From the Publisher/Arnold G. York
Today is Election Day, and strangely enough no one seems to care. Everyone seems to have burned themselves out on the governor’s recall. They’re anticipating a very low turnout, perhaps 39 percent of the registered voters, which is nowhere near the 60 percent turnout the recall inspired. It’s obvious that all the major presidential players have decided to bypass California for now and concentrate in other states like Ohio, which are apparently more critical. There isn’t even the usual assortment of political mail you would expect before a primary.
Also, former Gov. Gray Davis, who was widely unloved for his lack of personality, has apparently had a personality implant and is suddenly showing up on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” with his replacement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two of them are doing a tandem act. Go figure!
The propositions are just about anybody’s guess. Recent polling by the Public Policy Institute of California, frequently known as the PPIC Poll and generally considered by most of the political pros to be a highly reliable polling organization, did some last minute polling on the propositions and found the outcome to be uncertain because so many people hadn’t made up their minds yet. Schwarzenegger was out thumping the state, putting his dollars and prestige on the line. Even though his two favorites, Proposition 57 (the $15 billion debt reduction bond) and Proposition 58 (structural budget reforms), had gained some ground, it was still far from clear how the public would vote.
Oil prices sky high-who is doing what about it?
On the economic side there are two things going on simultaneously that I simply can’t understand. For one thing, every time I pass a gas pump, the price has jumped again. Not only that, but we apparently have just about the most expensive gas in the nation. I can’t see any great cataclysmic change in the world in the last few months that would imperil the world’s oil supply, nor can I see that this winter has been particularly harsh or cold. Apparently, when our oil moves through the pipeline, it increases in value, mile by mile.
Since California is both an oil producing state and an oil refining state, the only conclusion I can come to is that once again someone is ripping us off, and our state and federal governments are not doing much about it. The federal government is not doing anything because our presidency is practically owned by the oil industry. Besides, the Justice Department is so busy with all its resources focused on trying to convict that great public enemy, Martha Stewart, that it simply can’t spare the manpower to investigate why we’re being robbed blind. On the state level, our Attorney General Bill Lockeyer is ever so busy taking same-sex couples to the California Supreme Court that he simply can’t find the time or a grand jury to look at this wild jump in gas prices at the pumps.
When the stock market got excessively greedy, the attorney general of New York jumped into the fray with both feet. It was not surprising how quickly Wall Street responded, and is still responding. It’s also interesting that, with criminal sanctions in the offing, things start coming out, like the fact that many of the mutual fund companies were ripping off shareholders.
Looking for an 800-pound gorilla to change workers’ comp system
In case you’re wondering what started this entire tirade, the truth is, I just got my workers’ compensation bill for next year. Our rates are once again going to double. Considering that we’ve had no significant losses this year, or for that matter, any year, you might well wonder how it is that since 2001 our workers’ comp rates have doubled, and then doubled again. After all, nothing major has changed. The law hasn’t changed significantly. Even the economy, although not great, has been slowly improving, so I’ve got to assume the insurance companies are doing better. The stock market has improved, therefore the value of insurance company portfolios are picking up. So what’s going on?
The strange part is that workers’ compensation benefits in California aren’t even particularly generous compared to some other industrial states. As it’s been described to me, there are three major players in workers’ compensation in California. They are the doctors, the lawyers and the insurance companies. As it was explained to me, “Put any two of them in a room and they’ll screw the third. Put all three of them in a room and they’ll end up screwing the rest of us.”
This rate of change is unacceptable. Someone, a big someone with a big club, has to go into the room with them and bring about some significant change because it’s clear this current system isn’t working. I only know of one 800-pound gorilla in Sacramento. It remains to be seen if he can pull it off.