LA Times Prop 13 Story Misses Important Piece
The Los Angeles Times’ weekend story implicating Proposition 13 as an accomplice in computer billionaire Michael Dell’s effort to avoid a property tax increase on a Santa Monica hotel he purchased curiously doesn’t carry any comments about the situation from Prop 13 supporters. I write ‘curiously,’ because the Times reporter interviewed a number of us […]
Brown Is Vulnerable
Gov. Jerry Brown looks like a shoo-in for re-election. But when you look at California and its political fundamentals, the reason for Brown’s standing has less to do with Brown than the lack of alternatives. The governor is a tree standing in the desert. The Republican Party seems incapable of producing a winning candidate. And […]
What Should California Do with the $4.6 Billion in Extra Tax Revenue?
The internet was humming last week with the news that the California economy has generated $4.6 billion more in state tax revenue than budget writers had anticipated. Now comes the big question: What to do with it? Californians in November 2014 are scheduled to vote on a constitutional amendment, the California Rainy Day Budget Stablization […]
Rail Project Makes Sense for the Region
In March of this year, myself and other Los Angeles Harbor commissioners certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approved the plans for the proposed Southern California Intermodal Gateway (SCIG) railyard project. This landmark project, whose $500 million cost would come entirely from a private investment by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), is […]
Republican and Latinos Agree on Education Reforms
Politics makes strange bedfellows. This we know to be true, but Latinos and Republicans should not be. Many demographers predict Republicans will steadily pick up Latino voters as Latino assimilation increases, and Latinos succeed economically. But one area is a natural for Republicans — education. Many Latino voters say education is a leading issue for them, […]