Yo, California legislature: Let us introduce you to a thought-provoking concept: accountability.California lawmakers from both parties are calling for more stringent oversight of a clean jobs initiative after an Associated Press report found that a fraction of the promised jobs have been created.The report also found that the state has no comprehensive list to show much work has been done or energy saved, three years after voters approved a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations and generate clean-energy jobs."It's clear to me that the Legislature should immediately hold oversight hearings to get to the bottom of why yet another promise to the voters has been broken," Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, said in a news released Monday.The AP reported that three years after voters passed Proposition 39, money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors. The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met.Voters in 2012 approved the Clean Energy Jobs Act by a large margin, closing a tax loophole for multistate corporations. The Legislature decided to send half the money to fund clean energy projects in schools, promising to generate more than 11,000 jobs each year.Instead, only 1,700 jobs have been created in three years, raising concerns about whether the money is accomplishing what voters were promised.
Douglas Johnson, a state government expert at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, said the slow results show the oversight board should have gotten involved much earlier.
"They should have been overseeing all stages of this project, not just waiting until the money's gone and seeing where it went," Johnson said.
But, you see, oversight boards serve as a dam to the flow of green gravy.
H/T: Doug Powers, writing at Michelle Malkin.com
No comments:
Post a Comment