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 […]
Ignoring Public Sector Retirement Costs … and History
Newspapers continue to carry an array of stories on the cost of public employee retirement that chills taxpayers’ bones. The stories are constant reminders that the issue of public employee retirement costs is reaching a tipping point and must be addressed fairly by government or likely will be addressed by an angry electorate. In this […]
Gov. Brown’s Budget Plan Is A Dangerous Game of Chicken
Governor Jerry Brown frequently touts his record of putting our children’s education first. During his campaign and on his website he boasts about increasing educational funding and establishing charter schools. That is why Californian’s should be appalled by his decision to hold K-12 education hostage in an attempt to fix California’s $9.2 billion budget deficit. […]
Building An Earthquake Kit For Our Water Supply System
As Californians, we’re all keenly aware of the “big one” that’s looming. I would imagine that most people consider the potential impacts of an earthquake in their community. So we buy earthquake kits, flashlights, bottled water, extra canned food for our homes—we take action to prepare. And I imagine that most people expect that those […]
California’s Other Deficit: At $10 billion, it’s Big Bucks
Crossposted on Capitol Weekly It’s California’s other deficit. The one that doesn’t get talked about much. At just under $10 billion, this deficit is a bigger financial hole than the one in the state’s General Fund. But Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government have a plan for erasing the deficit, which will take more […]