Convincing Business on the Budget Plan
Describing himself as the Rip Van Winkle of California politics, Governor Jerry Brown, now back in the governorship after a long absence, was aggressively selling his budget plan to 1500 members and guests of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce last night.
Brown was looking for business support to help convince Republicans to get tax measures – he called them “revenue extensions” – on the ballot and to help get the tax extensions passed. He said earlier in the day, “It’s absolutely crucial that the people in business … get behind the effort to fix the mess in Sacramento.”
When asked at an airport news conference earlier in the day how he would convince the businesses of the need to pass the tax measures, Brown responded he would argue “stability,” adding that Californians should not “create undue turbulence” by defeating the tax measures thus requiring more budget cuts.
Brown insisted business would go along with his plan because what he was proposing was reasonable and that the chamber was reasonable.
Joel Kotkin Opines On City of L.A.’s Decade of Decline
Cross-posted at Planning Report.
Author, internationally-recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends, and a frequent TPR contributor, Joel Kotkin has recently been studying the economic recovery of regions and cities. What he has found may surprise the most ardent city of Los Angeles apologist: the West Coast’s largest city has been outperformed during the recession and over the past decade in the U.S. in almost every possible category of prosperity. In the following TPR interview, Kotkin details L.A.’s decade of secular decline, while also noting that, with adult leadership, a path to economic competitiveness is still open.
You have been speaking and writing about regions and metropolitan areas for some time. You have focused recently on L.A.’s position vis-à-vis other regions around the globe and in the United States. How well is L.A. doing?
L.A. is in the midst of a secular decline, which can be reversed, but before we reverse a decline, we have to know what the problems are and where we stand. You can read accounts by organizations like the LAEDC—the last effective business group in town—and have no sense that time is running out. There is very little public discussion or recognition of what’s going on. Not that we were unique in suffering from the recession, but we have actually underperformed compared with both our old rivals and some new ones over the past decade.
Medical Malpractice Redux – H.R. 5
Another State of the
Union Address has come and gone and there is once again a
sense of excitement in the air. In this year’s address, the President stated,
"I am willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one
that Republicans suggested last year – medical malpractice reform to rein in
frivolous lawsuits."
Is President Obama truly serious this time about
taking another look at medical malpractice reform? CALA has long stated that to
reform healthcare and not look at medical malpractice reform or defensive
medicine is just to completely miss the point. These areas have to be reformed
when tackling the issue of healthcare reform.
Lo and behold, here comes H.R. 5., the HEALTH Act of 2011. This
bill by Rep. John Gingrey (R-GA) will give the President the opportunity to
back up his words with action. It contains, among many things, a cap of
$250,000 on non-economic damages, which is similar to a reform we have in California
that the trial lawyers cannot stand. H.R. 5 even puts caps on contingency fees
and eliminates punitive damages for products that meet FDA standards.
It’s time to eliminate government discrimination against taxpayers
Government discriminates against taxpayers,
and oftentimes, it’s predicated as the basis upon which millions in political
contributions are delivered every year.
The goal is to drain every last penny from people to protect a public sector
that has become fat, arrogant and seemingly proud of it.
Taxpayers are being lectured about the need
for "shared sacrifice" to protect education, public safety, health and welfare
spending and other public sector programs at a time when we are already
considered a "high-tax" state. Not to mention our record high unemployment
rates. None of that seems to matter when
it comes to our insatiable government.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe we should have
the best possible schools, well-trained and supported law enforcement
professionals, and public services. The
problem is, public employee unions and their partners think legalized
discrimination against the private sector and its taxpaying workforce is the
solution. Teamsters Local 572
representative, Connie Oser, wrote the following in a letter to the Los Angeles
Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education, "LAUSD can no longer afford
to subsidize private industry with taxpayer dollars."