It only took two weeks but most (not all) of the election returns are in from the Golden State.  We have mostly good news to report.

Voters rejected a measure that would have raised the state’s minimum wage from $16 an hour to $18. It’s the first time a minimum wage increase has lost at the ballot box in any state since 1996.  Maybe the voters saw the catastrophe of the fast food industry leaving the state because of high minimum wage laws there.

Exit polls this month found voters were worried about businesses raising prices to offset higher labor costs. Voters also feared California’s stubbornly high unemployment rate would get worse.  In the last two years, 96.5% of all new jobs created in California have been government jobs.

Crime is out of control because of lax penalties and pro-criminal prosecutors. Statewide, 69% of voters approved Proposition 36, which imposes harsher penalties for repeat shoplifters and large-scale drug dealers.

In Los Angeles, notorious progressive prosecutor George Gascón lost by 20 points to a tough-on-crime challenger who delivered a message to police in his victory speech: “Your hands aren’t tied anymore.” In Alameda County, centered on Oakland and Berkeley, a prosecutor installed with the support of George Soros lost a recall effort in a landslide.

Now to keep the wealthy from sprinting out of California, what’s needed next is a ballot initiative to impose a 5% flat income tax as our co-founder Arthur Laffer has urged for years. The current top rate is nearly 14%, making California virtually the highest tax jurisdiction on the globe.