A Blueprint for California’s Budget
The strong revenue California collected in April is one more encouraging sign that after years of weathering the Great Recession we appear to have reached a point of budget stability. To help build on that stability, Assembly Democrats have crafted a Blueprint for a Responsible Budget that will keep California on sound financial footing not […]
LA Times’ Sale Dodged Taxes Same Way as Dell’s Hotel Deal
There is a statewide campaign afoot that wants to eliminate Proposition 13 gradually by first trying to take away its protections for the timing of property tax reassessments of commercial properties. The Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica is being used as a high profile symbol of why Proposition 13 should be revoked for commercial properties. […]
Advice for the Next LA Mayor
(Editor’s Note: David Abel’s Los Angeles newsletter, The Planning Report, this week featured short pieces of advice consisting of a To-Do list for the next Los Angeles Mayor from civic leaders and interested observers, including County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, SEIU leader Julie Butcher, business association executives Bill Allen and Billie Greer, conservationist Joe Edmiston, former […]
How will Brown Balance Oil, Environmental Interests?
California’s economy has been powered for decades by technology, trade and tourism — businesses and jobs mostly near the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles and around the San Francisco Bay Area. The state’s great inland valleys, while serving as a breadbasket for the world, have not been a land of high-paying employment or […]
Don’t Leave ‘Em with Two Nickels to Rub Together
In a bunker somewhere in Sacramento, a secret committee meeting of state power brokers is taking place. Let’s listen in as the chairman addresses the members: “Welcome to this week’s meeting of the ‘Don’t Leave Them With Two Nickels to Rub Together Committee’ It is good to see that the public employee union bosses, who […]