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MY THOTS - The election in November is barreling down the track like a bullet train at 230 mph. The stakes are incredibly high. The choices should be crystal clear. If you think California, specifically Los Angeles, is doing great, vote for the incumbents; their political careers are on the line. They are counting on you. If you think Los Angeles is failing in every conceivable measure of livability, safety, and affordability, in that case, I suggest you vote against every incumbent and say no to every ballot measure that raises taxes. They are taxing you more than enough.
As we all know, California has the highest State taxes in the country, 17% higher than the second most taxed State. According to current data, California has the highest number of people living below the poverty line in the United States. That's 4.3 million California residents who are impoverished. This data proves the adage that you cannot tax your way into prosperity. According to US News & World Reports, among all 50 States, California is dead last in economic opportunity, affordability, and equality. Chief Executive Magazine reports annually on the Best and Worst States for Business. Predictably, in their Best and Worst of 2023, California is ranked dead last– again.
The leadership of this State, County, and City has created a perfectly circular firing squad that drives businesses and people out of LA and the State rapidly. Los Angeles was the number one place where people packed up their belongings and moved to another state, presumably red, where taxes, crime, and housing costs are less, taking their companies, jobs, billions of dollars of commerce, and hundreds of millions in tax revenue.
A tsunami of large companies has also left California, eroding our economy and collapsing our tax base. Companies that have left are a veritable who's-who in the Fortune 500: Tesla, Chevron, Oracle, Charles Schwab, Hewlett-Packard, Toyota Motors of North America and X (formally Twitter). These companies had their headquarters here. The Hoover Institute explains the importance of Headquarters companies:
"Headquarters are especially prized economic development wins because such jobs typically feature higher pay, and they inject a company's decision-makers into the market, which can impact everything from real estate purchases to philanthropy to support for public schools."
Predictably, nobody from the State lifted a finger or a phone to convince these important enterprises to stay in the State. How will we replace these companies? We desperately need more tax revenue as we struggle with a $68 billion state deficit. Raising taxes will increase emigration out of the State on the corporate, family, and individual levels. California has the second-worst unemployment rate in the nation.
The most egregious Measure on the local ballot is called Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions, and Prevention Now, which aims to raise the sales tax again, giving more people a reason to leave LA. This measure is a redo of the failed Proposition HHH and Measure-H, which imposed a quarter-cent sales tax on us to build homeless housing in Los Angeles. This tax increase has been a complete disaster as too few overpriced apartments and shelter beds have been created. Additionally, red tape, expensive labor, and commodity inflation hurt the effort. Sky-high land prices can be blamed on the Los Angeles County Supervisors, who won’t allow the development of much-needed housing on vacant county land. The lack of additional parcels to build on keeps land prices inordinately high.
Nobody wants to see homeless people put into apartments costing up to $1,000,000 when they didn't earn it. Additionally, the current economic policies in the City, the County, and the State worsen job losses and create a lack of affordable housing. The City Council, who has proven their anti-landlord bonafides, is contemplating having City Attorneys represent tenants faced with evections. I pity the landlord who is just trying to collect his contractually agreed-upon rent, having to fight with one of the largest municipal law offices in the United States. Why would you build an apartment building here for ordinary folks?
Please note that other parts of the State are far more affordable and have better economic opportunities than Los Angeles. Addicts and mentally ill people stay in the City of Los Angeles due to our lax laws and nonexistent prosecution for misdemeanors and felonies, which make their ability to buy drugs and continue their addiction possible.
The Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions, and Prevention Now (Solutions Measure) doubles the sales tax for homeless programs, directing the money to the same failed experts, agencies, and NGOs that have failed to mitigate the problem they exist to alleviate. Year after year, as we have thrown more money at this homeless problem, the drug zombie problem has gotten worse. You have seen the zombies staggering or frozen in the street with your own eyes. With their support and funding of the Homeless Industrial Complex, Gavin Newsom, Lindsey Horvath, Eric Garcetti, Mayor Bass' and other prominent political figures and bureaucrats have made their donors very rich.
As we have seen, institutions that are there to try to be the solution will preserve the problem so they may continuously get funding and thrive from the problem they were charged to mitigate. In 2023, the number of homeless people increased by 8% to 186,000 in the State.
The Homeless Industrial Complex is a money laundering scheme that goes to the non-governmental agency that houses homeless people or handouts toiletries, clean needles, and crack pipes. Who, in turn, reward their benefactors with large monetary donations and volunteers to engage in ballot harvesting. Prove me wrong.
If some tangible progress were made with accountability and transparency, the $5 billion we've spent in the last four years on Homelessness might have been worth it. However, as we have seen in Federal Judge David Carter's courtroom at a hearing in late August, it was revealed once again that there is no accountability, transparency, or a readily auditable record.
The court-ordered auditors informed the judge that they were facing significant obstacles, with the Los Angeles County apparatchiks and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), who are hindering their efforts. Unsurprisingly, the data only dribbles out the day before the hearing so the County and LAHSA employees can pretend to comply with the judge's orders. Auditors liken the data they have obtained to untangling a bowl of spaghetti. Even LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia expressed difficulty in extracting data from LAHSA.
The LAHSA and the County will withhold the information about payments and outcomes until after the election to help secure additional funding via the “Solutions Measure.” They must hide what a terrible job they have done with taxpayer money. If we knew how much of these funds had been wasted and unaccounted for, they could never get the “Solutions Measure” passed. Judge Carter should order the CEO of the County, Fesia Davenport, Lindsey Horvath, Chair of the Board of Supervisors (who is often called Queen of the homeless), and Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of LAHSA, into custody until the data is satisfactorily produced. Withholding this data is election interference.
The “Solution Measure” will perpetuate the same unsuccessful policies that squandered the last $5 Billion of sales tax funds. We must help the homeless with the right policies. However, the homeless are the only ones who can help themselves. We must be there and offer the right programs. Proposition 36, also on the ballot in November, is a good start.
If we want to do something about Homelessness and drug zombies, how about first taking the drugs off the street? Stop the drugs at the border, arrest the dealers and the mules, and impose harsh prison sentences. Why? The drugs the cartels are importing now are not only incredibly addictive, but they are also incredibly lethal and are poisoning people, as they know not what they take. Then, because of the unavailability of drugs, many people with an addiction would be forced into treatment. Crime as a consequence of treatment and lack of availability of illegal drugs would go down.
Michael Schellenberger might say it best: "Homelessness isn't a fundamental problem of housing. It is a problem of enabling addiction and untreated mental illness, both of which lead people to give up on work, use up all their money to stay high, lie, steal, cheat their families and friends, and live on the streets where they turn to petty crime to sustain their drug habits. We need to give people the care they need, but that's not through enabling addiction and illegal behavior, but rather enforcing laws and mandating care as an alternative to jail".
(Eliot Cohen has been on the Neighborhood Council, serves on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, and is on the Board of Homeowners of Encino and was the president of HOME for over seven years. Eliot retired after a 35-year career on Wall Street. Eliot is a critic of the stinking thinking of the bureaucrats and politicians that run the County, the State, and the City. Eliot and his wife divide their time between L.A. and Baja Norte, Mexico.)
