The Golden State Unleashes the Anonymous Snoop Dogs
In their quest to “Trump proof” California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta invoke “California values.” If people across the country wonder what exactly these values might be, state politicians have provided clues.
As they gear up for the holiday season, California retailers stock items they think people will want to buy. California politicians want the state to determine what stores must offer to their customers. Assembly Bill 1084, signed by Newsom in 2021 and effective Jan. 1, 2024, mandates that large retail department stores that sell childcare items or toys must maintain a “gender-neutral” section for these items or face fines.
“By requiring large retailers to maintain a gender-neutral section,” Bonta’s office explains, “AB 1084 makes it more difficult for these retailers to engage in gender-based pricing discrimination and reduces the imposition of gender stereotypes on children.” In support of this cause, the attorney general recruits shoppers as informants.
“If you do not see an adequate gender-neutral product section in a large retail department store in California that you believe is covered by this law, you may take pictures, document, and file a complaint with our office at oag.ca.gov/report.” As Californians and people across the country should know, deploying citizens to inform on each other was a value of East Germany, a Stalinist dictatorship. Other similarities may also be apparent.
California workers value their independence and many strive to be their own boss. Newsom doesn’t value that effort. In 2019, the governor signed Assembly Bill 5, by San Diego Democrat Lorena Gonzalez, a veritable declaration against workers’ independence and their ability to earn a living.
The measure primarily targeted truck owner-operators and ride-share drivers, but in its original form, it was more far-reaching. Assembly Bill 5 targeted all kinds of independent contractors including freelance writers who did not provide more than 35 submissions per publication, per year. Musicians became de-facto employees of the venues where they played, effectively reducing their already meager pay.
During the pandemic, a group of 151 prominent economists and political scientists from 40 universities and think tanks, called for the suspension of Assembly Bill 5 to permit independent medical contractors to fill key positions in understaffed hospitals and clinics. Newsom kept the measure in place so he must value what may be the most repressive legislation in California history.
A prime mover of the measure was Julie Su, the Biden–Harris administration’s “acting” labor secretary, and overseer of California’s $30 billion unemployment scandal during the pandemic. Strictly speaking, accountability is not a California value. On the other hand, Golden State politicians always support their pillage of people.
California imposes one of the heaviest tax burdens of any state, and Californians are now fleeing in droves. When he was a member of the California Assembly, Rob Bonta promoted Assembly Bill 2088, the California Wealth Tax that would have slapped a 0.4 percent tax on the portion of a taxpayer’s net worth that exceeded $30 million. Assemblyman Bonta also wanted to keep taxing people for 10 years after they left California. The Yale law alum should know the state can’t do that.
Government greed is a value for politicians but not for California’s working people. In 1978, when seniors were being taxed out of their homes, voters passed Proposition 13, the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation. Californians also thought it was wrong to exclude people from state colleges on the basis of their race, so they passed the California Civil Rights Initiative, Proposition 209, on the November 1996 ballot.
The measure banned racial and ethnic preferences in state education, employment, and contracting. California politicians have defied state law by establishing a vast DEI bureaucracy that serves no educational purpose but does help to bulk up the University of California’s $500 million budget deficit.
Safe to say, California’s woke politburo does not value merit and fiscal responsibility. When Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta tout “California values,” they mean high taxes, quashing workers’ independence, dictating what stores can sell, and transforming shoppers into informers for the state. Happy holidays everybody.
Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif.
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