[KEVIN KILEY - California Legislator, January 21, 2021]
Dear President Biden,
Congratulations on your inauguration. In your Inaugural Address, you called -the truth" one of the "common objects we love that define us as Americans." You added, "There is truth and there are lies." In the spirit of your remarks, I am writing to correct several inaccuracies in a January 19 letter sent to you by the Governor of my State, Gavin Newsom.
Page 1, paragraph 1: Governor Newsom states California is "a model for what's possible."
In fact, California's own residents sec it as a model that has failed:
• California just had its slowest population growth in a century, losing a net 135,600 people to other states. Mark Baldassare with the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute called the numbers "really startling" and a "wake-up call" for policymakers, saying "this isn't the Golden State of the past" where people came from all over "to find their way to the California dream."'
• A study this month by U-Haul ranked California "last by a wide margin" out of the 50 states in terms of migration growth.`'
• A recent survey showed 53 percent of Californians were thinking of leaving the state.
• In a poll last month, 63 percent of respondents said the American Dream is dead here: that kids growing up in California today will be worse off than their parents.
• The highest poverty rate.
• The largest homeless population, with up to half the nation's unsheltered homeless.'
• The second worst education for poor students, ahead of only Alaska.
... KEVIN KILEY
California Legislator
