Was it Confidence or Money that Prompted Brown to Stop Signature Drive?
Governor Jerry Brown’s campaign announced last week that he was confident of the signature gathering effort on the tax initiative created by a compromise with the California Federation of Teachers and he stopped collecting signatures on his original tax initiative. At least that’s the official word. Could there be something else at work? With the […]
Prop 13’s Impact on Business is about Small Business….Not the Dodgers
Over the past several weeks, capped by the recent hubbub over the sale of the Dodgers, there has been building drumbeat by unions and tax advocates to undo the protections for California’s businesses included in Proposition 13. They are ready to certify Proposition 13 “unfair” and to bury it in a flurry of initiatives that […]
Regulators Don’t Feel the Budget Squeeze
Even as Gov Brown does an admirable job of restraining the overall growth in state employment, the regulatory bureaucracy balloons. Boosted by strong constituencies in the Legislature, and insulated by their reliance largely on industry fees, fines and penalties, regulatory agencies have seen their staffs grow by fourteen percent over the past four years – […]
European Initiative Season Is Underway Too, And Some of It is Familiar
The new European initiative process launched Sunday. Yes, that was April 1, and no, this isn’t a joke. This is the world’s first transnational process. You have to gather 1 million signatures, meeting minimum threshholds across at least seven countries, to qualify a measure. There is no ballot – not yet – but the resulting […]