Long-Awaited Income Tax Proposal Finally Surfaces
The Legislature adjourned Friday after passing hundreds of bills, but not a single tax increase. The very next business day, lawyers for the state’s most powerful government workers union unveiled a proposed ballot initiative to raise taxes by at least $60 billion. Dubbed the “School Funding and Budget Stability Act of 2016,” the proposed measure would extend for 12 […]
Re-reading the Pension Measure With the Markets in Turmoil
The big drops in the stock market can make people reassess their portfolio. I found myself wanting to reassess Chuck Reed and Carl DeMaio’s pension measure. As readers know, I’m deeply skeptical of the ability of ballot measures to resolve difficult problems without making things worse. And the legislative analyst office assessment of the latest […]
Unified Republicans in CA State Capitol Block Tax Increases
Early Saturday morning, after midnight, the California legislature ended its regular session, and two special sessions. Despite an immense amount of pressure on them from the Governor, their Democrat colleagues, and powerful special interests – Republicans held the line and successfully stopped billions of dollars in proposed tax increases from being enacted. I spoke with California Republican Party […]
A Solution To Global Warming Does More Harm Than Good
As Californians face mandatory water restrictions due to a severe drought, growing biofuels – long considered a solution to climate change – may actually be worse for water shortages than the effects of global warming itself. According to a new peer-reviewed study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, growing biofuels and the policies in place to increase their […]
Rural Tourism is Essential to California’s Economic Future
Tourism is everyone’s business in California. As the nation’s largest tourism economy, the industry is a major pillar of California’s success with more than $117.5 billion in direct travel spending last year. This supports more than 1 million jobs and generates nearly $9.4 billion in state and local tax revenues. Millions of travelers explore California’s […]