Of Telescopes, Mirrors, and the Government We Deserve

By Andy Caldwell

Last week, I wrote about the phenomenon of county supervisors looking through the wrong end of the telescope in their attempt to create affordable housing in the county. Their two-fold problem has to do with the fact that the affordability of housing can’t be addressed without regard to the fact that 70% of the county is living in poverty as indicated in a consultant’s report to the supervisors. That is, it is not only the price of housing that makes housing unaffordable in CA; it is also the lack of good-paying jobs which have been destroyed by government fiat, regulation, and selfishness.

Hence, to solve the problem of affordable housing in this state, our electeds need to toss the telescope and look in a mirror to solve the problem. One of the weekly regulars on my radio show is Steve Greenhut, the Western Regional Director of the R Street Institute and director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Free Cities Center. Additionally, he is a columnist for the Orange County Register and American Spectator, among many other publications, and the author of several books including on the topic of union power and California’s manmade water crises.

Steve and I have had dozens of conversations over the years about the problem of affordable housing and our unaffordable government. I would like to share some summary points with you because the reason we have some of the most expensive housing, crowded freeways, water shortages, and unaffordable housing is by design, not necessity.

Government Fiats and Regulations

Greenhut wrote a column for the Orange County Register about the dirtiest four-letter word in California: CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act). This act goes back to 1970 and if I had to peg the one thing that makes housing unaffordable – and job creation impossible – it would be CEQA. CEQA is the embodiment of the paralysis of analysis. It not only slows down progress, but it also stops it dead in its tracks. It requires endless analysis, costly mitigation, and it invites litigation. It serves to obfuscate progress with respect to housing, economic development, and even environmental measures.

Our state decision-makers know it is a bad law because every time a project comes around that they want built on time, with minimal cost, and the avoidance of never-ending litigation, they exempt the project from CEQA. Yet, they won’t reform it, let alone eliminate the law for the rest of us.

Our second big issue is water. California sends almost half its rainfall and snowpack to the ocean rather than to our cities and farmers. Not only that, but our state government has consistently squandered the opportunity to build more dams and reservoirs despite the taxpayers having authorized billions of dollars to do so. They have also killed desal projects. Without water, we have neither the opportunity to grow our housing stock or feed ourselves. I seriously doubt any other state in the union is this stupid.

The Next Big Issue: Infrastructure.

You can’t build additional housing and create more jobs without infrastructure. Yet, because our local government, for instance, spends over half the money they collect on themselves in the form of salaries, benefits, and pensions, there is no money left for new infrastructure. Heck, there is no money to maintain the infrastructure we already have. Santa Barbara County has amassed over $500 million in deferred maintenance costs to roads, buildings, and parks. Thereby, when a developer comes along and wants to build affordable housing, the cities, the county, and the state want the developer to pay for all infrastructure costs, including those costs government should be providing.

In Santa Maria, for example, a very large swath of land – abutting the 101 freeway no less – will never be built because the city wants the developer to pay for an additional freeway overpass, even if the development is never constructed. On a similar note, this explains the fuzzy math the county employs when it tries to charge the developer of a new convenience store or a large gas station over $1 million in so-called traffic fees that constitute an illegal tax designed to help the county catch up on their undersized failing road system.

The proof that it is government’s fault that we don’t have better-paying jobs and affordable housing is evident by looking at how other states are doing. In a column Greenhut wrote for American Spectator, “The Obvious Fix for California’s Housing Crisis,” Greenhut observes that “the Dallas-Fort Worth area has permitted more housing than all of California: five times more on a per capita basis.” Moreover, in the last five years, the California’s State Legislative Analyst’s office has reported that mid-tier and bottom-tier priced homes in CA have both gone up over 80%.

In conclusion, many readers of this piece will think to themselves, well, “We don’t want that much growth here.” Precisely! And you have elected people who represent that very sentiment. Hence, even though California is losing population, it can’t keep up with its housing needs as can other states who have both a booming economy and affordable housing. In other words, we have an unsolvable housing and job situation, along with the government that has been elected to keep it that way.

Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”