Governor Signs One Major Arbitration Bill and Vetoes Another
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution instead of litigation, has been under assault the past few years in California. The 2016 Legislative Session was not any different. As part of the 1,059 bills acted upon this year by Governor Jerry Brown, he signed one major arbitration bill and vetoed another. Two other significant arbitration […]
Vote No, No, No on Measure JJJ
“Measure JJJ would impose some of the nation’s most demanding affordable housing and wage mandates on privately-funded development. It was written without any analysis of whether the measure would actually relieve the city’s affordable housing crisis, as opposed to increasing the cost of new construction so much that developers build fewer units for low- and middle-income Angelenos.” […]
NFIB Score Card: Legislative Votes on Small Business
The National Federation of Independent Business/California unveiled its annual voting record for our 120 Senators and Assemblymembers in the State Capitol. Each year, NFIB/CA identifies and lobbies on bills which would have the most significant impact, either positive or negative, on small businesses. Based on their vote on these critical pieces of legislation, each member of the Legislature receives a percentage […]
Reading the Ballot Initiatives, Part 1
It’s not just the ballot that’s long—with all sorts of federal, state and local offices, and those 17 statewide ballot measures. It’s the ballot measures ourselves. We get quite angry when we hear about elected officials who don’t read the proposed laws they vote on. But California voters don’t read the laws they vote on […]
Banned Books? What About Censorship By Taxation?
One major annoyance is the annual whine by the Banned Books Week Coalition. That’s because the books aren’t banned, at least not in America. And included are “challenged” books in the list of supposedly “banned” books. The Week of Woe also is advanced by the California Libraries Association, although their last website update was two […]
California’s initiative system is broken
When my kids first got video games, we devised a family contract. We spelled out how long they could play, the priority of homework and the acceptance of absolute parental discretion. But no sooner was the ink dry than we realized we needed a few changes. The original deal had a half-hour per day limit, […]
Cheers and Jeers for Gov. Brown’s Bill Signings & Vetoes
It is apparent that Gov. Jerry Brown doesn’t always listen to the advice I offer freely through commentaries on this page. With the governor finishing the Herculean task of deciding on over 1000 bills, I looked over past articles I wrote for this site on specific bills to see if my suggestions were followed. Of […]
The Prop 55 Conundrum
Proposition 55, which would extend the Prop 30 taxes on high-income Californians for another 12 years, renews a puzzle that California has been facing for more than a decade. That puzzle: Should we go for a small temporary tax increase that plugs a budget problem temporarily? Or hold out for smarter tax reform that produces […]
Charter Schools Under Attack
For years, teachers’ unions have tried to kill charter schools—but only on odd-numbered days. On even-numbered days, they tried to organize them. Things lately have become very odd, at least in California; the unions are in full-assault mode. United Teachers of Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl has long groused about how charter schools don’t play by the […]