Uncategorized | California Policy Center

California’s State and Local Government Spending Nearly $400 Billion per Year

That is, if anyone can actually compile accurate financial information. The state controller hasn’t produced a consolidated financial report for K-12 school districts and community colleges since 2000. The most recent data available from the state controller’s other “Consolidated Annual Financial Reports,” for cities, counties, special districts and redevelopment agencies, concern the fiscal year ended...

By Edward Ring

Union Controlled California Assembly Continues Assault on Prop. 13

Without a single public hearing, the California Assembly passed Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 (ACA 8), the most egregious attack on Prop. 13 ever to come out of the Legislature. ACA 8 would repeal Prop. 13’s requirement that local “special taxes” (taxes intended for a specific purpose or purposes) be approved by a two-thirds vote....

By Jon Coupal

D.C. City Council Proposes “Living Wage” of $12.50 an Hour

Editor’s Note: A push to dramatically increase the minimum wage isn’t limited to Washington DC. Earlier this year, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Gruel promised to push for a minimum wage of $15 per hour in that city. This report by UnionWatch contributor Mike Shedlock explains the impracticality and unintended negative consequences of mandating a...

By Mike Shedlock

Union Watch Highlights

Here are links to the top stories available online over the past week reporting on union activity including legislation, financial impact, reform activism, etc., from California and across the USA. Under The Radar Case Could Yield Most Significant Labor Law Case of the Last Decade By Scott J. Witlin, July 2013, National Law Review Last...

By Editor

BART Strike Highlights More Than Just Compensation Issues

The four day BART strike that ended on July 5th provided ample evidence of how public sector union power can inflate wages – and expectations – far beyond what the rest of us may consider normal or fair. In a July 1st editorial entitled “Striking BART workers out of touch with financial reality,” the Contra...

By Edward Ring

Will the Media Ever Report on the Political Agenda of the SEIU?

Once again the SEIU is utilizing its patented Persuasion of Power to achieve its political goals and to boost its dwindling membership. Over the past two weeks, the SEIU has aired television commercials (see SEIU Pushes Seven Figure Ad Campaign for Immigration Reform) to support President Obama’s immigration policy, to initiate a living wage attack campaign against...

By Dave Bego

Union Watch Highlights

Here are links to the top stories available online over the past week reporting on union activity including legislation, financial impact, reform activism, etc., from California and across the USA. A little-noticed internal divide threatens liberalism By Michael Lind, June 25, 2013, Salon The debate over affirmative action reveals a split among liberals: the charity...

By Editor

Employee Freedom Week – Know Your Rights

California is a forced unionism state, meaning that once a collective bargaining unit is recognized by an employer, it’s pretty hard for any employee to avoid paying union dues. But even in forced unionism states, employees have rights. “National Employee Freedom Week” was initiated in Nevada last year by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, and...

By Edward Ring

How Unionization Helped Turn the IRS into a Weapon of Partisan Politics

It is largely accepted that President Obama’s re-election was in a large part due to the efforts of big labor and its foot soldiers (see Romney and GOP Steamrolled by Big Labor Corporate Campaign. Apparently, the number of union foot soldiers utilized in big labor’s overwhelming ground game was even greater than initially realized. The National Treasury...

By Dave Bego

Union Watch Highlights

Here are links to the top stories available online over the past week reporting on union activity including legislation, financial impact, reform activism, etc., from California and across the USA. Kansas Teachers Vote to Decertify Their Union James Sherk and Michael Cirrotti, June 18, 2013, Heritage Network Teachers in Deerfield, Kansas, just did something unusual—they...

By Editor

How Public Sector Unions Skew America’s Public Safety and National Security Agenda

It would be redundant to summarize recent revelations concerning just how big America’s national security state has become. Two reports, both written in the last two days, do a really good job: “The Making of a Global Security State,” by Tom Engelhardt, published by The Nation Institute, and “5 Alarming Things We Should Have Already...

By Edward Ring

Are Unions Behind California Assembly Bill 76 to Hinder Public Records Access?

What special interest group would have such disregard for the tenor of the times that it would now push for a law to hinder the public’s ability to obtain records from local governments? And what special interest group would have the chutzpah to get that law enacted through a supplemental trailer to an annual budget,...

By Kevin Dayton

Union Watch Highlights

Here are links to the top stories available online over the past week reporting on union activity including legislation, financial impact, reform activism, etc., from California and across the USA. California Supreme Court Rules Union entitled to addresses, phone numbers of all county employees By Jessica Karmasek, June 11, 2013, Legal News Online The California...

By Editor

Why Public Sector Unions are “Special” Special Interests

California’s November 2012 statewide ballot included Prop. 32, the “Stop Special Interest Money Now” initiative. Among the provisions included in this campaign finance reform measure was the requirement that public sector unions obtain permission from each member prior to using a portion of their dues to support political campaigns. It’s hard to precisely determine just...

By Edward Ring