By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – June 22, 2021 It is not often that our State's Governor, Gavin Newsom, nor the State's Legislators can come together and draft legislation that is so clearly counter to what it is meant to achieve that which even the most intellectually challenged person will find it somewhat mystifying. Recently our slick back haired empty suit announced a "new " $100 billion extravaganza the "California Comeback Plan" which will expend tax payer dollars in the most lavish sense possible to pay all back rent owed and utilities for the millions of renters who fell behind due to the pandemic. In addition, the Sacramento government is considering extending the moratorium on evictions set to end on June 30th, the total cost to the taxpayers, $5.2 billion. Now while this may seem as a win for certain segments of California's struggling population, it most certainly does not extend much beyond that and merely delays the inevitable, there's no such thing as a free lunch. It is being reported that over three quarters of a million renters are behind on their rent in California, most averaging nearly $5,000 in arrears. Newsom and the State's legislators appear to want renters owing back rent to remain in their rentals while using taxpayer money to keep them there. The target being to continue with this tactic until the State's unemployment rate falls to pre-pandemic levels. Of course no one has bothered to explain how this will happen when current unemployment pay exceeds what low income employees earned fully employed and now are having rent and utilities paid for by the government. Not a particularly attractive path towards increased employment when you add a rent and utility free pay out to an already lucrative existence. Irregardless of this completely preposterous path that the State and its Governor has taken, it begs the question of what is to be done for the thousands of small landlords that could ill afford to take a pass on what was already owed to them and were forced to sell their formerly income producing rentals long before the government's lavish "rescue package". Many such unfortunates that could not tap into any such "rescue plans" now find themselves struggling to stay afloat after wealthy investors swooped in to purchase said properties at bargain basement prices only to re-rent them at far higher rents, further acerbating the already tight rental market for low income families. The bottom line is, that government tinkering with rentals, unemployment, and now utilities, is having a cascading effect on lives in California. Coupled with recent Federal policies, the fruits of that meddling are yet to be realized. Not only will most things that people purchase be increasing in cost, but rent and utilities will suffer a combination of inflationary increases which will most assuredly fall on those least likely to be able to afford those increases. California already suffers from an unemployment rate at over eight percent while the rest of the nation's states are faring nearly two points better. Rentals units are soaring in cost where a single one bedroom rental in Los Angeles averages over $2400 per month. Most likely your utility bills will soon be following. Thank you very much Governor Newsom and the California State legislators. Where California is already experiencing a population drain, is that soon to follow with a torrent of people escaping to other more thoughtful states where their pockets are not being continually fleeced by ever greater political stupidity.