Cap-and-trade passage is about raising taxes, divvying up the spoils
Cap-and-trade passage is about raising taxes, divvying up the spoils
Sacramento What were Gov. Jerry Brown, legislative Democrats and eight Republicans thinking Monday, as they voted to extend the state’s cap-and-trade system for another decade, something that will impose higher gas taxes on Californians who already face a recent gas-tax hike? Are officials ignoring public rumblings, or was Brown’s doomsday rhetoric about global warming really...
By Steven Greenhut
California should follow Michigan’s lead on pensions
California should follow Michigan’s lead on pensions
California’s previous attempts at pension reform have had a negligible impact. We should look to solutions from other states to tackle our growing pension problem. Last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a landmark school pension reform bill that will cap the growth of pension liabilities. California legislators need to follow Michigan’s lead to save...
By David Schwartzman
Hollywood gets paid while best and brightest leave california
Hollywood gets paid while best and brightest leave california
Last week, my friend Ethan announced that he is moving to Ohio. Ethan is an extremely bright entrepreneur in his mid-thirties, who grew up in Southern California. He’s civic minded – joined non-profit boards, gave to charities what he could afford, and was even been elected to his local water board. He’s moving because his...
By Bob Loewen
California government retirement plans are more than 50% underfunded
California government retirement plans are more than 50% underfunded
California is failing its employees and its citizens. Documents show that the state and local governments in California do not have enough money saved up to pay for the retirement of its current employees. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is facing future insolvency. These findings come from the 2015 CalPERS Actuarial Report for...
By David Schwartzman
CalPERS: High expectations come with high risks for public agencies
CalPERS: High expectations come with high risks for public agencies
Later this month, we should hear some rare good news from CalPERS. Portfolio returns for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017 may exceed 10%. The strong performance on the back of Donald Trump’s bull market that many think has ended may provide a respite for state and local governments struggling with increased pension contributions....
By David Schwartzman
Government cuts services, staff to afford pension costs
Government cuts services, staff to afford pension costs
Across California, many local governments have raised taxes while cutting services. Local officials desperate for union support have made irresponsible deals with public employee unions, creating staggering employee costs. Taxpayer money meant to provide essential services to the least well-off instead goes directly to higher salaries and benefits. In Santa Barbara County, the 2017-2018 budget...
By David Schwartzman
Republican Senate healthcare plan is a better Rx than California single-payer
Republican Senate healthcare plan is a better Rx than California single-payer
Mainstream media are taking a short break from their 24/7 Trump-Russia conspiracy theorizing to bash the Senate Republican healthcare proposal. Viewers are being told that the proposal would gut Medicaid and kill thousands. Like any piece of complex legislation, the Senate bill is far from perfect, but it is an important step in the right direction...
By Marc Joffe
California is America’s economic prison
California is America’s economic prison
It is easy to see how tightly the state micromanages our lives and businesses. Our high tax burden, powerful unions, government debt, and overbearing regulations all speak to California’s low economic freedom. Whether one examines the United States, California, or each of its counties, Californians live in an economic prison. Country Freedom The United States...
By Nicholas Umashev
Single Payer and Progressive Economic Illiteracy
Single Payer and Progressive Economic Illiteracy
California State Senate passage of an especially bad single payer health care bill earlier this month is testimony to the economic and fiscal illiteracy of RoseAnn DeMoro, the California Nurses Association leader who is pushing this bill through the legislature. DeMoro makes over $350,000 per year ostensibly to protect nurse’s salaries and benefits, but she...
By Marc Joffe
Governor, legislators spend more and ignore obstacles to reform
Governor, legislators spend more and ignore obstacles to reform
Sacramento Legislators announced a budget deal last week that spends a record $125 billion in the general fund. But most interesting isn’t what’s in the deal, but what isn’t. There’s plenty of new spending, of course, but not so much that it outpaces the rate of inflation. There are controversial “trailer” bills that attempt to...
By Steven Greenhut
Single-payer bill could bankrupt California
Single-payer bill could bankrupt California
The state Senate’s vote to pass Ricardo Lara’s single-payer healthcare bill last week was a singular act of fiscal malpractice. By failing to control costs and access to the program – and by leaving unanswered how or whether federal funds could be leveraged – Lara’s Healthy California Act amounts to a blank check for hospitals,...
By Marc Joffe
Transparency: The Legislature Giveth and the Legislature Taketh Away – Simultaneously!
Transparency: The Legislature Giveth and the Legislature Taketh Away – Simultaneously!
California’s state legislature is poised to pass two bills that will have profound effects on citizens’ rights to obtain documents from their governments under the California Public Records Act. One is a step forward for citizens (AB 1479) and one is a step backward (AB 1455). AB 1479 passed the Assembly by a vote of...
By Craig Alexander
Brown’s latest budget belies his fiscally conservative rhetoric
Brown’s latest budget belies his fiscally conservative rhetoric
At last week’s budget press conference, Governor Jerry Brown warned of the threat of a recession and the risk to California’s budget from federal health care legislation, but the details of his 2017-18 budget plans failed to mirror his cautionary rhetoric.
By Marc Joffe
Forget fiscal responsibility: Jerry Brown embraces pension shell game
Forget fiscal responsibility: Jerry Brown embraces pension shell game
The Brown administration decided to (kind of, sort of) tackle the state’s massive and growing level of unfunded liabilities – i.e., the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer-backed debt to fund retirement promises made to the state’s government employees. It’s best to curb our enthusiasm, however. The governor didn’t have much of a choice.
By Steven Greenhut