California May Need to Rethink Budget

James Flanigan treats California’s budget deficit as a failure of political courage to raise taxes, although it actually reflects the state’s growing overpopulation [“Government Debt, Not Policies, Could Threaten Business Climate,” Sept. 25].

He criticizes inadequate spending on roads, schools, water and housing. These infrastructure shortages reveal how California’s population has outgrown economies of scale and reached the point of diminishing returns.

As Flanigan himself archly observes, even the state’s high home prices, high taxes and “poor business climate” never stopped its population growth.

Now that California’s population exceeds Canada’s, industry cannot cure state budget shortfalls by importing more immigrant labor to increase the tax base. These workers make too little to stimulate the economy with their spending, or to pay their share of taxes for maintaining an increasingly overburdened infrastructure.

Infrastructure deterioration will prove the least of our problems as we outgrow our resources. Consider that every year California adds 500,000 people while losing 50,000 acres of farmland to development. How long before the rising curve of population crosses the falling curve of food production?

Business and political leaders should look beyond balancing this year’s state budget and envision a viable populace living within its resources.

Kenneth Pasternack

Santa Barbara