Crossposted on CalWatchDog The state is trying to prevent employers from legally looking into the employment backgrounds of job applicants. A bill claiming to “protect” the unemployed from discrimination by potential employers is making its way through the Legislature. The government already protects racial minorities, veterans, older workers, women, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, children, the disabled, […]

Crossposted on CalWatchDog Proposition 28, the latest ballot initiative attempting to alter the 1990 term limits law, has all of the elements of a good political thriller: Deep Capitol insiders, elite bureaucrats, politicians and the political elite, a misleading ballot measure title and summary, crony capitalism, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, labor unions and […]

Crossposted on CalWatchDog Every year the Legislature attempts to rewrite Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot initiative that successfully returned property value assessments to 1975 levels, limited property taxes to 1 percent of assessed valuation and capped annual property tax increases to 2 percent. The 2012 attack of Proposition 13 was launched last week at an […]

The Assembly Speaker and fellow Democrats are aggressively pushing a dangerous business-killing bill, designed to penalize out-of-state businesses operating in California. Clearly, these legislators do not recognize the importance of all business contributions to the economic health of California. But even more insidious, this bill is just another hackneyed repackaging of similar bills that have […]

Crossposted on CalWatchDog The road to California’s financial recovery will be long and arduous. But a first good step is putting an end to taxpayer-financed boondoggles. We know from the collapse of the Soviet Union and other failed regimes around the world that centrally planned job creation does not work. Such economies share common traits: broken […]

Cross posted on CalWatchdog During Gov. Jerry Brown’s first year in office, business interests were able to kill so many bills they came out ahead, a recent news story reported. Is that so? Just how well are California businesses doing right now

Crossposted on CalWatchdog The rich are getting richer and everyone else is losing wealth. This phenomenon supposedly would justify more aggressive government policies redistributing wealth. At an Assembly hearing Wednesday about whether the state of California should be actively pursuing additional wealth redistribution policies, Legislators and academics said that the highest degree of inequality is because […]

Crossposted CalWatchDog Long before any of 800 bills passed by the Legislature reached Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk this legislative session, partisan politics took precedence over repairing the state’s economy. Apparently restoring confidence and faith in California’s residents and businesses was less important than party politics and flexing muscle. In early 2011, Republicans introduced numerous bills, […]

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog A special legislative hearing last week exposed the dramatic impact that proposed storm water permitting requirements would have on the state’s businesses, local governments and even public schools. But even more enlightening was the revelation that the proposed water regulation, estimated to bring in more than $7 billion for the state, made […]

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog. Non-profit ConsumerWatchdog.org has launched television attack ads against Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Los Angeles, claiming he has been a roadblock to health insurance regulations because of a conflict of interest. Using a video clip from a recent Senate Health Committee hearing, Consumer Watchdog is running the ads in Hernandez’s district after it discovered that […]