Short on Jerry, Long on Mac

Is it just me? Or have California politics and policy debates been reduced to little more than a series of predictions about what the stock market’s going to do? This thought occurs while watching two big, related debates. The budget/tax debate. And the pension debate. In the first debate, the legislative analyst, Mac Taylor, and […]

What Sort of ‘Courage’, Mr. Crane?

I like David Crane and have been impressed by his willingness to speak out in favor of unpopular causes, even when it’s meant losing his seat on the powerful CalSTRS board and the University of California Board of Regents. That shows political courage. But Crane’s latest effort, Govern for California, which is devoted to electing […]

Please, Somebody Get Skelton a Comfy Chair

If you are a wise soul who gave yourself permission to ignore California news over the holidays, you may have missed the story of Christmas week: George Skelton really, really doesn’t like Gov. Jerry Brown’s chairs. Skelton was so troubled by the hardness of the benches that reporters were forced to sit on during a […]

California Office Pool 2012

The late, great New York Times columnist William Safire made a habit of writing a year-end column he called Office Pool. In it, Safire offered, multiple-choice style, a series of possible news events that could take place in the year ahead. At the column’s end, he let you know which ones he thought would occur. […]

Californian Of the Year: The Gerontocracy

The governor of California, who remains popular, turned 73 this year. The chairman of the state’s most popular political party, the Democrats, is 79. The junior senator from California, Barbara Boxer, is 71. The senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, is 78, and faces what looks like a cakewalk to re-election. All of them are secure. None […]

Could Pension Cuts Boost Government Hiring?

In politics, what goes unmentioned is often more interesting than what is mentioned. That’s especially true of the California debate over public employee pensions. The pension debate, for the left, is about preserving retirement security and union power. The pension debate, for the right, is about the size of government and union power. But pensions […]

5 Reasons This Tax Increase May Be Different

Conventional wisdom says that Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative is doomed. Conventional wisdom says that that the other tax raising initiatives will hurt his measure. Conventional wisdom says that early polling showing support for the Brown initiative is illusory, as voters turn against tax increases late in campaigns. But these are strange times. Could conventional […]

Everyone Hates the Think Long Jedi Council – Which Is Why It’s a Worthy Proposal

When everyone in California’s journo-political elite — from Joel Fox to Peter Schrag — is criticizing something, that something deserves a close look. Such is the case with the Citizens Council for Public Accountability – which is the heart of the new reform proposal from billionaire Nicolas Berggruen’s Think Long Committee. The council has been […]

To Right-Size California Government, Empower the Regions

You hear all the time that California is the world’s eighth largest economy. You rarely hear that, if the state were a country, it would be the 35th largest in the world. The latter statistic deserves more attention. The 34 countries larger than California govern themselves through some form of federal system, with power shared […]