Some Early End-Game Wisdom
The stakes for the first Presidential debate on September 26 couldn’t be higher. On paper, it looks like advantage Clinton on the basis of her mastery of the issues and debate experience. The Clinton operation has got to be breathing a little easier now that Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson has been officially barred from the […]
Consequences from Smoking, Sure; But Consequences from Tobacco Tax, Too
Like the proponents of Proposition 56, I wish we could wave a magic wand and eliminate smoking. But our state government lacks a magic wand; all it can do is outlaw and tax our activities. So, from a public health standpoint, the $2 per pack cigarette tax increase mandated by Prop 56 is the next […]
California’s Boom Is Poised To Go Bust — And Liberals’ Dream Of Scandinavia On The Pacific
As its economy started to recover in 2010, progressives began to hail California as a kind of Scandinavia on the Pacific — a place where liberal programs also produce prosperity. The state’s recovery has won plaudits from such respected figures as The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson and the New York Times’ Paul Krugman. Gov. Jerry Brown, in Bill Maher’s assessment, “took a […]
NFIB Survey: Health Insurance, Regulations, and Federal Taxes Top Concerns for Small Business Owners
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)/California released its quadrennial California Problems and Priorities Survey in conjunction with the NFIB national Problems and Priorities Survey, according to which small business owners list the cost of health insurance, government regulations, and high federal taxes as their top three concerns. “Many Americans are frustrated by the federal government’s failure to solve problems. Small […]
Prop 54: Positive Reform
On Friday, Joe Mathews took to this page to argue that Proposition 54, demanding more transparency in the legislative process, is ill advised. He took on a George Skelton column in the L.A. Times that equated Prop 54 with motherhood and apple pie, claiming mothers would object to the goals of the initiative. However, I think the […]
Why Would Parents Want to Know Anything about LCAPs?
The LA Times reported recently on a poll from USC and Stanford institutes showing that more than half of voters had never heard of read about the Local Control Funding Formula. This is treated as bad news, since LCFF is supposed to make parent engagement a priority. And the funding in LCFF is supposed to […]
UC Stays On Top
The polls are in, and the University of California dominates—in academics, not football. UC Berkeley and UCLA sit atop the new U.S. News and World Report rankings of the top public universities in the nation. Six of the top ten public universities are UC schools, and all nine UC campuses made the list of America’s […]
Public Pension Problem is Not Old News
A couple of years ago, sitting on a panel discussing the recent election and looking at future policy and political topics, I raised the public employee pension issue. A public union representative on the panel dismissed the issue as “old news.” Not hardly. Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times began a series put together in cooperation with […]
Is It Time To Reconsider California’s Initiative System?
On November 8, 2016 Californians will once again have the opportunity to not only elect (or re-elect) local, state, and federal representatives, but also to directly participate in generating public policy. While California’s initiative system is often romanticized, its inflexibility often leads California down a path ripe with unintended consequences and few options for fixing past mistakes. […]