Finance | California Policy Center

How Can Local Officials Prepare for the Upcoming Janus vs AFSCME Ruling?

“A public employer shall provide all public employees an orientation and shall permit the exclusive representative, if applicable, to participate.” – Excerpt from California State Assembly Bill AB 52, December 2016 In plain English, AB 52 requires every local government agency in California to bring union representatives into contact with every new hire, to “allow...

By Edward Ring

Seattle’s Minimum Wage: Bad Hygiene and Lower Wages

California’s minimum wage is set to gradually increase to $15 by 2022, following in the footsteps of minimum wage pioneer city Seattle. Unfortunately, the unintended consequences of Seattle’s minimum wage experiment are starting to show, both in deteriorating restaurant quality and in decreasing wages for low-income workers. According to the latest study, Seattle’s 2016 minimum...

By California Policy Center

Deputies’ pension and pay deals driving ‘contract’ cities to financial brink

Sacramento More than a decade ago, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department offered a good value to cities that wanted to provide police services without having to operate their own departments. However, years of excessive salary and pension increases have driven up the costs of the contracts and could drive cities toward the brink of bankruptcy....

By Steven Greenhut

Pension Reform – The San Diego Model

Beginning around 2009 it became clear to civic leaders and councilmembers that the City of San Diego faced serious financial challenges. A San Diego County Grand Jury in that year released a report that recommended the city file for bankruptcy. The report cited the underfunded City’s pension system as the primary underlying cause of their...

By Edward Ring

TAPped out: The method to CalPERS’ madness toward tiny Sierra County city

Sacramento — Observers have wondered in recent months why the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest state pension fund and one of Wall Street’s most muscular financial players, has taken such a hamfisted approach toward one of California’s tiniest and least-powerful cities. There’s a rational, albeit troubling, reason for its approach. After the...

By Steven Greenhut

From well-funded pensions to basket case, San Francisco’s voters are to blame

WORKERS OF THE WORLD: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, bottom center, walks with protesters during a march in San Francisco, May 1, 2017. Despite San Francisco’s pension disaster, Lee was one of several local officials who recently received a massive salary bump. By Steven Greenhut and David Schwartzman Sacramento — Pension reformers had for years...

By Steven Greenhut

Same old story as Loyalton’s woes echo growing pension crisis

Sacramento The tiny Sierra Nevada mountain town of Loyalton, Calif.—population: 862—has become the poster child for cities that want to check out of the California Public Employee’s Retirement System, but can’t swallow the insurmountable cost of leaving. Loyalton’s oft-repeated tale appeared again this week, on Sunday in the Los Angeles Times. All the familiar characters are there,...

By Steven Greenhut

In West Contra Costa County, bureaucrats splurge on taxpayer money

Despite living in the affluent Bay Area, residents of western Contra Costa County have been plagued by a rash of government fiscal crises. The region’s healthcare district filed for bankruptcy twice and is now no longer providing services despite collecting $5.5 million in annual parcel taxes. West County’s largest city, Richmond, carries a junk bond...

By Marc Joffe

The high-speed rail system has failed its promises

It will soon be nine years since high-speed rail was passed in California. But Californians haven’t gotten the high-speed rail system they were promised. Instead, high-speed rail has taken a new form: it is more expensive and smaller in scope, and it will substantially increase traffic congestion in urban areas. High-speed rail will cost Californians...

By David Schwartzman

California fiscal outlook remains grim

California’s state government collected $2.68 billion less in revenues than expected during the 2016-17 fiscal year. The bad news will likely worsen California’s position relative to other states: After crunching 2015 data for fiscal conditions in all fifty states, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University ranks California 43rd. While we rank a relatively strong...

By David Schwartzman

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’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

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 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