The Abundance Choice – Part 4: Crafting a Water Initiative
The Abundance Choice – Part 4: Crafting a Water Initiative
Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” To be fair, Assemblyman Devon Mathis didn’t come up with the idea of allocating a percentage of the...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 3: The Mechanics of Ballot Initiatives
The Abundance Choice – Part 3: The Mechanics of Ballot Initiatives
Editor’s note: This is the third article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” By the spring of 2021, it was obvious the California State Legislature would not change its inadequate approach...
By Edward Ring
Will California Voters Approve More Taxes and Borrowing?
Will California Voters Approve More Taxes and Borrowing?
If your city council puts a tax increase on the ballot, or your local school district puts a construction bond on the ballot, chances are very good it will get approved. Data from the past four November general elections is unambiguous. In November of 2020, for example, 80 percent of school bonds were approved by...
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 2: The Problems with Indoor Water Rationing
The Abundance Choice – Part 2: The Problems with Indoor Water Rationing
Editor’s note: This is the second article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” Perhaps the biggest example of misguided water policy in California are the escalating restrictions on indoor water consumption....
By Edward Ring
The Abundance Choice – Part 1: California’s Failing Water Policies
The Abundance Choice – Part 1: California’s Failing Water Policies
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” In October and again in December, as the third severe drought this century was entering its third year,...
By Edward Ring
Tony Thurmond – Public Sector Union Operative
Tony Thurmond – Public Sector Union Operative
As the 21st century careens its way towards more geopolitical and economic uncertainty than most people alive today have ever known, with constant and transformative change the only constant, optimists among us still hope that some elements of California’s labor movement will begin to throw their weight behind policies and politicians that offer stability and...
By Edward Ring
Are Firefighters Hard to Recruit in California?
Are Firefighters Hard to Recruit in California?
This article originally appeared in the California Globe. In response to a recent California Policy Center analysis that provided an updated calculation of the average pay and benefits for full-time firefighters working for cities in California, one commenter claimed that it has become difficult to recruit firefighters. The accuracy of this claim carries significant implications. When employers...
By Edward Ring
Questioning the Political Priorities of the Firefighters Union
Questioning the Political Priorities of the Firefighters Union
As another summer of wildfires approaches, it is in the interest of every Californian to understand that California’s firefighters’ union, the California Professional Firefighters, is one of the most politically powerful unions in the state. This union has the power to help solve the growing problem of wildfires in California, but to more effectively do so...
By Edward Ring
ESG Investing and Public Sector Unions
ESG Investing and Public Sector Unions
This article originally appeared in the California Globe. For the last few decades what used to be referred to as socially responsible investing has more recently morphed into “ESG” investing. The acronym stands for “environment, social, and governance,” and refers to how investors should evaluate the impact that every company they’re considering investing in has, positive or...
By Edward Ring
Examining California’s Renewable Energy Plan
Examining California’s Renewable Energy Plan
This article originally appeared on the website California Globe. If you live in California, by now you’ve probably seen the ads, either on prime time television or online, exhorting you to “Power Down 4 to 9PM.” These ads are produced by “Energy Upgrade California,” paid for by “investor-owned energy utility customers under the auspices of...
By Edward Ring
California State and Local Liabilities Total $1.6 Trillion
California State and Local Liabilities Total $1.6 Trillion
California’s total state and local government debt now stands at almost $1.6 trillion, or about half the state’s GDP. That isn’t an alarming ratio when compared to the national debt, which has now soared to 128 percent of U.S. GDP with no end in sight. But Californians carry this $1.6 trillion state and local debt ($40,000 per capita)...
By Edward Ring
California’s Homeless Housing Scam
California’s Homeless Housing Scam
Progressive politicians have created the homeless crisis. Their policies have made housing unaffordable, driven away decent job opportunities, and encouraged vagrancy and drug addiction. Their solution – to build taxpayer subsidized housing, provided free and with no conditions to any homeless person – is a special interest scam, guaranteed to never solve the problem. Nowhere...
By Edward Ring
How California’s Unions Can Help ALL Workers
How California’s Unions Can Help ALL Workers
This article was originally featured in the California Globe. Last month on January 5, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez resigned from the legislature to join the California Labor Federation. Gonzalez is likely to succeed the current Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski when he retires this summer. What will this mean for the labor movement in California? Gonzalez has earned a controversial reputation...
By Edward Ring
Finding Common Ground in California
Finding Common Ground in California
In California, environmental regulations have brought infrastructure investment to a standstill. Without expanding energy, water, and transportation infrastructure, it is nearly impossible to build housing, the cost-of-living is punitive, water is rationed and food is overpriced, the overall quality of life is reduced, and money that ought to be paying skilled workers to operate heavy...
By Edward Ring