WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: California is a raging dumpster fire

California is collapsing in front of our eyes. Everyone with the money and common sense is running for their lives. The question: Why would Nevada want to be the next California?

We’ve had it so good here. While California was burying its citizens with taxes — personal and corporate income taxes, sales taxes and gasoline taxes — among the highest in the nation, Nevada citizens have enjoyed among the lowest taxes in the nation.

That could be why tens of thousands of people have left California — most for low-tax states such as Nevada, Texas, Florida and Arizona. Those states lead the nation in population growth, while California and other high-tax, blue states lead the nation in population loss.

Keep in mind this was all before the nonstop blackouts and $6 per gallon gasoline in California.

Who can live in a place where the electric utility company shuts off the power to homes and businesses for days on end, multiple times per year? California has truly become a Third World nation.

So why is this happening? I lived in California for 15 wonderful years. The winds howled back then, too. We had 80 mph Santa Ana winds, along with plenty of massive fires, floods, mudslides and earthquakes. I lived through all of them.

Yet in my 15 years in California, no one shut off electricity because the wind was blowing. No one shut off electricity because there was the threat of a fire.

I’m not a California hater. I loved my time there. It is the most beautiful state in America with the greatest weather. But something has dramatically changed since I left. Today, I wouldn’t live there if you gave me a $5 million oceanfront mansion.

The change involves disastrous liberal policies. Lots of liberal ideas ruined California — high taxes, stifling regulations, climate change policy, a permissive approach toward homeless encampments, the highest welfare benefits in the nation and a $15 minimum wage. It’s impossible to run a business in California. Restaurants are closing by the hundreds.

It’s all going bad. But one thing is at the root of California’s malaise. First and foremost, illegal immigration is the problem. Since I left two decades ago, California has collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal aliens and their bills — public schools, free meals at school, special bilingual teachers, health care, housing allowances, low-income energy assistance, aid to families with dependent children, prisons, cops, courts, public defenders, welfare, food stamps and a hundred other government handouts. And don’t forget special lower college tuition for illegals.

Can you imagine if all those billions of dollars were instead spent on new infrastructure, homeless vets, more cops, better schools for children born in California, moving power poles underground, upgrading electrical equipment and modernizing electrical systems. Can you imagine what a better place California would be for its own citizens?

I guarantee you one thing: You wouldn’t be sitting in the dark.

Why would anyone want to turn Nevada into another California? Don’t look now, but it’s happening.

Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com. Hear or watch the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.