Marc Joffe

Marc Joffe is a federalism and state policy analyst at the Cato Institute. He previously served as a senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation and Director of Policy Research at the California Policy Center. In 2011, Joffe founded Public Sector Credit Solutions to educate policymakers, investors and citizens about government credit risk. His research has been published by the California State Treasurer’s Office, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Reason Foundation, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute among others. He is also a regular contributor to The Fiscal Times. Prior to starting PSCS, Marc was a Senior Director at Moody’s Analytics. He has an MBA from New York University and an MPA from San Francisco State University.

Latest by Marc Joffe

Republican Senate healthcare plan is a better Rx than California single-payer

Mainstream media are taking a short break from their 24/7 Trump-Russia conspiracy theorizing to bash the Senate Republican healthcare proposal. Viewers are being told that the proposal would gut Medicaid and kill thousands. Like any piece of complex legislation, the Senate bill is far from perfect, but it is an important step in the right direction...

By Marc Joffe

Single Payer and Progressive Economic Illiteracy

California State Senate passage of an especially bad single payer health care bill earlier this month is testimony to the economic and fiscal illiteracy of RoseAnn DeMoro, the California Nurses Association leader who is pushing this bill through the legislature. DeMoro makes over $350,000 per year ostensibly to protect nurse’s salaries and benefits, but she...

By Marc Joffe

Liberating neighborhood schools through school district separation

Large school districts are often less responsive to the needs of students and the hopes of parents than smaller districts. Public educational behemoths – such as Los Angeles Unified – are more likely to fall under the influence of well-organized interest groups such as teachers’ unions. By breaking up large districts into smaller ones, parents...

By Marc Joffe

Single-payer bill could bankrupt California

The state Senate’s vote to pass Ricardo Lara’s single-payer healthcare bill last week was a singular act of fiscal malpractice. By failing to control costs and access to the program – and by leaving unanswered how or whether federal funds could be leveraged – Lara’s Healthy California Act amounts to a blank check for hospitals,...

By Marc Joffe

Borrowing to fund pensions could make California the next Puerto Rico

Governor Brown's proposal to borrow money to fund CalPERS is similar to a move by Puerto Rico in 2008. That step backfired and now Puerto Rico is bankrupt.

By Marc Joffe

Former LAUSD Superintendent draws $238k pension

Retired LA schools chief Ramon Cortines received pension benefits totaling a remarkable $238,383.67 last year, possibly through a controversial pension-spiking practice known as “air time” – the purchase of credit for time not worked.

By Marc Joffe

Brown’s latest budget belies his fiscally conservative rhetoric

At last week’s budget press conference, Governor Jerry Brown warned of the threat of a recession and the risk to California’s budget from federal health care legislation, but the details of his 2017-18 budget plans failed to mirror his cautionary rhetoric.

By Marc Joffe

Transparency: Many ways to put your agency’s budget online

Across California governments are putting more of their information online. While browser-based charts and graphs showing your agencies’ revenues and expenditures will impress constituents, moving fiscal data online can be challenging – especially for those governments that do not have a lot of technology geeks on staff. Fortunately, governments now have an array of options...

By Marc Joffe

UC administration fails the transparency test

Climb into a time machine with me and voyage back to Dec. 8, 2016. A slightly younger Barack H. Obama is still the nation’s president. Four weeks after his electoral shock therapy, President-elect Donald Trump has just been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. And the California Policy Center has filed a state public...

By Marc Joffe

Unelected Coastal Commission violates property rights while keeping California thirsty

The California Coastal Commission is interfering with efforts by two Encinitas homeowners to rebuild a seawall and stairs on their ocean property. The seawall and stairway had been in place for decades, but were severely damaged in a 2010 storm. Despite obtaining approval from the City of Encinitas to make the repairs, the Coastal Commission...

By Marc Joffe

25 UC Retirees Receive Annual Pensions Exceeding $300,000

Twenty-five University of California retirees receive more than $300,000 annually in retirement, the California Policy Center has learned. The information, contained in documents released to CPC through a public records request, comes amidst controversy over excessive compensation at the UC system and revelations of a secret slush fund at the system’s headquarters. The highest paid pensioner is Professor Lewis L. Judd, a UC San Diego Psychiatry professor. He receives an annual pension of $385,765.

By Marc Joffe

Auditor report a reminder that UC compensation is out of control

Last week’s report from State Auditor Elaine Howell reveals some disturbing budgeting and compensation practices at the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP). But the problem isn’t just limited to UCOP; it is a systemwide phenomenon. We have previously reported that Robert Reich makes close to $300,000 annually to teach one class at...

By Marc Joffe

Assembly committee rejects common sense high-speed rail oversight

On Monday, the Assembly Transportation Committee voted against a bill that would have increased high-speed rail’s financial transparency. The measure, AB 66, would have implemented recommendations from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), a non-partisan official body that analyzes budgets and proposed legislation. In its analysis of the High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2016 draft business plan, LAO...

By Marc Joffe

California school district pension contributions on track to exceed $11 billion by 2023

C alifornia school and community college districts are contributing $5.6 billion to CalSTRS and CalPERS during the current school year. These contributions will total $6.7 billion in the next school year, and, according to CPC’s analysis of actuarial projections, they will reach $11.3 billion in the 2022-2023 school year. In 2015-2016, CalPERS and CalSTRS collected...

By Marc Joffe