COLUMN RIGHT : Wilson’s Way Is Easy, Not Responsible : In selling a tax hike, he threw away the principle that has most appeal to the voters.

Summarizing the decline of 17th-Century Spain, the essayist Lord Macaulay said: “All the causes of the decay of Spain resolve themselves into one cause, bad government.” California’s decline, when it becomes apparent, will be attributable to the same cause. The problem in California didn’t begin with Gov. Pete Wilson, of course, but he showed himself, in the state’s recent budget struggle, not only incapable of resisting the expansionary tendency of government, but more than willing to abet it. This has won him favorable press attention nationwide, and praise from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown--hardly favorable omens for California.

Faced with a large budget deficit, Wilson sided with the Democrats and twisted Republican arms to enact the largest tax increase in the state’s history. In fact, spending from the general fund will increase by 7% in the coming year. But because the increase was less than planned, it was widely referred to as a “cut.” Fiscal probity seems to be a thing of the past. Since George Deukmejian took office, state spending has approximately doubled.

In persuading Republicans to support a tax increase, Wilson threw away the principle that has the most appeal to voters. Without it, the GOP stands for nothing at all. And in accommodating the expansion of state power, Wilson showed weakness rather than strength. The displeasure of recipients when their government benefits are cut exceeds that of producers when their taxes are raised. In accommodating the former at the expense of the latter, Wilson did the easy thing in the guise of acting responsibly.

Since Wilson’s capitulation, disguised as a victory, there have been soothing reports from Sacramento comparing him with Ronald Reagan. He, too, signed a big tax increase shortly after becoming governor. If it worked for Reagan, why not for Wilson? Twenty-five years ago, however, the climate in the state was far more favorably disposed toward economic growth than it is today. And Sacramento in those days was little more than a country town. The state can support only so many unproductive people; there were fewer in Reagan’s day.

I am now coming to the end of an eight-month stay in California. It’s a nice place to visit, but I would hesitate to move a business here. In the Bay Area, in particular, there’s a growing sense that nature alone is virtuous. In prim Palo Alto, the dinner-party talk among the owners of pricey homes turns to fashionable despair over the environment. No factory smoke has been spotted, of course, but it’s a sign of virtue to lament the conversion of pear orchards into electronics companies. Not surprisingly, the employment trend in Silicon Valley is down. From this vantage point, Wilson’s addition of an Environmental Protection Agency to the state’s watchdog array seems absurdly redundant.

In San Francisco, there is undisguised war on the productive. Soup lines for the homeless stretch around blocks, but the freeways haven’t been repaired since the earthquake. The other day, there was a story in the papers about gas stations not being permitted to close down (so many want to leave). When the U.S. Navy announced it was leaving the Hunters Point shipyard, the leftist mayor, Art Agnos, announced: “Whoever tries to buy it is going to have a hell of a time with the permit process if it ain’t me,” (meaning the city of San Francisco). Private sector--keep out!

The Chinese, at least, and their more recent immigrant brethren, with tactics no doubt absorbed on mainland China, have discovered the art of moving about and doing business beneath the bureaucratic radar. They expand quietly into new neighborhoods and seem to be one of the few segments of the local population that still have children. Some say they will end up taking over City Hall. Let’s hope they do.

Even before Wilson’s big tax increase, ads had begun to appear in California magazines extolling the business virtues of such spots as Nevada and Utah. “People are discovering the best place to do business in California,” one ad proclaimed: “Western Nevada.” In the Tahoe area, you only have to move a few blocks to escape Wilson’s levies. I’m told some are doing just that.

In the budget debate, the suggestion by economist Arthur Laffer that tax increases would drive business from the state was thought amusing, nonetheless. “They’re going to take all those yachts from Newport Harbor and move them to Tonopah, Nev.,” one assemblyman said. This is the voice of hubris--the hubris of those who think the productive can be forced to subsidize the unproductive indefinitely. It isn’t true, as Pete Wilson will discover in due course.