Thoughts on Election Day
While redistricting changes made by a commission certainly will have an effect in this election, I always believed that the influence on the legislature from redistricting would only be along the margins. The top-two primary would have a greater impact. We may not know the true impact for a full election cycle or more but […]
Petitions Give Voice to Main Street on Illegal Cap-And-Trade Tax
The Brown Administration’s hidden energy tax is being imposed on struggling small businesses and all Californians by an unelected body via a complicated and obscure process. It would be considered by some a snoozer of an issue if the implications of this $30 billion tax weren’t so severe: the potential for $6-a-gallon gasoline and higher […]
When You Hate Your Taxes but Can’t Name Your Legislator
Crossposted on Bloomberg Who do you think has more influence over the education, safety, health, welfare, transportation, justice, recreation and economic well-being of 40 million Californians? U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein or California State Senator Loni Hancock? That’s easy: Loni Hancock. How can it be that someone so powerful is so unknown? The answer is that few […]
EXCLUSIVE! Big Battle Over Competing Tax Plans on Psychic Income
SACRAMENTO (AP) – Desperate for revenues, California’s top officials and interest groups are engaged in a high-stakes, behind-the-scenes battle over competing, yet-to-be-released plans to tax psychic income, the Associated Press has learned. Such income has not been taxed by an American state, but Gov. Jerry Brown put the notion in play for policymakers after he […]
California’s Casino Budgeting
Crossposted on Wall Street Journal California’s fiscal and governance crisis careens from bad to worse. The latest blow: a 70% increase in the state’s projected budget deficit in Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget, to $16 billion from $9 billion. Meanwhile, S&P warns of a downgrade to the state’s bond rating, already the lowest of any […]