Sizing Up the Landscape for Initiatives in 2014
Even though the 2014 general election is 15 months away there are already rumors about what might appear on the ballot through the initiative process. In attempting to read the early tea leaves on initiative measures, especially ones that are related to the business community, I turned to Rick Claussen, long time ballot initiative maven […]
Fewer Elected Officials Could Cost Taxpayers More
In a recent piece, Joel Fox reminds us of the 1996 Constitutional Revision Commission, on which he served. He recalls the Commission’s recommendation to eliminate a number of California’s elected offices, including the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Insurance Commissioner, the Treasurer and the State Board of Equalization. In the Commission’s plan, most of these positions […]
Riding Herd on Coastal Act Violators
The August 7 article, “Unbridled,” contained some factual errors and misleading statements regarding the Coastal Commission’s enforcement authority generally, and the Commission’s specific actions on a series of Coastal Act violations at Malibu Valley Farms (MVF). The article cites the MVF enforcement case as an example of how the Coastal Commission might misuse administrative penalty […]
Why Bankers and Public Sector Unions are Allies, not Enemies
Earlier this week former state senator Gloria Romero published a lengthy article in the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled “Fixing California: The union chokehold.” Reprinted with permission onUnionWatch, it describes how public sector unions, virtually unopposed, have undermined the effectiveness and overpriced the costs of government at all levels in California. Romero, a liberal Democrat who […]