Proposition 13 on his Mind
By my count, Governor Jerry Brown mentioned Proposition 13, the nearly 40-year old property tax reform, three times during his press conference presenting a new state budget. Brown’s discussion of Prop 13 came in the context of the fiscal world California lives in because of the mandates of that tax measure. But when Brown was […]
GOP Retirements Muddle Congressional Races
Two Southern California Republican Congressmen, Ed Royce and Darrell Issa, recently announced their retirement. Advantage Democrats? Maybe. Maybe not. The first reaction to the news that these two GOP stalwarts won’t be seeking re-election in traditionally safe Republican districts (but districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016) was that these seats could swing toward the […]
DiFi Lives!
Good news from the nation’s capital! Dianne Feinstein is alive! After finding political trouble with conciliatory rhetoric towards, President Trump, she threw a few punches at the president and his party this week. It actually felt like she represented the California of 2018. She took a break from deadening, behind-the-scenes pursuit of meaningless compromise to […]
Making housing more expensive to build won’t make it more affordable
Only a politician could believe that making housing more expensive to build will create more affordable housing. But in Los Angeles, that’s what Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council are asserting. In December, they approved a new “linkage fee” on new development aimed at raising $100 million per year toward a goal of building […]
2017? C’mon, It Was a Good Year
I was taken aback to see the dour assessment of 2017 when news outlets did their usual year-in-review reports. If you believe the articles, last year was a decidedly bad one. What’s more, the outlook for 2018 came off as bleak I was taken aback because, well, 2017 seemed a particularly good year. And 2018? […]