The Surplus Will Be Spent
Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Any budget surplus will be spent. Period. The question is how. Republicans are calling for tax rebates, which – I can hear your screams, Mr. Fleischman – are a form of spending. The real debate is among Democrats, who are divided between those who want to put the money in reserve […]
Small Business Study Ranks California Last
An item we missed while on break is yet another report claiming that California is not business friendly. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council ranked California 50th in an extensive index measuring state policy measures on small business. The report noted it ranked “the 50 states according to 47 different policy measures, including a wide […]
R.I.P. Susan Rasky
Susan Rasky, an award winning journalist and journalism professor at UC Berkeley, who wrote about politics in her native California after beginning her career in Washington, D.C. passed away. Susan interviewed me a number of times and I remember a few lively conversations, one memorable time breaking bread with Susan and Peter Schrag after I […]
2014 Brings New Laws Regulating California Businesses
In 2013, California’s Legislature busied itself passing more than 800 new laws. In the coming weeks, CalWatchdog.com will report on the many affecting businesses in 2014. Overtime for nannies and domestic workers The “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights,” Assembly Bill 241, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, “would specially regulate the wages, hours, and working conditions of domestic […]
Who’s Looking Out for the Middle Class?
Thirty years of political engagement in California politics has led me to the realization that the middle class is woefully underrepresented in this state. Not only that, but this injustice seems amplified with every passing year. This column has covered the lack of meaningful representation for ordinary citizen taxpayers for more than a decade. Indeed, […]