What Happened to the “Wall of Debt”? It is as High and as Intractable as Ever
In May of 2011 Governor Brown declared that reducing the “wall of debt” would be his “top priority” if taxes were increased. “The wall of debt has to be brought down,” he told reporters. That was the Governor’s justification to raise taxes. Now the reason to raise taxes is to save education and public safety, […]
California Resources Board Amnesia
A rouge agency runs amok with unchecked powers and a dubious agenda. Inquiries about are met with political dodges or an outright refusal to disclose. Secrecy and obfuscation are used by the agency to thwart further investigation. Undaunted, the hero presses on against the unsettling conspiratorial silence and what it conceals. It sounds like a […]
Legislating the State of California
Here are three things that you can’t legislate: prosperity, honesty and common sense. Both in the aggregate and in the particular, the California Legislature seems to be attempting to defy the laws of economics and reason. By legislating. Let’s take the aggregate. I have written ad-nauseum about the cumulative burden of higher taxes, fees and […]
Hidden Funds Revelation Undermines Tax Hike Campaign
Parks Scandal Highlights Government Mismanagement Amid a fervent campaign to convince the public that they should tax themselves $8.6 billion dollars more, Governor Brown’s Parks Department is under fire for a secret stash of $54 million dollars that was recently uncovered. A smaller scandal – an illegal slush-fund vacation payout to state park employees – […]
California Gamesmanship
Once again, we have seen the Legislature engage in what can only be called its particularly unique form of California gamesmanship – a word defined as “the use of methods that are dubious or seemingly improper but not strictly illegal.” Last week the Senate narrowly passed, and the Governor is expected to approve, the bonds […]
The Legislature Needs to Show Leadership on Pension Reform: Expiration Date for Measure to Go Before Voters is June 28th
Tomorrow the Legislature is scheduled to finish voting on the budget and will pat themselves on the back while not addressing California’s most pressing fiscal reform: pensions. This Thursday, the Legislature faces another extremely important deadline. June 28th is the last day for the Legislature to place initiatives on the November ballot. Why is this […]
Reverse Engineer the Budget
California voters are among the savviest in the nation, and it is because they are very well informed skeptics. In 2010, they overwhelmingly passed Proposition 25, which essentially said if lawmakers aren’t doing their job – namely, passing a balanced budget – they won’t get paid. A judge’s ruling recently defanged the Proposition, and it […]
Red Tape Chokes California Job Creators
Small Businesses Need Relief from Over-Regulation As Benjamin Franklin once wryly noted, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” In the state of California lately, we can add regulation to the certainties that small businesses will encounter as they try to find their financial footing again in these […]
$16 Billion Deficit Underscores Need For Real Reforms
Governor Jerry Brown announced this week that the deficit has ballooned to a monstrous $16 billion dollars, an amount equal to 17 percent of the state’s entire general fund. So, California’s self-perpetuating job killing machine continues: The state continues to have a stagnant economy due to the financial crisis of 2008 and hideous economic climate […]
Proposition 25: No Budget, No Pay? Actually, No Teeth
In 2010, I supported Proposition25 which was sold to the voters as a way to make Legislators accountable for passing a balanced budget. Prop 25 said essentially if the Legislature did not pass a balanced budget by the Constitutional deadline of June 15th, they would not get paid. This week, we saw any credible enforcement […]