How the Voters Feel About Climate Change Legislation
When the greenhouse gases extension bill seemed to be stalled in the legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Executive Secretary, Nancy McFadden, said that the administration would get its way on the climate change: Either the bill would pass the legislature or the governor would take his agenda to the ballot. He filed papers for a ballot […]
How Do You Keep Them Down on the Farm with Excessively High Wages?
One of the ironies of our time is that progressive laws often hurt those they’re supposed to help. Restrictions on housing construction, such as almost anything the California Coastal Commission does or SB 375 from 2008, raise prices, making it difficult, even impossible for poor people to find housing. I wrote several columns on that […]
Can’t Fix Climate Change by Punishing Manufacturers
At least AB 32, our climate change bill passed in 2006, recognized that California alone can’t fix climate change and that higher costs only in California will hurt jobs, the economy and even the environment. So AB 32 included important features to keep regulations affordable and meet a 2020 goal. Now there is a push […]
California Supreme Court Strikes Down Vergara Appeal
Here’s an axiom of California politics. When it’s the teachers union against everyone – that’s right, everyone else – the teachers union wins. Yesterday’s decision by the California Supreme Court to not hear the Vergara case is just the latest example. Prior to losing on appeal, which brought the case to the attention of the […]
Big Medi-Cal Expansion Not a Success Story
The Affordable Care Act is collapsing, and President Obama blames Republicans. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the president accused Republicans of undermining the health care law’s implementation. “It has come at a cost for the country,” Obama wrote, “most notably for the estimated 4 million Americans left uninsured because they live […]