Tax-Happy Session Ends; Could Have Been Worse
With the gas tax increase, the cap-and-trade extension, which many call a tax increase because it raises revenue for the government to spend, and now the document tax to fund housing issues, this legislative session probably produced the most tax-happy lawmakers since the 1935 legislature created both a state income tax and a vehicle license […]
Small and Speedy Gonzales, California
Here’s a nasty bit of conventional wisdom: California’s small, rural places are desperate and doomed, with few economic prospects in an era when state policy favors the urban coastal mega-regions with high-paying jobs and reputations for world-class innovation. But if that’s true, how do you explain Gonzales? The small city of just 9,000 sits in […]
Five ways to reform CEQA without ruining the Earth or the middle class
When then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signed into law the California Environmental Quality Act in 1970, he and its authors could not have foreseen what the landmark legislation would become decades later: a law stretched so far beyond its original intent that it threatens to turn the Golden State’s economy to lead. Though conceived as a limited […]
It’s time for liberal Californians to take a chill pill
It’s time for liberal Californians – and that appears to be most of us – to take a chill pill. Their bitter disdain for President Donald Trump – and by extension everyone who voted for him, belongs to his party or even agrees with any of his bombastic pronouncements – is leading them into blind […]
Early America’s “Resistance Cities”
Today, we celebrate Constitution Day, marking the 235th anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution. This year, a half-dozen of the country’s largest metropolises, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, celebrated early—by suing Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department for threatening to withhold federal grant money from so-called “sanctuary cities.” And on Friday, those […]