TAXPORTATION: Profligate Waste Negates Justification for Transportation Tax Hike

By Jon Coupal
06/13/2016
Part One:  California’s Highways – A Legacy of Mismanagement and Over-regulation. A personal digression: My father was head of the Iowa Department of Transportation (then called the Iowa Highway Commission) in the late ’60s and early ’70s before he was appointed by President Ford to serve as Deputy Federal Highway Administrator. (Of course, he lost...

TAGS: CalTrans, Governor Brown, high speed rail

Affordable Tuition vs. Gargantuan Pensions for Unionized Faculty

By Jon Coupal
11/24/2014
Californians have abysmally low levels of civic engagement as evidenced by the recent election where voter turnout set an historic low.  And the widespread disengagement of California’s younger voters is even worse. True, in 2008 California’s youth turned out in large numbers to elect Barack Obama as President.  And in 2012 they turned out again...

TAGS: Governor Brown, Proposition 30, university of california

Race for California Governor Should Emphasize Education Reform

By Private: Gloria Romero
09/03/2014
On Thursday, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown will face off against Republican challenger Neel Kashkari in their only scheduled debate. Although Kashkari asked for 10 debates, Brown chose to do just one. Undoubtedly, a slew of issues will be discussed, from economic policy, including taxation and tax credits, to border security and immigration, earthquake preparedness, California’s...

TAGS: education reform, Governor Brown, Parent Empowerment Act, parent trigger law, underperforming schools

Another Union Giveaway Almost Becomes Law

By Steven Greenhut
10/12/2012
If California voters grant the state government the billions in higher taxes in Proposition 30 that Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats have been demanding, those same officials might be expected to squander the money by shoveling even more benefits to already well-compensated government workers. Evidence for such an expectation is a scheme to enrich...

TAGS: Governor Brown

The Politics of Public Sector Unions

By Steven Greenhut
11/14/2011
To say that the unions have undue influence in the California Legislature, as many critics allege, is to understate the problem. The unions – and the public sector ones in particular – don’t just control the Legislature. They are the Legislature. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, previously worked as an attorney for a...

TAGS: Governor Brown, Steven Greenhut