Public Employee Strike Looms in Santa Clara County

By Edward Ring
01/06/2020
With 2020 upon us, it appears likely that two unions representing Santa Clara County employees will be going on strike. Unless agreements can be reached, 3,000 members of the Registered Nurses Professional Association will strike, along with over 11,000 members of the SEIU. When one considers the political leanings of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors,...

TAGS: CalPERS, Edward Ring, pensions, public employee unions, seiu

The Manger vs The Monster – Housing California’s Homeless

By Edward Ring
12/18/2019
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:7 Advocates for the homeless frequently invoke biblical passages in order to appeal to the Christian compassion that still guides the hearts of most Americans, whether...

TAGS: City of Los Angeles, Edward Ring, Homeless Industrial Complex, homelessness, Housing, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Prop 47, San Francisco, Venice Beach

California Pioneers Subsidized Housing for Public Employees

By Edward Ring
12/04/2019
When it comes to affordable housing, what California’s state legislators have done epitomizes what happens when you have a government bureaucracy that serves itself instead of the public, one that is under the complete control of special interests. They have enacted laws that make it nearly impossible for the private sector to build homes, which...

TAGS: affordable housing, cronyism, Edward Ring, special interests, subsidies

Californians exempt from the consequences of Liberalism

By Edward Ring
12/02/2019
When trying to understand why Californians continue to elect liberals, several explanations routinely surface. Chief among them is the theory that conservatives forever alienated California’s diverse electorate by championing “discriminatory” policies. The early example of this was Prop. 187, passed in 1994, which banned providing government services to illegal aliens. Most of Prop. 187 was overturned in...

TAGS: Edward Ring, Prop. 13

The Cost to Taxpayers of Enhancing Sonoma County Employee Pensions

By Edward Ring
11/13/2019
In the early 2000s, along with many other cities, state agencies and counties in California, Sonoma County enhanced their employee pension benefits. As of 6/30/2018, Sonoma County’s pension system had $2.7 billion of invested assets, but nearly $3.1 billion in actuarial accrued liabilities. To what extent is its $400 million unfunded liability attributable to the...

TAGS: Edward Ring, pensions, Sonoma County, unfunded liabilities

Electricity and Ideology – Competing Priorities in California

By Edward Ring
10/22/2019
“If I wanted the power shut off for days by bloated, corrupt utilities enabled by bloated, corrupt one-party politicians,” quipped Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco attorney and prominent conservative political activist, “I would have stayed in India.” Dhillon’s observation pretty much sums up the frustration felt by millions of Californians last week. In Northern California, nearly 800,000 homes...

TAGS: climate change, Edward Ring, fire, Katy Grimes, PG&E

San Francisco’s Prop. A – Expensive Insanity Marches On

By Edward Ring
10/09/2019
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein There is no solid evidence that one of history’s greatest geniuses ever said this, but its applicability to California’s housing crisis is too big to let attribution get in the way. Because California’s politicians are trying to solve...

TAGS: affordable housing, City Journal, Edward Ring, homelessness, San Francisco

The Density Delusion

By Edward Ring
08/20/2019
For decades, American workers have watched as their ability to enjoy middle class lifestyles erodes away. Conventional explanations abound. American industry in the immediate aftermath of World War II was uniquely unscathed, and with a near monopoly on global manufacturing, it was able to pass much of the ample profits on to workers. It wasn’t...

TAGS: California, California Environmental Quality Act, Edward Ring, financialization, government pensions, Housing, UC Berkeley, United Nations

City of Richmond faces pension stress

By Edward Ring
08/15/2019
here Pick a city in California. Pick a county in California. Odds are, they could be the topic of this analysis instead of Richmond. But Richmond is the focus of a recent analysis published in Reason entitled “Richmond, California’s Finances Remain Shaky,” and that work provides solid data from which to take a deeper look at what’s truly driving...

TAGS: CalPERS, Edward Ring, firefighters, public safety

What do Public Safety Unions Stand For?

By Edward Ring
06/13/2019
In a special election earlier this week, Brian Dahle defeated Kevin Kiley in the race to become the next California State Senator representing District One, which sprawls north from the foothills east of Sacramento all the way to the Oregon border. Both candidates were Republican members of the State Assembly, competing in one of the few safe Republican districts left...

TAGS: Edward Ring, Janus, public safety unions