PD Editorial: California's need for a new focus

"Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is — the strong horse that pulls the whole cart." — Winston Churchill

Gavin Newsom is right. California needs a new conversation, one that starts with renewed emphasis on education and — as noted in the quote he offered above — on the importance of private enterprise.

"You can't continue to do what you've doing and get what you've got," the lieutenant governor said Tuesday at a Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce breakfast in recognition of Small Business Week.

The state has become preoccupied with long-standing debates about teacher tenure and various reform efforts and is losing focus on bigger issues, such as how to get California past being average to ensure its students and businesses can be competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

The former mayor of San Francisco, who is running for re-election, noted how during the three decades prior to 1980, California had an annual job growth rate of 3.7 percent, well above the national figure. For the three decades since, the rate was around 1.1 percent.

"What happened?" Newsom asked the 200 or so people gathered at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel. "We have been, dare I say, average."

He encouraged the group to look to restoring the state's role as the "tent pole" for the U.S. economy by spurring innovation and removing barriers that prevent the development of small business, which employ more than half of California's workers.

"Real job growth must occur at the local level," he said.

Unfortunately, not all local areas in California are growing at the same pace. "We are two worlds living in the same state," Newsom said. One is coastal, where the economy is humming, but in the inland areas, unemployment remains at Great Recession levels.

Sonoma County benefits from a jobless rate of 6.2 percent while in Imperial and Colusa counties, he noted, it's 20 percent and 24.5 percent respectively.

Equating it to the massive blooming of wildflowers in Death Valley following the storms of 2005, Newsom said California needs to "create the right conditions where success becomes irresistible."

The time for this discussion is now. As Newsom was concluding his remarks, Gov. Jerry Brown was releasing a revised budget with a record-high level of state spending. The revised $107.7 billion budget includes nearly $1 billion more than what Brown had projected just three months ago.

That California's economy — at least the coastal regions — is humming again is welcome news. But before the governor and the Legislature take this budget and slip back into old ways of spending, we encourage lawmakers to have a conversation about what can and should be done differently to create good-paying jobs and widespread economic growth.

It's a conversation that needs to include, at least in terms of Churchill's quote, an honest look at where California has been guilty of putting the cart before the horse.