California's landscape has become synonymous with devastation. Every wildfire season brings heart-breaking destruction and tremendous loss. But here's the question. Why does this keep happening in California, and why do California's leaders continue to betray their people?
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom's recent response to the Los Angeles wildfires sums up the problem. When asked why the hydrant emptied while firefighters were battling the fire, his answer was infuriating. “Local people are going to have to figure that out. It's going to be decided by local government.” The same governor who has meddled in every aspect of Californians' lives will be held responsible for a literal life-or-death crisis. When he gets to the stage, he suddenly shrugs his shoulders.
Public-private partnerships perpetuate dysfunction by removing accountability from those who are actually responsible.
Mr. Newsom's words reveal a deeper problem: California's water crisis and the role of public-private partnerships in exacerbating it. Hailed as innovative governance, these partnerships have proven to be little more than nepotism disguised as progress. They have created a labyrinth of unaccountable bureaucracies that prioritize profits over people, and the results are devastating.
root of the problem
California's water crisis did not emerge overnight. In 1994, a secret meeting between state water officials, contractors, and farmland owners in Monterey rewrote the state's water regulations without voter input. The Monterey Plus Amendment would give priority to agricultural conglomerates over urban areas in times of shortages. Today, billionaire couple Stewart and Linda Resnick control a staggering share of California's water supply, using more than 150 billion gallons.
The Resnicks did not gain this control in spite of California's government, but through a system designed by California's progressive leaders. These public-private partnerships allow politicians to insist on clean hands, while bureaucrats can make deals that benefit donors. The Resnick family's influence extends to funding politicians and promoting projects such as the Delta Tunnel, a taxpayer-funded project to provide water to Central Valley farms.
Who is their favorite politician? The late Dianne Feinstein used her position in the U.S. Senate to sway money and policy to her advantage.
Wildfires caused by corruption
Public-private partnerships perpetuate dysfunction by removing accountability from those who are actually responsible. When wildfires occur, power companies shut off power to avoid liability, which shuts down water pumps essential to fighting fires. result? There is no water in the fire hydrant.
Governor Newsom's excuse that generators are being transported to pumping stations “as soon as possible” is laughable. How could the state not have foreseen the need for backup power in critical infrastructure?
Meanwhile, Sacramento's elites blame power companies for being the direct cause of the wildfires, while blaming them for their selfish negligence in depriving the state of critical infrastructure and precautions to stop the wildfires from advancing. You can close your eyes.
Warning to America
What's happening in California is not unique. It's a warning to the rest of the country. Public-private partnerships, the brainchild of libertarian and progressive policy, are poisoning our system across the country. Health care, food production, medicine, and even border policy are full of these crony arrangements. Politicians create unaccountable bureaucracies, scoop up corporate donations, and shirk responsibility when crises occur.
Donald Trump highlighted this very issue during a 2016 debate when he said he was copying tax laws created by politicians. Big corporations and billionaires operate within the confines of a system designed by lawmakers, but they are demonized while lawmakers are free to skate. The same dynamics are playing out in California's water crisis. The Resnicks may be abusing the system, but it was built by the politicians who profit from it.
Californians face a choice: continue down this path of corruption and destruction or demand accountability. Replacing Gavin Newsom with another progressive clone won’t solve the problem. Californians must reject the public-private partnership model and dismantle the bureaucracy that protects politicians from accountability.
The wildfires that have consumed Southern California's landscape are a symptom of the fires that are burning deeper into its governance. Unless Californians demand change, the state's future will be up in the air.
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