Legislation & Regulations | 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

The Density Delusion

For decades, American workers have watched as their ability to enjoy middle class lifestyles erodes away. Conventional explanations abound. American industry in the immediate aftermath of World War II was uniquely unscathed, and with a near monopoly on global manufacturing, it was able to pass much of the ample profits on to workers. It wasn’t...

By Edward Ring

California’s Regulatory Hostility Prevents More New Homes

The median home price in Los Angeles County is $618,000. In Santa Clara County it’s $1.2 million. In the entire state of California, including the somewhat more “affordable” inland counties, the median home price is $548,000. The national median home price? $227,000. There’s a reason for this. For decades, California’s state and local governments have made it harder and more expensive for any...

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

The Homeless Industrial Complex

Los Angeles could be at risk of a deadly typhus epidemic this summer according to Dr. Drew Pinsky, an outspoken celebrity doctor and specialist in addiction medicine. Pinsky, a Los Angeles native, recently quoted on Fox News, said: “We have tens and tens of thousands of people living in tents. Horrible conditions. Rats have taken over the city....

By Edward Ring

National Association of Arrogant Calculating Phonies

Renegade locals fight California state NAACP and national board over anti-charter school stance. Nearly 68 percent of all black public school students in California perform below their grade level in English and language arts, and more than 80 percent fail to meet the state’s proficiency mark in math, according to the latest California Assessment of...

By Larry Sand

Fifty costly years of failure to “fix” education

Research shows that technocratic reforms have made no difference in alleviating the achievement gap. A new study by Eric Hanushek et al. for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that all the top-down fixes – No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, etc. – piled on by the education industrial complex have...

By Larry Sand

Housing and Transportation – How California’s Legislature Gets EVERYTHING Wrong

California, the welcoming sanctuary state, has a population on track to break 40 million by the end of this year. Its highway system was designed to handle a population of 20 million. Its cities, bound by legislated “urban containment,” are 3.5 million homes short of what would meet current housing needs. As a result, commuters spend hours stuck in...

By Edward Ring

How California’s Legislation Targeting Public Charter Schools Shows That Blue States Can Oppress Black People Too

Blue states oppress black people too. Nowhere is this more obvious than in policing and public education in California. California’s Legislature is grappling with these issues this session. Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), a progressive voice and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, is authoring AB 392, which seeks to change the use of...

By Margaret Fortune

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

California’s Unaffordable “Affordable” Housing

When discussing the seemingly intractable and growing problem of homeless people living in California, journalists reporting on the issue don’t spend enough time questioning the numbers, much less the policies driving the insane numbers. A recent article in the San Jose Mercury provides a perfect example. The article gets off to a good start with a provocative, and very...

By Edward Ring

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

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

Legislature’s scary precedent: Giving unions private workers’ cell phones and home addresses

Sacramento Even those Capitol observers who are aware of the degree to which the Democratic-controlled Legislature is in the tank for public-sector unions might be shocked by the latest bill that’s making its way to the governor’s office. Legislators are about to require that private-sector workers in the home-care industry provide a wide range of...

By Steven Greenhut