December 2014 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...
The prevailing challenge facing humanity when confronted with resource constraints is not that we are running out of resources, but how we will adapt and create new and better solutions to meet the needs that currently are being met by what are arguably scarce or finite resources. If one accepts this premise, that we are...
As the generational war heats up, we should all remember the source of all the bubbles and all the policies that could only result in generational poverty: the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen recently treated the nation to an astonishing lecture on the solution to rising wealth inequality–according to Yellen, low-income households should...
What do we do when the bubble economy cannot be reflated? It is generally conceded that we are living in an era of Peak Everything: peak central bank omnipotence, peak powerless of the non-elites, peak wealth inequality, peak media-induced delusion, peak market-rigging, peak bogus official statistics, peak propaganda, peak bread and circuses, peak deception, peak distraction,...
Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, inspired by media reports – accurate ones – of a guarded and growing rapprochement between Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan on issues where they share common values, we published an editorial entitled “A Left-Right Alliance Against Public Sector Unions?” Drawing from Nader and Buchanan’s recently published missives, we identified five areas...
The market rejoiced on Dec. 5 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 321,000 new U.S. jobs had been created. The general consensus is that the 3.9% third-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is the harbinger of a brighter trend. The Economist’s team of forecasters has U.S. growth at 3% in 2015, up from...
A frequent and entirely valid point made by representatives of public sector unions is that their membership, government workers, need to be able to afford to live in the cities and communities they serve. The problem with that argument, however, is that nobody can afford to live in these cities and communities, especially in California....
The California Policy Center has now posted updated November 4, 2014 election results for the state’s 113 bond measures for K-12 and community college districts. These revised results incorporate almost a month of ballots counted and reviewed by county elections offices. The most significant change is that the largest of the 113 bond measures considered...
Two years ago, Treasurer Bill Lockyer called for an early warning system to detect signs of financial trouble in California local governments before they faced bankruptcy. By proactively identifying at-risk cities, the system could create an opening for local experts and external advisors to intervene before any given situation spun out of control. As the California Policy...
The sharp rebuke to the Obama administration delivered by the mid-term elections should not be construed as an endorsement of the GOP, which remains as unpopular as ever. Rather, as has been the case in the last few election cycles, voter revolts have hinged on continued dissatisfaction with the strength of the economy and the...
Editor’s Note: As stated in our recently released study “California’s Most Financially Stressed Cities and Counties, we used the most recent information that was readily available. It was beyond the scope of this study to contact every city individually – there are nearly 500 cities in California. We have confidence in the accuracy of our report...
Based on preliminary reports from county elections offices as of November 5, 2014, this list of the 113 proposed bond measures on the November 4 ballot is ranked based on the percentage of voters (in the yellow column) who approved borrowing the indicated amount of money for school construction (in the green column) through bond...
California voters are generally unaware of how much money K-12 school districts and community college districts have borrowed in recent years to fund construction projects. Nor are they aware of the amount of principal and interest (debt service) these districts now owe to municipal bond investors. But a compilation of all local educational construction bond...
A record number of K-12 school and community college districts in California want voters to approve bond measures for construction in the November 4, 2014 election (see chart below). Here are some preliminary findings from an ongoing California Policy Center study on construction bonds for educational districts in California. The complete study will be released...