State Budget Could Be Capped by “Gann Limit,” Preventing New Taxes

By Jon Coupal
03/23/2017
Editor’s Note: For a summary of how state legislators may be prevented by law from increasing taxes any further, this article by Jon Coupal is as good as any. In a nutshell, Prop. 4 (the “Gann Limit”), passed in 1979, then modified by Prop. 111, passed in 1990, limits increases in state and local spending...

TAGS: California taxes

California is world-leader in traffic; Caltrans engineers get raises

By Edmund Pine
03/01/2017
Gov. Jerry Brown has often expressed his vision of California as America’s – maybe the world’s – leader in technology, climate change, anti-smoking campaigns, environmental protection, health care for the poor. But California is inarguably the leader in one category: Two California cities are among the world’s worst for traffic congestion. Los Angeles ranked No....

TAGS: California, California taxes, CalTrans, high speed rail, traffic, Unions

For Tax Raisers, End of Drought Is Bad News

By Jon Coupal
01/24/2017
Editor’s Note: Anyone who thinks the drought is NOT over should read this weather blog – more authoritative than ANYTHING coming out of the mainstream press. View the graphics, all of them from official sources, depicting California’s current (1) percentage of normal precipitation, (2) soil moisture, (3) streamflow, (4) Sierra snowpack, (5) “Palmer drought index”,...

TAGS: California drought, California taxes, Jon Coupal