For Immediate Release August 18, 2016 California Policy Center Contact: Will Swaim Will@CalPolicyCenter.org (714) 573-2231 SACRAMENTO — It’s rare that a think-tank study produces real reform, but it happened today when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill designed to stop school officials before they recklessly spend again. Assembly Bill 2116 began one year ago with...

If you’ve recently driven on most any California freeway, you’ve seen the default message on the government-owned electronic billboards, “Severe Drought Conditions – Reduce Outdoor Water Use.” The message seems reasonable enough. Several years of lower-than-average rainfall have left the state’s reservoirs depleted, so why should households be wasting water, indoor or outdoor? And if...

Money in politics has been a recurrent theme in this election cycle. Campaign finance reform advocates, mainstream media and certain candidates have repeatedly driven home the idea that corporations and rich conservatives are biasing the political process by making big-money donations, often without disclosure. Much of the narrative – advanced by authors such as New...

In Show of Force, Fight for 15 Plots Its Political Path By Justin Miller, August 16, 2016, San Francisco Chronicle The Fight for 15’s first-ever national convention convened in Richmond, Virginia, this past weekend attracted diverse groups of low-wage workers from across the country in a stunning demonstration of the movement’s continued strength and ambition....

State Controller Betty Yee’s just-released July Cash Report shows state personal income tax revenue falling behind estimates by 6.9 percent, or $323 million lower than projections. While some will argue that one month does not make a trend, these figures are significant because they represent revenue in the first month of the new state budget,...

In a blatant power-play, UTLA president targets health benefits and charter schools, calling for a “state crisis” if he doesn’t get his way. United Teachers of Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl gave a speech for the ages a couple of weeks ago, securing a wing in the pantheon-of-vile, a place which includes such memorable outbursts...

Can’t understand why the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Movement for Black Lives have issued proclamations opposing the expansion of school choice and Parent Power for the very black families for which they proclaim to care? The answer can be found in the annual financial statements of the National Education...

Sen. Ben Allen’s SB 1107 wants to allow public funding of campaigns, something voters prohibited years ago. A long time acquaintance of mine, David Keating who now runs the Center for Competitive Politics in Washington, D.C. had an opinion piece in yesterday’s Orange County Register blasting the attempt by Sen. Allen to overturn a vote of...

Editor’s Note:  In this analysis by economic strategist Michael Lebowitz, more evidence is presented that returns on investments, all of them, everywhere, are plateauing. Investors who are searching for yield can no longer turn to bonds, which have rates at or near zero, or in some cases, rates that are negative. Investors searching for yield can...