Improving a good thing: making regulatory reform better
One of the few significant pro-business reforms to emerge from the Legislature during the recession was a more robust cost-effectiveness requirement for administrative regulations. Authored by Senator Ron Calderon but written and shepherded by then-Senate staff and now Assemblyman Ken Cooley, the measure required agencies to analyze regulatory alternatives more diligently, provide more extensive economic analysis of […]
If the question is upward mobility the answer is California colleges
What’s the most effective tool to improve economic mobility in California? Higher minimum wage? No. Mandatory employment benefits? Nope. Higher redistributive taxes? Nada. It’s the California State University and community colleges. According to a landmark study for the Equality Opportunity Project, Stanford’s Raj Chetty and coauthors found that certain state and community colleges offer effective pathways to higher incomes […]
Appellate court hears arguments on cap-and-trade auction
A Sacramento appellate court will hear oral arguments this morning on a closely-watched lawsuit filed by CalChamber concerning the California Air Resources Board’s cap-and-trade auction. In 2012, CalChamber sued the ARB seeking to invalidate the auction in violation of Proposition 13. The complaint asserts that AB 32 does not authorize the ARB to impose fees […]
It’s Getting Crowded At The Top
“Is that all?” That’s my guess as what would be the modal response from budget pressure groups, disappointed at the Governor’s less than fulsome funding of various spending programs released in today’s proposed 2017-18 state budget. Uncertainty about the economy, about federal tax policy, and most importantly about taxpayer behavior, supports a prudent approach from […]
California Factors Dampen Upward Mobility For The Poor
Children born to low-income parents in California have slightly higher lifetime earnings than children born to low-income parents in other states – but not because they live in California. Researchers credit the better income mobility to the parents. In fact, these same children would have experienced even greater upward income mobility had they grown up […]
California voters also reflect middle class anxiety
Academic researchers from top American universities delivered some dispiriting news last week: Barely half of 30-year-olds earn more than their parents did at a similar age, an enormous decline from the early 1970s when the incomes of nearly all offspring outpaced their parents. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, even rapid economic growth won’t do much to reverse […]
Little Policy Innovation From Ballot Measures
The laboratories of democracy were relatively quiet last week. Voters in 35 states considered 154 measures on their ballots, but few broke new ground. Even California, often considered the bellwether for new voter-driven policies and flush with 17 measures on the ballot, behaved conventionally. The most far-reaching and unpredictable measures on California’s ballot failed. Proposition […]
More transparency in politics and policy
“Transparency” may be more than just a buzzword come 2017. Proposition 54, teed up for the November ballot, would mandate the Legislature enforce a three-day public notice before voting on any bill, eliminating back-room, late-night deals that would otherwise shrivel in the light of day. Any citizen, regulated party or reporter could review and digest legislative amendments […]
Economic growth has not “decoupled” from CO2 emissions
With the enactment of new climate change regulation through 2030, California leaders are closing ranks to make the economic and business case for more mandates. The new requirement will reduce total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 40 percent below 2020 emissions. On a per capita basis, that’s a reduction of one-half of GHG emissions from today’s […]
Cap and Trade is Easy; it’s the Tax that’s Hard
Governor Brown cited the major deficiency of new climate change legislation at a press conference yesterday, citing cap and trade as the major piece of unfinished business. He’s right. When the Governor signs the new climate change legislation rapidly nearing his desk, rather than clarifying public policy, California will be entering uncharted territory. The hard-fought […]