Ninety-nine percent of all statistics only tell forty-nine percent of the story.” – Ron DeLegge, Financial Author Having a high rate of economic growth solves a lot of problems. From government’s perspective, as businesses invest more and consumers spend more, there is ample tax revenue to fund ongoing priorities like education as well as short-term initiatives. […]

“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.” – Margaret Peters State climate policies are boosting the San Joaquin Valley’s economy. At least that’s the basic message that the authors of a recent study are trying to convey. On January 19 the Bay Area organization Next 10 released a commissioned report entitled […]

In late February we learned that opponents of SB 270 (Padillia), the ban on single-use plastic bags in grocery stores, gathered enough signatures to qualify a referendum on the law. This means that SB 270’s scheduled July 1 start date will be put on hold. And it means that California voters will determine the law’s […]

“It’s déjà vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra As has been reported in these pages and elsewhere, Senators Kevin de León and Mark Leno earlier this month introduced Senate Bill (SB) 350, otherwise known as the “Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015.” The authors developed SB 350 ostensibly to help create jobs […]

John Husing, the Inland Empire economist, asserts that California’s policies are short-sighted when it comes to many important subject areas like energy policy. Specifically, he argues that the state’s leadership from wealthy coastal counties tends to design policies that make sense for these same counties, but that ultimately create unintended, negative consequences for poorer inland […]