A sobering Stateline article Tuesday about closing auto dealerships only strengthens the case for cutting the size of state government immediately:
"Consider that a fifth of California’s sales tax revenue is from new and used car sales."
"As these local dealerships close, the impact will be more profound than people realize," said Sen. Mark Norris, the Republican Senate majority leader in Tennessee. Chrysler is planning to close 14 dealerships in his state."
"To improve profits, Chrysler, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, said it will close 789 dealerships throughout the country by June 9. GM has not released the list of 1,200 dealers it plans to shutter."
Read the rest here.
Gov. Steve Beshear's common practice has been to set up blue ribbon commissions in the face of challenging problems. That is the very least he could do here.
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Gov. Schwartzneger (R-CA) could have signed into law an industrial hemp bill several years ago. Instead, he vetoed it.
With over 50,000 products that can be made from hemp, including autos, Schwartzneger signaled his unwillingness to move in the direction of renewable and sustainable resources.
In Alexander Hamilton's 1791 report to Congress on manufactures, he wrote:
The aggregate prosperity of manufactures, and the aggregate prosperity of agriculture are intimately connected.And of hemp, Hamilton wrote:
This is an article of importance enough to warrant the employment of extraordinary means in its favor.Schwartzneger is reaping what he sowed.
And, for that matter, so is Kentucky.
Hemp played a significant role in Kentucky's prosperity in the 1800s. Again, during WWII.
Kentucky's currently the number two grower of marijuana.
Too bad Kentucky's politicians can't seem to understand the link between agriculture and manufacturing and prosperity—so long as it is accompanied with high wages.
Neither can Kentucky politicians understand the economic potential that hemp has for Kentucky despite a 1998 University of Kentucky report detailing industrial hemp's potential.
Then there's the potential tax revenue from regulating and taxing recreational and medical hemp, aka, "marijuana."
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