Tax Raisers Target Businesses—How Long Will Businesses Stay in CA?
Businesses, particularly corporations, are the targets of tax raisers in the legislature, at city hall and on the ballot. Piling on business taxes in a state notorious for its poor attitude toward business, one wonders how long businesses will put up with it before leaving. As Jim Wunderman, the president and CEO of the Bay […]
Neo-Feudalism in California
From the beginning, California promised much. While yet barely a name on the map, it entered American awareness as a symbol of renewal. It was a final frontier: of geography and of expectation. —Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream: 1850–1915 In the eyes of both those who live here and those who come to observe, […]
Back to the Future? 2020 Reflects 1968
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Philosopher George Santayana, 1905) “Nixon, now more than ever.” (Richard Nixon campaign slogan, 1968) Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassinated. American cities on fire. Protests and civil unrest across the country. Vietnam escalates and thousands of American soldiers die. A very unpopular LBJ […]
California Re-Evaluating Cap-and-Trade Program
As the coronavirus pandemic and recession hits California, the governor’s top environmental official has launched a comprehensive review of the cap and trade program that has been the cornerstone of the state’s strategy to fight climate change. California has been relying on its carbon trading program for nearly half of the greenhouse gas reductions it […]