CA opportunity worst in the US, sunk by the cost of living
Despite ranking last in opportunity, CA policymakers keep making it even harder just to get by. San Jose’s gasoline and energy prices are leaded with taxes, and regulations severely inflate housing costs—most peoples’ biggest expense. Funny thing is, CA ranked ok in economic opportunity, and equality. It’s the high cost that drags us into last place. Kenneth Schrupp writes for The Center Square.
USNWR’s report uses cost of living, economic opportunity, and equality to create its opportunity metric. California’s nation-worst cost of living was the main driver of the opportunity ranking, as its economic opportunity and income inequality were both better than more than half of American states’.
California housing is so expensive that the typical home requires a household income of $224,000, or three times the median household income to afford.
Gasoline in California is more expensive than even Hawaii’s, which must be imported across the Pacific Ocean, and proposed taxes could raise gas prices an additional $1.11 per gallon by 2026.
The state’s energy is more expensive than any state’s other than Hawaii, further increasing the cost of living.
America’s largest water district, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water for 19 million Americans, is raising rates 40% due to revenue losses from high levels of water conservation, putting additional pressure on Californians’ budgets.
Read the whole thing here.
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