If I were a state or local government employee in California, I would be concerned about my future retirement plan.
Many local governments are suffering budget deficits; we read about these budget shortfalls regularly as revenue (tax-based funds) decreases and expenses increase.
The Independent Institute’s website says, “Legislative analyst Gabe Petek, in his overview of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $349 billion 2026-27 budget, says the deficits totaled $125 billion over the last four years and ‘have persisted even as the state’s economy and revenues have grown, underscoring that the problem is structural rather than cyclical. Taken together, these trends raise serious concerns about the state’s fiscal sustainability.’
“This situation has not happened by accident. Since 2017, California has sharply increased its spending per resident faster than the rate of inflation. The state’s government spending has also increased faster than the rate of growth of the median household income of California’s residents.”
One drain on revenue is created by the drafting of policies to ignore the conditions contained in federal grants. Many of these grants have been withheld because state and local governments refuse to meet these requirements, but the political class still feels obligated to fund these programs at the cost of reducing funding in other critical areas.
The only solution [politicians] have is to toss large piles of cash at every problem, use nonprofit agencies—often led by their supporters—to solve the issue, and call it a successful outcome.
Another is the fraud schemes that have been widely reported that drain available funding into the pockets of unscrupulous fraudsters. They know that the government frequently fails to properly monitor the programs they shovel money into.
And yet another is the high-speed rail project in the Central Valley that is years behind schedule and more than $120 billion over budget.
Problem-solving isn’t a strong suit for our elected officials. The only solution they have is to toss large piles of cash at every problem, use nonprofit agencies—often led by their supporters—to solve the issue, and call it a successful outcome. Of course, there is little to no oversight on how the money is spent and no metrics to measure success.
Theoretically many nonprofits are only in business to “solve problems” for the government, but the dirty little secret is that if they solve the problem, they are out of work. The organizers pay themselves handsome six-figure salaries while they prepare the next grant application to keep the cash rolling in. The homelessness issue is a perfect example.
Most government employees in state and local governments are union members. These unions strongly support the political party ruling California with monetary donations and “boots on the ground” distributing campaign literature. Union leadership strongly encourages their members to vote for the candidates who belong to the current ruling party.
The reason for this strong support is because they expect the people they elect to support wages and benefit increases for their membership even during periods of reduced tax revenue.
“What does this have to do with my retirement?” you ask. “Isn’t it guaranteed?” Well, the millions, and perhaps billions, of tax dollars being funneled out to nonprofits and union pay/benefit increases, poorly run projects, and unchecked losses to fraud result in unsustainable budget shortfalls and eventually the inability to continue paying employee pensions.
Once a leader in the United States, California has now sunk lower in many important categories such as education, revenue-producing manufacturing, commercial enterprises, movie-making, and fiscal management. Instead of encouraging businesses, the political leadership has overregulated all industries to the point that they are migrating to more business-friendly states en mass to avoid excessive taxation.
When I was a kid in the early 1960s, California was in the top 5 in every category; today the ruling political party has managed to put our state at the bottom as they rapidly sink the ship of state.
A drastic change of political philosophy is needed to reverse course.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in April 16 – April 23, 2026.