Sacramento Spotlight: Comprehensive Good Governance Reform – Unicameral Legislature

California’s State Legislature is now on interim recess until January. In its absence, the “Sacramento Spotlight” will shine on something different: not bills, but good governance reform. California has, for better and worse, been at the forefront of policy and governance.  What California does often ripples through America’s political psyche.  However, more recently, good governance […]

Sacramento Spotlight: AB 110 – The Not-So-Balanced Balanced Budget

“A tremendous achievement.” “Ho-hum, another on-time balanced budget.” These quotes, the first from Assembly Speaker John Perez and the second from Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, perfectly encapsulate the mood of Sacramento last week as California’s State Legislature voted to approve a state budget—officially known as AB 110.  As mandated by law, lawmakers had […]

Sacramento Spotlight: AB 158/SB 405 – Statewide Plastic Bag Bans

“Paper or plastic?” Or, if you are shopping in California in the near future: “E. Coli cloth or E. Coli compostable?” More than 60 cities and counties in California – roughly one-seventh and one-third of the Golden State’s municipal districts and population, respectively – have moved swiftly to ban plastic bags in grocery stores. Meanwhile, […]

Sacramento Spotlight: A Cornucopia of Fracking Legislation

California currently has about 50,000 producing oil and gas wells scattered throughout the state, of which about 750 (or 1.5%) use hydraulic fracturing – “fracking”, for short.   While fracking has been used in California for over 60 years, the state is just now getting around to proposing regulations and legislation to govern the controversial drilling […]

Sacramento Spotlight: AB 1203/SB209 – Retroactive Capital Gains Tax Increase Repeal

Following the passage of Proposition 30, California has the highest capital gains tax rate in the nation (13.3% for California; 33% state and federal combined) – second only to Denmark in the industrial world, for the matter. The funny thing is this wasn’t supposed to be the case for all Californians. Recognizing the detrimental effects […]

The Revitalization of the California Republican Party

California, the home of two Republican Presidential libraries, continues to become a liberal safe haven. In former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new biography, he writes that even Karl Rove considers California too far gone for Republican candidates. Can the state that jump started both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon’s political careers really be completely out of […]