Contributors
Glenn Ellmers - Contributor
[Courtesty Claremont Institute]

Glenn Ellmers is former Director of Research for the Claremont Institute [go to Ellmers index]

Recovering Good Government
Common Sense Proposals for Addressing California’s Fiscal Crisis
[Glenn Ellmers] 1/30/04

This article is adapted from the forward of a paper published by the Claremont Institute. -Ed.

A Republican candidate for governor of California ran as an outsider against an insular, unaccountable establishment in Sacramento. His opponent was a liberal career politician who was widely blamed for overseeing the collapse of the state’s economy under the weight of bloated government, high taxes, and favors for special interests. The Republican candidate won the election by more than one million votes, and attracted broad cross-over appeal from Democrats and Independents. These excerpts from a speech highlight the recurring themes of his campaign.

….Public officials are elected primarily for one purpose—to solve public problems. You have a right to ask any candidate about his understanding of the problems facing us, his acceptance of responsibility for solving those problems, and whether he has a fresh approach or just offers the same old bargain-basement politics—“We’ll do everything the other fellow’s been doing, only we’ll do it cheaper and better.” You have a right to know—and I am obligated to tell you—where I stand and what I believe.

To begin with—I am not a politician. I am an ordinary citizen with a deep-seated belief that much of what troubles us has been brought about by politicians; and it’s high time that more ordinary citizens brought the fresh air of common sense thinking to bear on these problems. We’ve had enough of the wheeling and dealing, and enough of schemers and schemes. I think it’s time now for dreamers —practical dreamers—willing to re-implement the original dream which became this nation—that idea that has never fully been tried before in the world—that you and I have the capacity for self-government—the dignity and the ability and the God-given freedom to make our own decisions, to plan our own lives and to control our own destiny….

The present administration’s approach to our deteriorating business climate is always another pill out of the same old bottle. Build another bureau, add another tax, and put the unemployed on the public payroll…. Those who talk of complex problems, requiring more government planning and more control, in reality are taking us back in time to the acceptance of rule of the many by the few. It is time to look to the future….

Join me in a dream of a California whose government isn’t characterized by political hacks and cronies and relatives—an administration that doesn’t make its decisions based on political expediency but on moral truth. Together, let us find men to match our mountains. We can have a government administered by men and women who are appointed on the basis of ability and dedication—not as a reward for political favors. If we must have a double standard of morality, then let it be one which demands more of those in government, not less. This is a practical dream—it’s a dream you can believe in—it’s a dream worthy of your generation. Better yet, it’s a dream that can come true and all we have to do is want it badly enough.

The candidate was Ronald Reagan; the year was 1966. In 2003, another outsider—also an actor who held no previous public office—won a landslide victory against a similar opponent. History seems to repeat itself. But despite the patterns imaginative minds may discern, history is not foreordained. Its shape is determined by the choices made by free people. On October 7, the voters of California made a choice. It is now up to Arnold Schwarzenegger to make his.

When Ronald Reagan was governor many of the decisions he made—particularly in social policy—disappointed conservatives. A balanced view of his term in office would reveal a mixed record. Likewise, Arnold Schwarzenegger is unlikely to prove to be everyone’s “perfect” governor. But on the key elements of his campaign—getting government spending under control, and improving the job climate—Schwarzenegger could profitably follow Reagan’s example. Will he vindicate the trust of the voters by restoring the state’s health through free enterprise, individual liberty, property rights, and personal responsibility, or will he slip into “the same old bargain-basement politics”?

The Claremont Institute report Recovering Good Government in the Golden State: Common Sense Proposals for Addressing California’s Fiscal Crisisis is intended to make that choice easier. It examines three of the most pressing problems Californians face:

• misdirected welfare policies
• a bloated and failing education bureaucracy
• a regulatory climate that is hostile to business and economic growth

This report provides immediate remedies as well as recommendations for future improvement in these areas.

The first part of this report looks at welfare reform and was prepared by Eloise Anderson, who directs the Claremont Institute’s Golden State Center for Policy Studies in Sacramento, and served as Director of Social Services for Governor Pete Wilson. California’s various health and social service programs make up about 20 percent of the state budget. Of that, payments to unemployed or under-employed able-bodied parents (the more narrow understanding of “welfare”) cost some $5 billion dollars—a fraction of the state budget, but still a sizeable sum. More importantly, welfare policy reveals a great deal about the most fundamental questions: Is the purpose of government to protect our natural liberty, or is it to redistribute income and resources in the pursuit of “social engineering”? Is the purpose of government to lead the poor into employment and self-sufficiency, or is it to create a vast constituency of dependents, supported by an ever-growing bureaucracy? Any meaningful reform in Sacramento hinges on the answers to these questions.

The second part, by Dr. Brian Janiskee, a Claremont Institute research fellow, is a detailed look at public education spending, and the relationship between the dollars that flow to the classroom versus those that support the myriad offices, departments, agencies, and programs of the education bureaucracy. Education spending in California is a massive, often mysterious process, taking up nearly one-half of the state budget. Even modest reforms that reduce overall spending while redirecting dollars away from bureaucrats and towards children will make an enormous difference.

The final section, by Claremont Institute research associate Lindsay White, takes a broad overview of the business climate in California, and provides specific information about workers’ compensation, electricity and housing costs, eminent domain, and other infringements on free enterprise and property rights that stand in the way of economic recovery.

This report does not, and cannot, address every issue confronting California today. Its purpose is to clarify—for policy-makers, journalists, and interested citizens—some of the most pressing problems and to suggest realistic solutions. It is only a part of the Claremont Institute’s ongoing efforts to stem the growth of bureaucratic liberalism and restore a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”—to California and the nation. That, finally, is what is at stake.

copyright 2004 Claremont Institute