Finance | California Policy Center

Local and State Initiatives – The Future of Policy in California?

Grassroots activists in California point to the initiative process as a potent and underutilized last resort, capable of ushering in sweeping reforms. They’re right, but the initiative process is equally available to California’s progressives, backed by powerful special interests. And while the activist reformers talk, the progressives act. How else does one explain the hundreds...

By Edward Ring

Politicians who accept Government Union money betray the public

Public sector unions should be illegal. They have very little in common with private sector unions, which, properly regulated, play a vital role in society. The differences between public sector and private sector unions are significant. For example: 1 – Private sector unions cannot be unreasonable in the demands they bring to negotiations with management,...

By Edward Ring

How Does a California Family Survive?

It’s common enough to discuss the high cost-of-living in California. It’s become a serious topic, at last. But for Californians who are used to paying ridiculous prices for everything, it may be helpful to present a comparison in the form of an annual family budget. How much does it cost to take care of a...

By Edward Ring

Allocation of Teacher Union Dues by State

First and foremost, teachers’ unions are passionate advocates for their members interests, fighting tirelessly for their wages, benefits, and working conditions. Or so the theory goes. But much like communism, unions in theory and unions in practice are very different things. In reality, teachers’ unions do not primarily spend their members’ dues on representation– they...

By Reiss Becker

Citizen Reformers Set to Transform Oxnard’s Politics

Oxnard has got a problem. The city’s contributions to CalPERS, which totaled $23 million in their fiscal year 2016-17, are going to increase to $45 million by 2024-25. Where is this money going to come from? As reported last week, the “skyrocketing pension costs” have already led Oxnard’s Mayor to call for “painful cuts.” But if...

By Edward Ring

L.A. tax addicts looking to score

Union leader and the school district want more of your money to feed a bad habit. United Teachers of Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl is on a mission. In an online rant to his flock, he makes a pitch for Measure EE, a parcel tax that will be on the ballot in Los Angeles on...

By Larry Sand

Los Angeles Unified School Dysfunction

More bad news from the nation’s second largest school district. According to a report released last week, less than half of the 2019 Los Angeles Unified School District graduating class will be eligible to attend one of the state’s public universities. There are 15 essential “A–G” courses, including English, math, and science that students need...

By Larry Sand

Membership in California’s government unions plummeted in 2018, federal report shows

“Walk out on the union, not the kids”: A California Policy Center social media advertisement delivered during the Los Angeles teachers strike. Memo to anyone still wondering about the impact of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 decision in Janus v AFSCME: Wonder no more. Despite a surging economy, union membership in California dropped by 86,000...

By Editorial Staff

L.A. teachers in open rebellion – this time against their own union leaders

Union chief Caputo-Pearl: “This agreement is horrible,” a teacher wrote on UTL:A’s Facebook page. “It was not worth striking 7 minutes let alone 7 days!!! Our union has let us down once again.” (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) LOS ANGELES — L.A. teachers on Tuesday voted on a deal their union calls “historic.” But by then, the...

By Mark Bucher

Disunion: Union membership in key school district fell dramatically after Janus

CLASS WAR: Teachers union activists and supporters surround Santa Ana school district candidate Angie Cano, April 2018. Cano, a school choice activist, was attempting to speak at a district board meeting. Police escorted her into the building. Union membership in California’s sixth-largest school district fell rapidly in 2018, perhaps signaling a broader statewide decline following...

By Editorial Staff

Just How Much Money Might CalPERS Have to Collect in an Economic Downturn?

When evaluating the financial challenges facing California’s state and local public employee pension funds, a compelling question to consider is when, exactly when, will these funds financially collapse? That is, of course, an impossible question to answer. CalPERS, for example, manages hundreds of billions in assets, which means that long before it literally runs out...

By Edward Ring

When is a political campaign neither political nor a campaign?

California law prohibits government officials from using taxpayer dollars “for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure.” But on February 13, in the meeting room of the Santa Ana Unified School District, school officials revealed a political campaign that began with shaping public opinion and will end in November with a district-wide vote on a bond measure that will cost residents hundreds of millions of dollars.

By Kelly McGee

School officials want you thinking how to spend millions, but not how they’ll get it

Survey says? Whatever they want it to say. Under the guise of measuring public opinion, Santa Ana school officials are trying to shape it – and they’re using taxpayer dollars to pay for it. In April and May, Santa Ana Unified School District officials papered the city with mail that looks like a poll. The...

By Kelly McGee

The SAUSD Song Remains the Same

1999: Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, Beyonce Knowles and LeToya Luckett, of Destiny’s Child, perform at the Woodlands Pavilion at Jump Jam. Santa Ana Unified was asking taxpayers to pay its unplayable bills. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Steve Campbell) It’s 1999, and Bill Clinton is one year removed from his affair with Monica Lewinsky becoming public. Destiny’s...

By Kelly McGee