Author: Daniel Weintraub

Jerry Brown was the kid the first time he was governor, nearly 40 years ago. Now he is definitely providing adult supervision in Sacramento. Since

California’s most valuable company – Apple Inc. – has been taking flak lately from the halls of Congress to the capitals of Europe over reports

Depending on your point of view, California’s plan for high-speed rail might be either a $69 billion fast train to nowhere or a visionary project

It’s fair to say that California is the richest state in the nation. We have more millionaires than any other state, and mansions dot our

California’s economy has been powered for decades by technology, trade and tourism — businesses and jobs mostly near the coast from San Diego to Los

California’s notorious tax-revenue roller coaster is on the way up again. How many times do we need to see this movie before we remember how

Crossposted on Healthy Cal It’s conventional wisdom in political circles that California, like the rest of the country, has become more polarized in recent years.

As the calendar moves toward the Legislature’s June 15 deadline for passing a budget and the June 30 expiration of billions of dollars in temporary taxes, pressure is building on Democrats to cut a deal with Republicans, on mostly Republican terms.

Republican leaders have already said they would go along with calling a special election on the taxes if Democrats will accept a series of reform the GOP lawmakers are pushing.

If a handful of Republicans will also vote to extend the taxes from July 1 until Election Day, they will be able to extract maximum concessions from the Democrats.

But if June 30 comes and goes and there is still no deal, much of that Republican leverage will disappear.

A new independent poll released Wednesday suggests that a scaled back plan to increase taxes and dedicate all of the money to local government might be Gov. Jerry Brown’s best hope of finding new revenue to help balance the budget.

The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California finds that likely voters overwhelmingly want local government officials to have more say in how state money is spent in their communities.

The poll also shows that of all the major services, prisons are the ones voters least want to protect with their pocketbooks.

Finally, voters think they should be asked to weigh in on the tax plan, although many of those who want to vote apparently want to vote against it.

But the secret to overcoming that opposition might be to play on the voters’ preference for keeping government close to home.