Reopening The Economy, Business Resiliency And Change: The Coronavirus Workplace Series
(The fifth in a series on the impacts of the coronavirus on employment and the workplace. The first four are here). On Friday, President Trump announced a task force on reopening the national economy. Also on Friday, several Governors, including California Governor Newsom, announced they were developing plans on state reopening processes and strategies. Good. […]
Questionable California Priorities are about to Hit Pocket books
Taxing the rich has seemed to be one of the Band-Aid solutions for California’s budget, but that’s dangerous as seventy percent of the General Fund is already provided by personal taxes on just five percent of the population. That small five percent is only about two million of the forty million in the state. As […]
Underground Economy Will Stifle Recovery
One area I’ve been trying to get my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to focus on is the underground economy. Let me explain. Let’s say you are a nonessential service provider. You have employees, for which you pay them competitive wages and salaries, because you want to retain them. And you withhold […]
Changing Prop. 13 will generate a tax bill that will harm small businesses, especially those owned by minorities
Many opponents of the original Proposition 13 have never given up. The same groups that fought the ballot measure more than four decades ago when 65 percent of the state’s electorate passed it have repeatedly tried to destroy the measure’s important property tax protections. When Prop. 13 was on the ballot in 1978 I opposed […]
Gov. Newsom Faces Big Decisions: Some Will Not be Easy!
California Governor Gavin Newsom and other state leaders will have a couple of critical decisions to make in the coming weeks and months which could challenge Donald Trump’s notion that the president has “absolute powers.” A coronavirus task force press briefing began with video highlights tantamount to a campaign ad patched together to justify Trump’s […]
Amid pandemic, Newsom faces scrutiny over $1B face-mask deal
California lawmakers bestowed Gov. Gavin Newsom with unusual power last month before they put their legislative session on hold and left Sacramento, giving him bipartisan approval to spend up to $1 billion “for any purpose” related to the coronavirus pandemic. It was a rare show of unanimity by a Legislature that is often riven by […]
COVID-19 Will Change Public Policy Debates
Experts tell us that reactions to COVID-19 will bring changes in how people live which in turn will affect public policy debates in California. Efforts to build denser housing communities, more public transportation, universal healthcare, and one-use plastic bags will be affected by coronavirus concerns. Already California’s move to eliminate single use plastic bags has […]
R.I.P. – The California Golden Goose
It’s a great thing that every business owner in America has the freedom to choose where to operate their business. Some individuals choose to be close to their markets. Some people choose to be close to their raw materials. Some people choose to be close to their families. The critical piece in this calculus is […]
California Consumers’ Confidence in the Economy at All Time Low…is a Turn Around Possible?
“There’s three things that are never good for a consumer mind set; uncertainty certainly, concern and discordance.” – Mindy Grossman More than 20,000 Californians are infected with the coronavirus, and the death toll mounts. The human toll is horrendous. And, it looks like it won’t be over soon. As the pandemic rages on amidst directives […]