a net out-migration, which has accelerated recently to over 100,000 people per year.
CNBC reported that a net 138,000 people left the state in the 12 months preceding July 2017, while Texas gained 79,000 people during the same time period, and Arizona added 63,000 new residents.
One of the main reasons people gave for leaving were California’s high taxes and housing costs.
California, in fact, has the highest marginal income tax rate topping out at 13.3 percent, the highest sales tax at 7.25 percent, and one of the highest combined gas taxes in the country, and going up next year to an estimated 77 cents per gallon.
The median statewide house price in California is $550,990 compared to a national average of $247,800. A one bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles area rents for an average $2,249, while one in San Francisco is almost $3,400.
DeVore offered his own example in an Op-Ed for Fox News, writing for $110,000 less, he bought a house that was twice as large in Texas, which provided room for two ailing parents to stay.
He explained during his interview on Fox that the difficulty in gaining approval for new housing starts is a main reason for the high costs.
Trade unions also sue developers, using environmental laws, in order to block new projects that do not pay construction workers prevailing union wage. As soon as developers submit to what DeVore characterized as “greenmail” demands, the union drop their suits, and the project goes forward, albeit much delayed and much more expensive.
DeVore concluded his Op-Ed, “California isn’t the future, rather, it’s what America’s 2016 election of Donald Trump saved the nation from becoming. It’s not a harbinger of things to come, but it will soon be an example of the fate we narrowly avoided.”
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