The New Driver’s License Bill Reflects a Political Shift Ten Years after the Recall
Ten years ago, California voters recalled the governor and put in his place an actor who soon fulfilled a campaign promise to rescind a bill approving driver’s licenses for people in the country unlawfully. Almost ten years to the day after the recall election, another governor signed a bill to allow for those driver’s licenses. […]
What Happens When the Prop 30 Taxes End?
What California faces when the Proposition 30 temporary taxes run their course was a question addressed by a couple of panels, one on which I participated, at Governing Magazine’s Leadership Forum in Sacramento yesterday. Proposition 30 passed by voters last November increased sales and income taxes temporarily. The quarter-cent sales tax portion is scheduled to […]
Legislative Goals are not only about Changing California
The California legislature has set out on a bold path not only to change the direction of the state’s culture but also to influence the country as a whole. For decades, California has been known as a bellwether state—what happens here first will be followed elsewhere. Many Sacramento politicians in the majority party have their eyes on the larger goal of changing the […]
The America’s Cup Victory and the Immigration Debate
The Oracle USA America’s Cup winner could stand as a model for business leaders advocating relaxing some of the country’s immigration laws, especially in California’s Silicon Valley. Many Americans who don’t know a catamaran from a Boston whaler are aware that the USA made a stunning comeback trailing 8-1 in a best of 17 sailing […]
Steve Glazer’s Stand – It Worked for Calvin Coolidge
Steve Glazer’s move supporting legislation to prohibit BART strikes may put him in good standing with voters much like Calvin Coolidge nearly a century ago when he made a similar stand opposing strikes that endanger the public. Both took on labor and risked defeat at the polls. For Coolidge, his position sent him on the […]
Bob Hope’s House is Up for Sale: Thanks for the Memories
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Bob Hope’s principal home in Toluca Lake in the San Fernando Valley is up for sale. That brought back memories — not of the silver dollars they use to give out at the house at Halloween making it a must stop location for even outside the neighborhood kids […]
Economics Trump Govt. Efforts Designed to Help
Too often, government efforts to help the underprivileged or the young tend to have the opposite effect. Take two legislative bills that are on the governor’s desk: an increase in the minimum wage and the bill to allow governments to include inclusionary housing mandates on developers. Yesterday on this site, Loren Kaye pointed out that […]
Focus on Changing Prop 13 Still Hot
While a just released Public Policy Institute study suggested that lowering the two-thirds vote for school parcel taxes would be limited in effect, don’t think for a moment that the effort to cut Prop’s 13’s requirement to raise taxes won’t be pushed by the legislature next year. There are still six active bills focused on […]
Driver’s Licenses and the Jobs Argument
One major argument supporters of granting specially marked driver’s licenses to immigrants living in California unlawfully is the need for these individuals to use cars to get to jobs. However, there is a disconnect between this rationale for the driver’s license bill and the reality of federal law. Assembly speaker John Perez supported AB 60, […]
Losses and Wins for Small Business
It’s too early to assess all the bills of concern or hope for the business community given the last minute flurry of action as the legislature closed down for the year. With bills whipping through the legislature in the closing day of session, small businesses are always on edge but there were minuses and some […]