Privacy Issue Hits Home in California
With the debate sizzling over the revelations that the United States government is collecting so-called megadata through its PRISM program, while also collecting data on telephone calls, it is more than interesting to point to California decades ago confronting privacy issues and government’s ability through technology to collect data on citizens. California voters affirmed an […]
Granada Hills Like Disneyland
(Ed Note: Something on the lighter side for a Friday—Zocalo Public Square asked for essays supporting different parts of the city where retiring Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa might move after he leaves the designated home for the city’s mayor. My contribution boosting Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley is republished below. Interestingly, of the few essays […]
Lessons from the Gold Rush and CEQA Reform
At the California Chamber of Commerce breakfast a couple of weeks ago, Governor Jerry Brown spoke of the California’s legendary Gold Rush as an economic stimulus for the state. One of the reasons for the success of the Gold Rush was that the government of the time let entrepreneurial drive go unfettered. As quoted in […]
Lockyer Speaks his Mind
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s retirement announcement yesterday, coupled with the post in Fox & Hounds about the difficult situation for the state’s court system, couldn’t help but remind me of the time I worked with Lockyer, then the senate president pro tem, to alter the way California’s courts operated. Proposition 220 on the June 1998 […]
Prop 13 Name Still has Power
A poll released on Friday by the California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy indicates that for voters there is still magic in the name Proposition 13. The poll measured voter reaction to possible changes in the 1978 property tax law, splitting the respondent sample questions so that one group was asked […]
Polls, Polls – What Do They Mean?
Yesterday, two polls came out certain to warm Governor Jerry Brown as both polls by the Public Policy Institute of California and the California Business Roundtable/Pepperdine Public Policy School support his school funding policy and the budget he presented to the legislature. But what exactly do these polls represent? The question arises because the Roundtable/Pepperdine […]
Hertzberg is Back Hoping to Push Major Reforms as an Insider
Bob Hertzberg, former Speaker of the California Assembly, never really left the California political scene after he left office. Despite his venture into the business world, most notably helping to create a solar energy company, he spent plenty of time volunteering for groups attempting to reform the way California works. He also ran for mayor […]
Business Should Act on Tax Referendum Before its Too Late
Last week’s Los Angeles Times article by Patrick McGreevey titled, Lawmakers Test Brown’s No-Tax Resolve with Calls to Hike Levies, should focus the business community’s attention on considering a proposal I have suggested on this site before – an initiative constitutional amendment to allow for referendums on tax measures. The Times article reported that 20 […]
Union Spending Issue Decides LA Mayor’s Race
The single most important issue that drove the Los Angeles mayoral election was union spending on behalf of Wendy Greuel, especially money from the public union within the Department of Water and Power. In a heavily Democratic, labor-oriented city, labor’s candidate lost. What does that portend for the long-term reforms on pension costs, tax reform, […]
To Save California Taxpayers, Protect Proposition 13
David Crane’s argument above advocating doing away with the property tax protections in Proposition 13 is flawed. Crane says the state would function more efficiently if it relied more heavily on a stable property tax instead of more volatile income and sales taxes, but what makes the property tax so stable in California is Proposition […]