On December 30, the Los Angeles Times reported that James Mussenden, the retired city manager of El Monte, raised his total annual cash pension benefit to $216,000 by using a Supplementary Retirement Plan from Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS). The PARS plan is not unique to El Monte: if the leadership of any public agency...
In California, if something saves money for taxpayers and improves life while reducing energy consumption, it’s bad for the environment and must be terminated. How do we know? Public participation in environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). For example, a law firm working on behalf of construction unions has identified numerous environmental...
Governor Jerry Brown has just appointed two radical environmental justice activists to the California Public Utilities Commission, replacing two commissioners whose terms expired January 1, 2017. Awaiting Senate confirmation are Clifford Rechtschaffen and Martha Guzman Aceves — two Brown insiders with shady records and a history of Environmental Justice. Don’t let the term “Environmental Justice”...
As reported earlier this month in the Los Angeles Times, California policymakers are expanding their war on “climate change” at the same time as the rest of the nation appears poised to reevaluate these priorities. In particular, California’s legislature has reaffirmed the commitment originally set forth in the 2006 “Global Warming Solutions Act” (AB 32)...
Despite being the home to many of the world’s great startups, California’s approach to its water shortage has been anything but entrepreneurial. The triumph of bureaucracy over entrepreneurship is epitomized by the December 22 release of the state’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan Environmental Impact Review (EIR). The document, characterized by the San Francisco Chronicle as...
December 2016 Update: Here’s a documented comparison of California taxes and economic climate with the rest of the states. The news is bad, and getting worse. But it doesn’t have to be this way! The state and local government policies that created an unaffordable California can be reversed. PERSONAL INCOME TAX: Prior to Prop 30 passing in Nov....
Editor’s note: During 2015 the average pay and benefits for a full time state worker in California was $104,867. County workers averaged $108,856, and city workers averaged $121,430. These averages do NOT include members of public safety. The 2015 average pay and benefits for full time state highway patrol and corrections employees was $136,828, for county...
There has been plenty of discussion about U.S. Secretary of Education Nominee Betsy DeVos in the weeks since your editor wrote a series of commentaries about why reformers shouldn’t support her, much less anyone in the incoming Trump Administration. The resulting discussion and sparring among reformers over DeVos exemplifies the splits that have been developing...
On November 8, Californians approved Prop. 51, authorizing $9.0 billion in new borrowing for construction and upgrades of public schools. Also on November 8, Californians approved 171 local bond measures, authorizing over $22 billion in additional financing for construction and upgrades of public schools. This new borrowing is only to construct and upgrade K-12 and...
Despite a strong national economy and rallying stock market, the city of Dallas faces a pension funding crisis that has triggered fears of a municipal bankruptcy. Can something similar happen in California? Dallas’ Police and Fire Pension System (DPFP) was already teetering at the beginning of 2016, when its actuarial valuation report showed a funded...
In 2015, officials of the Brea Olinda Unified School District (BOUSD) told state officials all nine of its school facilities were in “exemplary” condition. Six months later, the same district officials told residents the facilities were “deteriorating” – and that the schools would not survive without a $148 million renovation. That disparity – a ratings...
Fights over water are the norm but the successful water bill that passed Congress last week with a rider provision for California may upset the old standard that water is for fighting and whiskey is for drinking. The bill will divert runoff water to parched farms and set up storage, desalination and recycling programs in...
Human beings prefer freedom to collectivism and tyranny. Only those in complete denial disregard the negative consequences of policies that suppress liberty. Consider North Korea versus South Korea. And recall that in Berlin during the Cold War era, people weren’t shot trying to go from West to East – not that anyone tried anyway. Finally,...
Editor’s note: In two key areas of energy policy, the incoming Trump administration is poised to fundamentally change the rules. The Trump administration is likely to end U.S. participation in the Paris climate accords, and they are likely to strike down the EPA’s “clean power plan.” There is nothing wrong with setting reasonable environmental goals,...