Top-Two Primary Twist on the State’s Top Job – Next Time
Reading the media reports and commentary about California governor’s race one would conclude that Jerry Brown might rack up the biggest one sided victory for that office since Earl Warren captured 91% essentially running against himself in 1946. Warren was nominated for governor by both major political parties, something that could happen in those days. […]
California’s Primary Dilemma
Next Tuesday, Californians go to the polls to vote in the gubernatorial primary elections. Although the system was in effect in 2012, this year marks the first time that new rules also apply to California’s seven partisan statewide offices. The principal rationale behind 2010’s Proposition 14 was to increase ideological moderation in California politics, hence […]
Perhaps in California’s Share Economy?
At the Share Economy conference in San Francisco earlier this month, speakers from the internet economy companies and their investors touted their new industry, as “creating a new movement”, “shifting human behavior”, a “revolution in how consumers view the world”. Hyperbole? Yes. Over the top? Yes. Failure to consider negative consequences? Yes. But in the […]
Is Texas Becoming a California Colony?
I pulled my rental car over to a curb in Plano, Texas, next to the site of Toyota’s future North American headquarters, to be staffed by thousands of workers transplanted from Southern California. I had flown in the previous evening on Burlingame-based Virgin America; I had driven here on a tollway long maintained by Jacobs […]
Overstaffed; At What Expense?
Funding for California’s highways, streets, and public transit is insufficient to meet the 21st century needs of our growing population and expanding economy. The value of the gas tax is declining. Bond funds are exhausted. Emergency federal recession recovery funds have been spent. And there is no relief on the horizon. ACEC California believes there […]
CalSTRS Bailout will be CA Version of Budget Sequester
On April 10, 2012, I wrote an op-ed for the L.A. Daily News with an unusual take on what ultimately would kill the bullet train. My theory was that the teachers unions would fight to keep a new mouth from the trough of the general fund because of the long-term need to maintain a status […]