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As California goes, so goes the nation?
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Confused) had the right strategy last week when he came to Washington hat in hand seeking financial aid. The only mistake the governor of the state with the world’s sixth largest economy made was in selecting the capitol of the United States.
Out of control spending and some 2.6 million “unauthorized immigrants … from Mexico and other Latin American countries,” according to the methodology used in state economic report released in 2004 and updated population figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), helped to wreck California’s economy in recent years.
While fighting in vain for support of failed budget referendum last month, the guvernator admitted illegal immigrants cost state taxpayers $6 billion a year in California. Further, Schwarzenegger said his fixes, all of which were vetoed by taxpayers, would have cost $4 billion to $6 billion annually. One question in California passed—prohibiting lawmakers raises in years when the budget is not balanced.
Schwarzenegger added that Washington holds the power to resolve immigration issues, not California, and comprehensive reform is on President Barack Obama’s agenda.
In 2004, the state Department of Labor eventually ruled in favor of supporting immigration because of its future potential despite finding:
• The fiscal impact of immigrants in recent years was negative. Public service costs exceeded taxes paid.
• Fiscal effects were most negative for state and local governments and for jurisdictions with a high concentration of recent immigrants. The current fiscal balance for unauthorized immigrants is more negative than for legal immigrants.
• The negative fiscal effects were caused by the fact that immigrants are more likely to be poor and to have more children than native-born residents. The fiscal impact of low-income native-born residents with above-average numbers of children is also negative.
FAIR estimates California’s illegal alien population has grown to 3.2 million a 10.3 percent increase. As a result of both the continued growth in the illegal alien population and the higher cost of governmental services, the current fiscal cost outlays for the illegal alien population in California are now approaching $13.1 billion annually more than half the projected shortfall for next year.
“California is melting down with an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, 257,400 jobs lost in 2008, median home values plummeting 50 percent since spring of 2007, and the lowest S&P bond rating of all fifty states,” said Dan Stein, President of FAIR. “While Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing draconian cuts in spending, ordering furloughs for state employees, and delaying expected taxpayer refunds, he continues to ignore the budget-busting cost of illegal immigration. With the highest concentration of illegal aliens of any state nearly one in eight residents is illegal it’s no wonder California is in the mess it is.”
Ahnold may want to try asking Mexico City, Belmopan, San Jose, Guatemala City, Tegucigalpa, Managua, or Panama City for foreign aid assistance rather than asking a bankrupt federal treasury for a bailout.
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