UC Furlough Study is Economics, Not Politics
There’s a lot less than meets the eye in that UC study that found the furlough days ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aren’t saving as much money as originally advertised.
The numbers may be right, although it’s likely to be a battle of dueling economists as the governor’s finance folks put on the green eyeshades and go over the numbers from the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.
But even if the three-a-month furlough days from 193,000 state workers are only saving around half the anticipated $1.3 billion, as well as boosting California’s costs in future years, the governor is still a political winner.
Whatever the actual dollar figures are, $1.3 billion is the number that was used to balance the budget Schwarzenegger signed in July. And while there may be added costs or less savings in future years, hey, that’s the future.
Prop 13 and a Constitutional Convention
The following are my comments before the “Getting to Reform” conference held in Sacramento this week:
I have been asked if Proposition 13 should be taken “off the table” if and when a constitutional convention is called. My answer is: Absolutely not.
How can it be taken off the table when it is the central piece of the whole fiscal discussion? How many times in this conference was Proposition 13 mentioned as part of the mix. Many believe it must be reformed. How can you have a constitutional convention and simply ignore Proposition 13?
However, I would suggest that those who want to include Proposition 13 in a constitutional convention do so at their own risk. Proposition 13 did something revolutionary. For the first time in history, it gave certainty in taxation to the taxpayer instead of the tax collector. Why would the people ever surrender that certainty?
Rushed Judgments on Limbaugh Buying Rams
As someone who dislikes the current ownership of the St. Louis Rams as much as I dislike Rush Limbaugh, I was not disappointed that the self-appointed head of the GOP was dropped from a bid to purchase what used to be my favorite football team.
Limbaugh’s politics don’t offend me; I just don’t like him, and neither do many of the NFL’s owners and players who objected to his potential ownership of an NFL team.
I agree that his conflicts with leaders in the African American community would be bad for business, so the NFL owners had every right to vote against his bid just as they could vote against Howard Stern owning a team or anyone else who would be a lightening rod of undesired publicity.
Yet, I am amused that the reasons why they objected to Limbaugh owning an NFL team had to do with his past criticisms of black athletes and politicians.
Dow Crosses 10,000; Why Happy Days Aren’t Here Again
Wall Street had something to cheer
about Wednesday, other than JP Morgan Chase’s reported record $3.6 Billion
profit. After flirting with the
prized, five-figure psychological threshold a bit, the Dow finally crossed
10,000 once again, closing at 10,015.86, up 144.8 points or 1.5 percent gain,
closing above 10,000 for the first time in a bit shy of a year and a fortnight
– since Oct. 3, 2008.
Are we rich beyond dreams of
avarice again? Hardly. Will the well scrubbed, unemployment
figure now cross 10% nationally – juxtaposing two entirely different worlds
(the second of which is not celebrating today)? Likely, say our brightest economic minds.
President Obama gave a speech at a
construction site joining two highways that ran out of money to complete their
construction decades ago, fresh from his dubious Nobel Laureate-hood, touting
how well we have done in this recovery since the dark days of last Winter. Some $60 million of recovery funds gave
jobs to hard-hatted construction workers smiling behind the President while he
spoke.