Uncategorized | California Policy Center

Golden Debacle – The California political machine is no model for the nation

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has been light on policy specifics, but her political inheritance provides clues. Harris is a creature, after all, of the California political machine. What real-world results has that machine produced? The Golden State still has a powerful economic base, though its government budgets are once again in deficit territory. California’s success,...

By Edward Ring

California parents and voters wait too long for vital data

As the 2024-25 school year is underway, Californians await the results for last school year’s CAASPP testing. CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) assessments measure student achievement in the areas of English, math, and science, and are taken in the spring; Results are then publicly released the following fall. The release date for...

By Sheridan Karras

More Water Supply Requires Industry Unity

Probably the most consequential and controversial water policy decisions in California involve how much water to pump out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and into southbound aqueducts, and we’re in the middle of another one right now. For the last several years, as summer turns to fall, state and federal regulators reduce the amount of...

By Edward Ring

Overcoming the Tragedy of Pessimism

If you have ever tried to reason with a San Francisco Bay Area progressive liberal, it’s easy to become a pessimist. These implacable fanatics are backed up by trillions of dollars in big tech wealth, along with the most powerful tools of mass hypnosis and Pavlovian conditioning the world has ever seen. If you question...

By Edward Ring

Gavin Newsom’s Misstatement of the State

The governor’s State of the State address — or rather, his pre-recorded speech spliced throughout with a campaign-style video montage — was filled with fact-spitting errors. Let’s consider just a few: HOMELESSNESS: “No state has done as much as California in addressing the pernicious problem of homelessness that too many politicians have ignored for too long.” During his...

By Will Swaim

Newsom: Conservatives are just like Hitler

Everyone knows the ancient joke about the two exhausted kids walking through a sun-blasted and waterless land. Sunburned and still miles from their destination, they come upon an immense pile of animal manure blocking their path. The boys stop for a moment to consider the obstacle mounded before them – feculent, still (in my telling)...

By Will Swaim

Golden State Budget Fantasy

Gavin Newsom once bragged of a surplus, but California is underwater. While finalizing the upcoming fiscal year’s state budget back in May 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom boasted of an extraordinary projected surplus: $97 billion. The governor immediately collaborated with an enthusiastic state legislature to spend it all. Of course, new spending on new programs...

By Edward Ring

Statesmen Over Politicians

A very contentious election season is upon us. To better navigate the deluge of political propaganda, here are a few thoughts about choosing the best candidates who can stand as bulwarks of freedom from those who want to selfishly rule and reign over Californians. A campaign speech can reveal much about the timber of someone...

By Lance Christensen

Newsom’s education budget lacks tangible targets

This month, Governor Newsom released his proposed state budget for 2024-25. The $291.5 billion budget proposal sets aside $76.5 billion in state funds for K-12 education. This amount exceeds the proposed budgeted costs for transportation ($19.55 billion); corrections and rehabilitation ($18.12 billion); general government ($10.68 billion); legislative, judicial, and executive agencies ($10.72 billion); natural resources...

By Sheridan Karras

The Disastrous Insurance Landscape in California

Late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in an attempt to address the insurance crisis in California that’s leaving scores of homeowners without coverage. The executive order comes after State Farm and Allstate, the first and fourth largest home insurers in California, announced this year they would no longer sell new home...

By Sheridan Karras

The War on Boys and Girls

Over the years, a cause for teen angst, suicide, etc., has reportedly been the media. But there is no definitive evidence to corroborate that. In fact, every recent generation has traditionally pointed to the media or some other cultural factor as damaging to youth. In the 1920s, it was the Charleston, and in the 1940s,...

By Larry Sand

2022 State Per Capita UNP Rankings

By John Moorlach

The Bureaucratic Erasure of Culture, Identity, and Freedom

Exploring the roadways of California yields scenery evoking two distinct worlds. On the big freeways, surrounding every major interchange, the 21st century asserts itself in an agglomeration of concrete and glass boxes surrounded by lakes of asphalt, each festooned with a recognizable corporate logo. Food. Fuel. Lodging. The corporate power they represent is reflected in...

By Edward Ring

Forgotten Local Elections, Unforgettable Consequences

Thanks to California’s ridiculous policy of mailing ballots to voters a full month prior to election day, and allowing “early voting,” I had already completed and submitted my ballot when I realized that was a mistake. After voting for a local school board candidate who I had some familiarity with and thought might be a safe choice,...

By Edward Ring