Ugly Political Hypocrisy in California
The recent release of Ken Burns’s Vietnam documentary transported me back to the politics of my youth and the ugly hypocrisy of Lyndon Johnson, whose story contains a critical lesson for California today. It’s no secret that Johnson lied about events in the Gulf of Tonkin and about progress in the Vietnam War as he […]
California Gubernatorial Debate Left Big Stone Unturned
The San Francisco Chronicle hosted a debate among the four announced Democrats for governor. Based upon the paper’s post-debate editorial, they left a big stone unturned. A health care provider (the California Nurses Association) has sponsored a bill (SB 562) in the California Legislature to establish what it refers to as a “single-payer” system. But as […]
While LA Sleeps
California’s wine country fires delivered a vivid demonstration of the critical importance of governments being able to assemble armies of public safety workers when needed. Citizens expect their governments to provide public safety — but they also expect parks, animal shelters, transportation, road, sidewalk and tree maintenance, housing for the homeless, libraries and much more. What citizens don’t […]
Now That Drug Cost Increases Must Be Explained in California . . .
Governor Jerry Brown just signed a bill requiring pharmaceutical companies in California to issue notifications at least 60 days in advance of a price increase that would be at least 16 percent over a two-year period and explain the reasons behind the increase. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, supporters of the legislation say it […]
A Tale Of Two Headlines
Rolling Stone just ran a hagiographic interview with California governor Jerry Brown accompanied by this headline: Jerry Brown’s California Dream: is this the blueprint for a more progressive America? But the very same week CALMatters ran a column with a very different headline: Latest academic tests underscore California’s education crisis. How could Rolling Stone conduct a lengthy interview […]
CA Should Raise Teacher Pay By Reducing Unfunded Retirement Liabilities
Fast-rising spending on pensions and other retirement costs is crushing teacher staffing and pay in California. As an example, retirement spending at San Francisco Unified School District grew 3x faster than district revenues over the last five years, absorbing $35 million that could have gone to current teachers. Worse, that happened despite record stock market gains and school revenues. Absent reform, […]
Pension and Other Retirement Costs Are Crowding Out SF School Teachers
School starts today in San Francisco but according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle not all classrooms may have teachers because of “a rash of departures over the summer.” Perhaps the departed teachers observed this depressing mismatch in spending priorities over the past five years: Sources: First Interim Reports, San Francisco Unified School District, FY2012 […]
Meet The New Boss. Same As The Old Boss.
Until 1910, the dominant political force in California was the Southern Pacific Railroad. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, SP “manipulated much of California’s political life, buying city supervisors, mayors, judges, the state legislature and even members of the California delegation to the U.S. Congress.” Eventually California enacted a railroad commission and other reforms to […]
CA Continues To Abandon UC and CSU
The State of California’s 2017–18 Enacted Budget confirms an ominous trend as state spending on retirement costs continues displacing state spending on the University of California and California State University. Seven years ago the state provided $5.5 billion for UC and CSU and $6 billion for retirement costs. The new budget provides $7 billion for UC and […]
A Teachable Pension Math Moment
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported excellent earnings for its 2016–17 fiscal year, earning 11.2 percent. Yet CalPERS’s Funded Ratio (the ratio of assets set aside to meet pension liabilities owed by governments) improved only three percentage points, from 65 percent to 68 percent. In other words, an extraordinary investment return 60 percent greater than the […]