Proposal to prohibit police unions from funding district attorney campaigns doesn’t go far enough
One response to the protests over police treatment of black communities is a proposal by some current and former California district attorneys to prohibit candidates running for prosecutor positions from receiving police unions’ donations and endorsements. The Los Angeles Times editorially backed the idea arguing, “These unions’ power to raise and dispense large amounts of […]
Stop California’s Cops—From Looting City Hall
Don’t doubt California cops when they report looting. They’re experts. Indeed, our state’s most successful looters are the police themselves. California’s nearly 80,000 sworn officers have spent decades sacking the treasuries of local governments that employ them. Their escalating salaries, benefits, and pensions are swallowing up municipal budgets—and crowding out the other services, from libraries […]
California’s Debt Folly –Unnecessary spending on retiree health care is crushing the Golden State.
California has asked Washington for $14 billion in Covid-related support, in addition to the $8 billion already provided by the CARES Act. But because the state, with an annual General Fund of $150 billion, incurs more than $24 billion of annual expenses for pensions and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) — including post-employment subsidies for health […]
Whither California after crises abate?
Someday, the COVID-19 pandemic will have subsided, probably when effective biologic treatments and vaccines emerge. Someday, California’s economy will begin recovery from the sudden and very painful recession that followed business shutdown and stay-at-home orders to fight the pandemic. Someday, too, the tumultuous reaction to a Minneapolis policeman’s brutal suffocation of George Floyd, a black […]