California an Economic Model? Not Quite

A significant sub-theme of Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate change conference in San Francisco this month was that California is a living model of how a nation-state can go green while experiencing economic prosperity. Some Californians take it a step further, contending that going green is itself an economic spur. Certainly California’s current economy is, at […]

Study Provides New Ammo for K-12 Schools Battle

A decade ago, an academic research team produced a massive report on the shortcomings in how California’s K-12 schools educate about 6 million children and adolescents. The “Getting Down to Facts” report was issued just as a very severe recession hammered California and school financing, most of which comes from the state’s income-tax-centered revenue system, […]

Only The Powerful Get Relief From Environmental Law

During his eight years as a state senator, Anthony Cannella rarely speechified on the Senate floor, unlike his more verbose colleagues. But he did so last Friday, the last day of the 2016-18 biennial session and Canella’s last time on the floor. Cannella, a Republican from Modesto, rose to talk about a bill that would fast-track an […]

Required Vote For Local Tax Increases In Legal Limbo

California’s booming economy is pouring many billions of additional tax dollars into state and local government treasuries. Nevertheless, the locals – cities and school districts, especially – find themselves in an ever-tightening fiscal vise because mandatory payments into public employee pension funds are growing much faster than revenues. That’s why dozens of them are asking […]

Legislative Leaders Want to Milk More Campaign Money

Jesse Unruh, the legendary speaker of the state Assembly during the 1960s, was fond of pithy quips, and one of his more enduring is that “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” Before Unruh became the Assembly’s leader in 1961, the financing of legislative campaigns was largely controlled by Capitol lobbyists, who adhered to the […]

Coy About Taxes and Pension Costs

California’s economy may be booming, but throughout the state, local governments—including school districts—are feeling the financial pinch and asking their voters to approve new taxes of one kind or another. There were 111 local tax measures on the June primary election ballot, the vast majority of which passed, according to municipal finance guru Michael Coleman […]

Supreme Court Voids California Law, Upholds Free Speech

Californians of a liberal bent may not like it, but the U.S. Supreme Court this week struck an important blow for the constitutional right of free speech. It overturned a California law requiring clinics offering non-abortion alternative treatment to pregnant women to post notices telling them about the availability of abortions. “By compelling petitioners to […]

Two Victims of a Blood Sport: Politics

Josh Newman, a Democratic state senator from Fullerton, was in a bitter mood when he rose on the Senate floor last week—for good reason. Six days earlier, voters in his district had decided overwhelmingly to recall him after just 18 months in office, persuaded by a tsunami of Republican allegations that he had betrayed them by […]

Local Officials Avoid ‘P-Word’ as They Push New Taxes

While public and media attention to this week’s primary election focused – understandably so – on contests for governor, U.S. senator and a handful of congressional seats, there were other important issues on Californians’ ballots. One, which received scant attention at best, was another flurry of local government and school tax and bond proposals. The […]

Campaigns Try to Fool California Voters

Politics – the means by which we govern ourselves – can be a positive, even uplifting human enterprise. Too often, however, political tactics are based on the cynical assumption that voters can be easily fooled and the current election season is, unfortunately, rife. Take, for example, the television ads that Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the leading […]