While California’s economy continues to produce some impressive headline numbers, its trajectory is becoming increasingly dependent on the tech sector. And now that tech has gone all in on artificial intelligence, the state’s finances are vulnerable to either a bursting of the “AI Bubble” or an exit of AI innovators to other states. Gov. Gavin...
Assembly Bill 495 (Celeste Rodriguez, D – San Fernando Valley) was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Newsom, over the objections of many parental rights advocates, attorneys, and policy experts. This explainer breaks down the parts of the law that pose a potential threat to parental rights, and presents three model...
The latest news on history, civics, and patriotism in our public schools is a mixed bag. In the early days of our republic, George Washington understood that civic education was essential for preserving freedom. More recently, the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reminded us that civic knowledge isn’t inherited genetically but must be...
California’s Little Hoover Commission was created in 1962 “as an independent and bipartisan state agency charged with making recommendations to the governor and Legislature on ways to make state programs more efficient.” Funded by taxpayers, officially nonpartisan, they’ve just released a set of recommendations to lower “The High Cost of Electricity in California.” They’re right about the high...
Ballot initiatives are supposed to empower the people to stand up to moneyed special interests. Fifteen states permit the people to pass laws and amend their state constitutions by popular vote. A fixture in California politics since 1914, the citizen ballot initiative enabled notable victories for the Californians, perhaps most notably Proposition 13 in 1978,...
The California Policy Center is pleased to announce that Will Swaim has been named Chief Executive Officer of the organization, and longtime Executive Vice President Jackson Reese has been promoted to President. The board approved the promotions to ensure CPC’s continued growth and long-term mission. Swaim will continue leading CPC as CEO, advancing the organization’s...
The cost-of-living has become a national issue, a favored topic of partisan debate. The debate is governed by emotions, ideology, and widely divergent economic theories, probably in that order. Our contribution to this debate, drawing on all three of those influences, is simple: Abundance lowers prices, and deregulation enables abundance. Conversely, scarcity increases prices, and...
Let me tell you something that shouldn’t need to be said: If you want housing to be affordable, you shouldn’t start by making it more expensive. Nationally, approximately 5% of the cost of building a new home is attributed to regulatory costs. That includes permits, compliance with zoning rules, environmental reviews, fees, studies, and the...
Las Vegas is pioneering a new form of underground transportation that could one day benefit congested California cities at low cost. The Boring Company, founded by Elon Musk, is digging a series of narrow tunnels and transporting passengers through them in Tesla sedans. Ultimately, the Boring Company’s Vegas Loop can evolve into a viable alternative...
Achieving California’s goal of net zero by 2045 requires rapidly transitioning away from combustible fuel. It’s a risky strategy. If the transition happens too fast, Californians confront energy shortages and high prices. When it comes to electricity, Newsom has so far managed to avoid an acute crisis by sensibly prolonging that transition. In 2023, he delayed the...
To paraphrase and utterly subvert one of Karl Marx’s best-known quotes, a “spectre” is haunting Silicon Valley—the spectre of authentic abundance. All the powers of woke California have entered into an unholy alliance to exorcise this spectre: public sector unions, the environmentalist lobby, the crony capitalists, Antifa radicals, and Reddit trolls. They’re going to lose....
One would think that a few years after the COVID-19 lockdowns in California, things would settle down for school districts. But in Los Angeles County, for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024, 10 of the districts moved up or down the annual fiscal rankings by double digits. It’s a time-consuming chore to go...
Out of the 79 school districts in Los Angeles County, 11 made double-digit moves in the fiscal rankings for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, over 2022. Was your district one of them? It is important for you to know the fiscal standing of your school district and where it stands among its peers....
Why is it axiomatic among California’s water agencies and policymakers that large scale desalination is inconceivable in California? That certainly isn’t the case in other arid locales. In 2024, an estimated 30 million acre feet of fresh water was produced by desalination plants worldwide. On the coast of the Red Sea, about 60 miles south of the...