Too Little, Too Late on GM Plant

When it comes to a healthy California economy and the preservation of manufacturing jobs, our politicians are a day late and a dollar short. Typical is the sobbing and whimpering of Assemblyman Richard Katz over the closure of the General Motors Van Nuys plant, scheduled in 1992.

Where was Katz in 1989, when GM was looking for help and direction as it planned its facility usage in a changing market? County Supervisor Mike Antonovich made contacts with GM’s Detroit leaders, and received tentative commitments to look at electric car production as a possibility.

While Richard Katz was planning gas-tax increases, and bond proposals (more taxes) for rapid transit and other schemes, other states were luring GM away with incentives and protections against runaway regulation.

As to Katz moaning “that GM was unwilling to reinvest in Southern California to the extent Southern California has been willing to invest in GM,” one can only look around at a consumer market saturated with Japanese-made cars. Those investments by California consumers have sent billions of dollars to Japan for education and the Japanese infrastructure, while our state is collapsing.

ERNEST DYNDA, Agoura Hills. Dynda wrote as president of the United Organization of Taxpayers.