The Price For Moving Primary Up Should Be Ditching Top Two
The big conversation in Sacramento is now about moving up the presidential primary so that California plays a bigger role in selecting a president. That’s fine. But California’s two political parties shouldn’t go along with the change – unless it’s accompanied by the repeal of the top two system. The parties would be in the […]
Leaving California? After slowing, the trend intensifies
Given its iconic hold on the American imagination, the idea that more Americans are leaving California than coming breaches our own sense of uniqueness and promise. Yet, even as the economy has recovered, notably in the Bay Area and in pockets along the coast, the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that domestic migrants continue […]
Healthcare Providers Aren’t Greedier than Uber
I just read An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal, a fact-filled* critique of the American health system. The author does a marvelous job of describing the Kafkaesque world in which Americans all-too-often find themselves — no fixed prices for procedures or tests, no […]
Free Market Would Do More to Protect California’s Environment Than State Regulation
California is home to six of the 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the country. This seems inconceivable, given that the state has the strictest environmental rules in the nation. Clearly, policymakers have been making the wrong choices. Of course, there’s little chance they’ll admit error. Their response is more likely to simply […]
California public libraries show resiliency
When Governor Brown added $4.8 million to the budget to enhance the California Library Services Act in the last budget, he took a bold step toward re-energizing the state’s public libraries that have experienced a tough post-recession environment. The state’s property values and associated taxes that fund many libraries have not bounced back, and library […]
$155 Billion a Year in Higher Taxes and Fees Proposed in First Four Months of Legislative Session
In the first four months of the 2017-18 legislative session, California lawmakers introduced $155 billion in higher taxes and fees – a staggering amount that will give pause to every business owner when considering expansion, and cause families to reflect on California’s affordability. This week, the California Tax Foundation released the third edition of Tax Watch: […]
The Impact of Minimum Wage Increases
The debate over the minimum wage did not end when the state followed the lead of a number of local governments in agreeing to boost the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Now we are watching the impact of the increase. Even before workers achieve the $15, there are signs that the increase in minimum […]
Nuking San Francisco
It’s hard to know how to react to North Korean video showing a nuclear missile attack on downtown San Francisco. With a look on the housing market benefits? Finally, middle-class people will be able to afford to the live in the city again. With techie scorn? Look at those awful CGI graphics. Can’t some Bay […]
Crowding Out the Housing Agenda
Housing expert and friend Carol Galante has drunk the Kool-Aid. She’s bought into the theory that things other than California’s profound undersupply of housing should determine state policy. In this case, of course, it’s environmental policy. Galante is a housing pro. For a long time, she worked under housing guru Donald Terner at the now-famous […]