I attended the California Economic Summit in Santa Clara last week. I was impressed by the ideas produced in workshop sessions, and by the smart thinking about how to build the state’s very distinct economic regions (both by reinforcing their differences and by linking them). But I also was very impressed by George Shultz. Shultz [...]

When you write about initiatives, you spend a lot of time hearing from and about rich people. And the main message is that they are brilliant people who have put together groundbreaking proposals that no one else would have the courage (and the scratch) to back. Usually, I hold my tongue. Being in the nonprofit [...]

Welcome to the think tank game, Sam Blakeslee. The state senator from the Central Coast, a moderate Republican who is not running for re-election, recently announced the formation of the California Reform Institute. His think tank will have a focus: supporting California lawmakers who want to work across the aisle on reform legislation that the [...]

Should Sacramento govern like Beijing or Singapore? The question might be easily dismissed as ridiculous – because California is a democracy, right? But California isn’t that democratic – our legislative elections are fixed and our direct democracy is open only to people and interests with millions of dollars. And California’s elected officials are far less [...]

I spent part of Wednesday in San Francisco and found myself driving in the vicinity of the Olympic Club, site of next month’s U.S. Open in golf. And it made me think of California political reform. Olympic is one of America’s most difficult courses, and the U.S. Open is the closest thing professional golf has [...]

Should Sacramento govern like Beijing or Singapore? The question might be easily dismissed as ridiculous – because California is a democracy, right? But California isn’t that democratic – our legislative elections are fixed and our direct democracy is open only to people and interests with millions of dollars. And California’s elected officials are far less [...]

You can always tell a Republican, but you can’t tell him much. So it’s probably a waste of breath to give the GOP free advice. But here it goes, anyway. The big cuts to adult education programs in Los Angeles and around the state represent an opportunity. Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown have opened the [...]

Gov. Jerry Brown missed an opportunity when he announced that he was eliminating hundreds of state reports – and seeking to eliminate hundreds more. Brown was trying to convey that the state was buckling down and eliminating waste. But frugality was the only message. He should have paired that move with a call for more [...]

If all the views and opinions of California voters were rolled up into a single human being, that person would be a huge jerk. Or at least the worst neighbor ever. Witness the latest poll from PPIC on taxes and education. Big majorities of voters see the public schools as suffering in the budget, and [...]

All the speculation about moving ballot measures has focused on the possible delay of the water bond. But what of the rain? There are good reasons to push the oft-delayed rainy day fund measure back up to November. Politically, a real rainy day fund – the state already has such funds but they don’t work [...]