Jobs First

John Seiler:

Anti-tax folks seem to have a hard time pushing their message. Everything gets wrapped up in a “deal,” real or imagined, with Gov. Jerry Brown to put a vote on his $12 billion tax increase before voters in June. It supposedly would close the $25 billion budget deficit.

Let me help.

The real issue is jobs.

Jobs first.

The state currently has a 12.4 percent unemployment rate. Only Nevada’s is worse, at 14.2 percent, among the 50 states.

Taxes are not collected from nothing. They’re collected from workers. If people are out of work, they don’t pay taxes. Instead, they soak up taxes in the form of welfare, food stamps and other benefits funded by taxes.

So, the focus should be on creating jobs in California. Here are some ideas:

1. Gov. Brown immediately should suspend AB 32 for one year, as the law allows.

2. Democrats in the Legislature should pass, and Brown should sign, comprehensive regulatory reform to make it easier to start and run businesses here. As Katy Grimes reported, Carls Jr. is close to moving to Texas precisely because regulations here are so stultifying.

3. Pension reform is a must.

4. Instead of talking about increasing taxes, Brown should advance a state version of the flat-tax idea that he boldly proposed during his 1992 presidential run. This crisis is the perfect time to work for real tax reform. Brown has been uncreatively mimicking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with an “extension” of Arnold’s 2009 tax increases — which failed to solve the budget problem. What’s needed is a return of the creative Brown of years past.

Let the word go forth from this time and place: the torch of jobs creation has been lit in California.

March 18, 2011