California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part Two: Who They Are and How to Defeat Them
California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part Two: Who They Are and How to Defeat Them
California’s policymakers have condemned Californians to endure contrived scarcity, unaffordability, and inconvenience in all of the basic necessities of life. This is a crime, but it’s not a conspiracy. Rather, it is caused by a collection of powerful special interests whose political agendas align. Left-wing Oligarchs At the top of the pyramid are left-wing oligarchs, crony...
By Edward Ring
California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part One: Making the State Unaffordable
California’s Socialist Oligarchy, Part One: Making the State Unaffordable
Touted as the “fifth-largest economy on Earth,” and recently heralded as delivering the “greatest increase in average income,” these statistics obscure an alarming reality. California has become a feudal state, where the benefits of prosperity are unequally distributed, rewarding corrupt plutocrats and punishing ordinary working families. Joel Kotkin, a fellow in urban studies at Chapman University...
By Edward Ring
Public Servant Who Made $327,491 in 2017 Asks Us to Support Higher Taxes
Public Servant Who Made $327,491 in 2017 Asks Us to Support Higher Taxes
Every two years, around this time, political mailers inundate the mailboxes of California’s registered voters. This week, many Sacramento residents received “Vote No on Prop 6″ mailer. Prop 6 is that pesky, subversive citizens ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, will roll back the gas tax. But Prop. 6 isn’t the topic here. Rather,...
By Edward Ring
California’s boondoggles threaten property owners and taxpayers
California’s boondoggles threaten property owners and taxpayers
One would hope that with the profound foolishness associated with California’s infamous High Speed Rail (HSR) project that our elected leadership would have learned a thing or two. But this is California. Because we do things bigger and better than anyone else, it’s apparent that one massive boondoggle isn’t enough — we need two. Let’s...
By Jon Coupal
Just How Much Money Might CalPERS Have to Collect in an Economic Downturn?
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
Public needs to keep eye on pensions, but suit says CalPERS withholds core data
Public needs to keep eye on pensions, but suit says CalPERS withholds core data
Sacramento — In the preamble to California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s 1953 law governing the public’s access to government meetings, the Legislature noted, “The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them.” Likewise, the people “do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the...
By Steven Greenhut
In the Last 25 Years, Sonoma County’s Pension Liability Rose ELEVEN TIMES Faster Than Tax Revenues
In the Last 25 Years, Sonoma County’s Pension Liability Rose ELEVEN TIMES Faster Than Tax Revenues
In August of last year retired attorney George Luke sued the Sonoma County Employees Retirement Association (SCERA) and the Board of Supervisors (BOS) because according to County records they did not follow the law when pensions were increased in 2002 and 2003. According to the law, before increasing pension benefits the supervisors are required to...
By Ken Churchill
California is not creating jobs fast enough to support tax increases for pensions
California is not creating jobs fast enough to support tax increases for pensions
On a superficial level, things look pretty good in California. Sure, we have big problems with wildfires and other periodic disasters, but the state’s finances have made a strong recovery since the depths of the recession. Indeed, Gov. Brown has repeatedly touted the multi-billion-dollar surplus and the state’s balanced budget. But objective assessments from government...
By Jon Coupal
Towards a Grand Bargain on California Water Policy
Towards a Grand Bargain on California Water Policy
When it comes to water policy in California, perhaps the people are more savvy than the special interests. Because the people, or more precisely, the voters, by huge majorities, have approved nine water bonds in the past 25 years, totaling $27.1 billion. It is likely they’re going to approve another one this November for another...
By Edward Ring
Don’t believe the hysteria: There are other ways for public workers to get benefits
Don’t believe the hysteria: There are other ways for public workers to get benefits
Sacramento The media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision, striking down all mandatory union dues-collections as an infringement of the First Amendment, has been met with weeping and gnashing of teeth from union leaders. In their view, the conservative majority’s ruling is an assault on the ability of union members to negotiate...
By Steven Greenhut
How to Make California’s Southland Water Independent for $30 Billion
How to Make California’s Southland Water Independent for $30 Billion
The megapolis on California’s southern coast stretches from Ventura County on the northern end, through Los Angeles County, Orange County, down to San Diego County on the border with Mexico. It also includes the western portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Altogether these six counties have a population of 20.5 million residents. According to...
By Edward Ring
When is a political campaign neither political nor a campaign?
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
In rebuking San Diego’s pension initiative, state high court slams our basic voting rights
In rebuking San Diego’s pension initiative, state high court slams our basic voting rights
A recent California Supreme Court decision, striking down a San Diego initiative that rolled back pension benefits for new public employees, has rightly been portrayed as a win for public-sector unions – and something that could cost San Diego taxpayers more money as a lower court hashes out a remedy. But the decision is more...
By Steven Greenhut
How Much California Water Bond Money is for Storage?
How Much California Water Bond Money is for Storage?
Californians have approved two water bonds in recent years, with another facing voters this November. In 2014 voters approved Prop. 1, allocating $7.1 billion for water projects. This June, voters approved Prop. 68, allocating another $4.0 billion for water projects. And this November, voters are being asked to approve Prop. 3, allocating another $8.9 billion...
By Edward Ring