Is the California High-Speed Rail Authority Paying for Legendary Leadership?
Is the California High-Speed Rail Authority Paying for Legendary Leadership?
Editor’s Note, 4/21/2017 – High-Speed Rail Authority Executive Director Jeff Morales announced his resignation today. Kevin Dayton’s analysis, published by CPC ten days earlier, leads us to believe that Morales’ departure is good news for California taxpayers. Robert Moses was the legendary “Master Builder” of 20th Century New York City. William Mulholland was the legendary engineer...
By Kevin Dayton
Why High-Speed Rail Should Be Audited Before Caltrain Receives Federal Funds
Why High-Speed Rail Should Be Audited Before Caltrain Receives Federal Funds
California Democrats are up in arms because a $647 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to Caltrain for system electrification has yet to be provided. They blame the 14 California House Republicans in D.C. who all signed a letter January 24, 2017, saying simply this: no further money should be provided, until California...
By Mike Brady
Union-Owned Non-Profit Affordable Housing Development Active in San Diego County Politics
Union-Owned Non-Profit Affordable Housing Development Active in San Diego County Politics
A non-profit affordable housing complex located in National City, California has become a major political force in San Diego County. Since 2010, the “San Diego County Building Trades Council Family Housing Corporation dba National City Park Apartments” has donated about $800,000 directly to campaign committees, most of them based in San Diego County. It has been a top...
By Kevin Dayton
Unions Foiled in Plot to Evade Open Government Law
Unions Foiled in Plot to Evade Open Government Law
It’s rare to see a California local government rescind a vote. But on October 4, 2016, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to rescind a controversial and probably illegal vote taken three weeks earlier to satisfy the political demands of construction unions. Rescind Project Labor Agreement Vote – San Joaquin County Board of...
By Kevin Dayton
California Needs Infrastructure, and Unions Should be Helping
California Needs Infrastructure, and Unions Should be Helping
“Infrastructure” is a perennial topic that enters and leaves California’s public consciousness in the following manner: A politician says “we must rebuild our crumbling infrastructure,” journalists report it, almost nothing is done, and the infrastructure continues to crumble. The talking point is made. Check the box. Repeat. Decades pass. If you’ve driven west on Interstate...
By Edward Ring
High Speed Rail Is ‘On Track’ to Incur Billions in Overruns
High Speed Rail Is ‘On Track’ to Incur Billions in Overruns
Editor’s Note: This article by Jon Coupal provides an update on what has to be one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetrated on California’s voters – “High Speed Rail” that will never make a profit, will never move significant numbers of people, will not even be “high speed” in many sections of track, cannot...
By Jon Coupal
How Gov't Unions and Crony Capitalists Exploit Global Warming Concerns
How Gov't Unions and Crony Capitalists Exploit Global Warming Concerns
If anyone is looking for evidence that government unions use their immense influence to support the growth of an authoritarian state, look no further than their unequivocal support for global warming “mitigation,” and all attendant agencies and laws to support that goal. In 2006 California’s union-controlled legislature passed AB32, the “Global Warming Solutions Act,” a...
By Edward Ring
"Other" in California Prevailing Wage Creeps Higher
"Other" in California Prevailing Wage Creeps Higher
The California Department of Industrial Relations does not determine state prevailing wage rates for construction trades by surveying contractors or workers or by using statistics gathered by the California Economic Development Department. By law, the state uses union agreements to set prevailing wages. Thus, the prevailing wage is always the “union wage.” And the geographical...
By Kevin Dayton
Resist the “Pothole Tax”
Resist the “Pothole Tax”
Last week, Will Kempton, Executive Director of Transportation California and former Director of Caltrans published a response to Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, in a Fox & Hounds piece stating that, “…in spite of all the recent audits and criticism, the organization employs competent people who want to serve the public well.” In the...
By John Moorlach
High Costs of Pro-Union Agreements & Policies Negates Transportation Tax
High Costs of Pro-Union Agreements & Policies Negates Transportation Tax
According to my father, in the 1950s and ’60s, California had the best transportation agency in the entire world. But all that changed with the election of a new, anti-growth, small-is-beautiful governor by the name of Jerry Brown. Now, fast forward 40 years. Governor Brown, version 2.0, proposes a budget that assumes a big increase...
By Jon Coupal
Public Safety Unions and the Financial Apocalypse
Public Safety Unions and the Financial Apocalypse
Imagine for a moment that two premises are beyond serious debate: (1) That there will be another financial crisis within the next five years that will equal or exceed the severity of the one experienced in 2009, and (2) That the political power of public safety unions will prevent local governments from enacting pension reforms...
By Edward Ring
Despite the Threat of Bankruptcy, Stanton Is Spending Millions to Build One Park
Despite the Threat of Bankruptcy, Stanton Is Spending Millions to Build One Park
CHAPTER 1: PIGS (ala Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain) In March 2011, facing a $4 million deficit, panicked Stanton City Council members met in special session and voted unanimously, dramatically to declare a fiscal emergency. It was the sort of thing we’d been hearing from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain for months—a government’s tax revenues...
By Will Swaim
CA Democrats are Not Standing Up for "Working Families"
CA Democrats are Not Standing Up for "Working Families"
It’s election season, so every California Democrat politician is out there on the campaign trail, precinct walking with their “friends” in labor, and speaking to labor organizations and anyone else who will listen. They are speaking with one voice–that ” we are proud to stand up for working families.” This may sound like a great...
By David Kersten
Citizens Group Objecting to Solar Power in Kern County Is Union Front Group
Citizens Group Objecting to Solar Power in Kern County Is Union Front Group
Construction trade unions in California remain distressed about how solar power is harming the environment. Their latest worry is the 150-megawatt Willow Springs Solar Project proposed for Kern County, in Antelope Valley at the Los Angeles County border. An energy company called First Solar has been planning this project since 2010. In February 2015 Kern County released a...
By Kevin Dayton