Bad News for Californians
Krayton Kerns
9.7.06
There are two groups of people I feel very sorry for; Californians and California refugees. Here’s why.
Governor Schwarzenegger recently sided with the environmental fringe to pass new state laws to diminish the production of greenhouse gasses. More regulation in an attempt to slow global warming will slow the economy of a state already operating in the red. That could hurt.
Certainly I cannot be the only 49 year-old who remembers science class in the early ‘70s. We were warned then that the production of greenhouse gasses by western capitalism was leading to global cooling and an impending ice age. (It was cold in the ‘70s) The solution to global cooling then, and global warming now, was more government regulation. Hmmm, that’s an interesting contradiction.
Setting science aside, think about the disillusioned Californians who migrated to the Big Sky State so they could get away from all that senseless regulation. It’s the old “frying pan into the fire” syndrome. According to Forbes magazine (9/2006) when it comes to burdensome regulation, California scores near the worst of the 50 states with a rank of 41. Unfortunately, we’re nuttier than California as Montana ranks 48th, nipped at the wire by Maine (49th) and Rhode Island (50th).
We Montanans have two choices: We can fight tooth and nail to eliminate senseless regulation and over a decade or so our rating might to climb into the 30’s. Or, we could hug each other, tie yellow ribbons around orphaned trees, pass a handful of new laws to protect…something…anything…and knock Rhode Island out of 50th place.
I did a quick search and found a couple bills being drafted for ‘07 that just might help us lock up last place:
*Require the availability of paper towels in public restrooms. Ryan (D)-Great Falls
*Prohibit the sale of two-stroke spark ignition outboard motors. Weinberg (D)-Whitefish
If we can’t be first, at least we can be last. (That’s a state motto that would keep the California refugees headed east.)
