California’s Shift to a March Primary Likely Dooms Top-Two System
Governor Brown signed SB 568, which moves all of California’s partisan primaries from June to the first week in March, in midterm years as well as presidential years. The change is effective after 2018. Although much commentary about this bill has been published, there is little or no mention of the fact that a March […]
Back to the Drawing Board on Wetlands for Water Board
In California, nothing succeeds like success except — perhaps — failure. Take as one case in point California’s State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) in the matter of wetlands management. According to the SWRCB — California’s governor-appointed czars endowed by our legislature with broad authority to protect our state’s waters — the eight regional water […]
Big Picture Focus Needed for Higher Education
Almost six decades ago, California adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education that has produced the most successful public higher education system in the world. The challenge is how we maintain and build on that success. One positive sign is that the State Assembly has convened a Select Committee on the Master Plan for Higher […]
A Small Business Struggle
Sometimes an example serves best when trying to explain the negative effects of overzealous regulation enforcement on California job creators. Consider the story of Joann Roth-Oseary and her pursuit of the American Dream to build a business. Thirty-seven years ago Joann Roth-Oseary made a decision to start up her own business and create a catering […]
A Tax By Any Other Name
A Sacramento judge’s re-writing of the gas tax initiative title and summary will have implications on a title and summary for a second initiative on the same subject–and then the battle begins whether one or both measures make the ballot. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley is probably a fan of the writing style of […]
Open Letter to Milo Yiannopoulos (and Other Like “Provocateurs”)
Dear Mr. Yiannopoulos: Please knock it off. Your antics are disrupting the ability of my daughter, a freshman at UC Berkeley, to accomplish what she is there for: to go to class, write papers, prepare for midterms, and learn. You have gotten in the way of all that, for pretty much nothing. Not to mention […]
Businesses Joined by Non-Profits in Leaving California for Friendlier States
Friends in economic development agencies and in the site selection consulting world have asked why I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile. My answer is simple: I’ve been exceptionally busy. It certainly isn’t because there aren’t things to write about. Another question I’m usually asked is whether businesses are still leaving California. They are, especially […]
Congress Must Fix the Broken 340B Drug Pricing Program That Benefits Hospitals, Starves the Poor
Too often government programs start with a noble goal but are soon denigrated by special interests groups who use well intentioned programs for their own gain. Unfortunately, this has happened with the 340B drug discount program. Due to limited oversight, bad actors have been able to profit from this federal program, abusing the system and […]
Why the Governor Should Veto AB 1209
While the business community is strongly in favor of gender pay equity and many of us worked diligently two years ago to enact SB 358 (Jackson) to make California’s Equal Pay Act the “toughest in the nation,” Governor Brown should veto AB 1209 (Gonzalez Fletcher), which is intended to publicly shame companies based upon a […]