The State Legislature returns on January 6 to complete the second half of the 2019-2020 session. 120 California legislators – 80 Assemblymembers and 40 Senators — will assemble in the State Capitol to begin work on some of the most consequential issues that have faced our state. It’s likely that around 3,000 bills will be introduced …
Watered-Down SB 350 Still Threatens California
This op-ed originally appeared in the Riverside Press-Enterprise Once in a while, even in the California state Legislature, we witness democracy in action or a rare moment when a well-intentioned, but harmful, strongly supported and lobbied bill, is rejected due to a lack of votes. In the final days of the Legislature’s 2014-2015 session, the right number of elected officials listened …
Uber Ruling Illustrates How Government Ruins Good Things
With the recent ruling from the California Labor Commission declaring that Uber’s drivers must be treated as W-2 employees, California residents will have front-row seats to watch government ruin innovation and a thriving market. While many costs created by government go unnoticed, the inevitable hike in prices and decline in services will be an eye-opening experience for millions of Uber customers. Uber’s …
Will California’s Voters Set A New Record for Apathy?
How low can they go? California’s voters set a record low of 51 percent voter turnout in 2002. Political pollster John Nienstedt, president of Competitive Edge Research & Communication, made his final voter turnout prediction for Tuesday’s midterm election at the witching hour on Election Eve. Read his prediction here, then weigh in on whether he’s high, low, or right …
Will low voter turnout give Republican Neel Kashkari a chance?
In the wake of low voter turnout in the June 2014 California primary which favored conservative / Republican candidates, is there any chance of a repeat on a bigger scale in November 2014? John Nienstedt, president of Competitive Edge Research & Communication, says November 2014 could be a real downer for California when it comes to voter turnout. As John …
Understanding Employers and Why Republicans Matter
This op-ed originally appeared in Steve Frank’s California Political News & Views Common sense dictates that people as well as employers will act in their own best interest. This is the premise underlying market economies and why they provide more goods, services and improve the lives of all of us, much more so than a command or government manipulated market can. …
New Laws In California and Our First Rostra Prediction Game of 2013
It’s a time-honored New Year’s tradition to review all the new laws taking effect starting on January 1. So I thought I’d get a look at new laws affected Rostrafarians in California. I nearly choked on my breakfast when I looked at the number. There are 837 new laws taking effect as of today. Seriously? Our state was so far …
Ferret Lovers Covet Maienschein’s Backing
As originally posted on Flash Report. Ferret lovers coveting Assemblyman-elect Brian Maienschein’s backing might be in for disappointment. Evidently, LeagalizeFerrets.org founder Pat Wright fell to despair when two supportive candidates lost in the general election on November 6. Yet, he wrote in his recent newsletter this fuzzy note of love: “There was one person elected who had some ferret knowledge. …
If Props 30 AND 38 pass, they might BOTH raise our taxes
Here’s today’s unsettling thought for California taxpayers — a factoid not being discussed. Props 30 and 38 can BOTH pass and, if the stars align right, raise our taxes TOGETHER. As we all know, these are two competing massive state tax increases on the November ballot. When we have two conflicting measures that pass, the one with the most votes …
How many other government agencies have “hidden” surpluses?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/07/parks-director-says-in-resignation-letter-she-is-appalled-by-hoarding-of-money.html Sacramento doesn’t have the leadership to solve the deficit without a tax increase. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to raise taxes without showing any way to make sure past mistakes aren’t repeated. I love the comment that California State Senator Noreen Evans (D) made in reference to the State Parks hidden surplus: “If one department can hoard $54 million for …
Gov Brown vetoes a paltry 0.14% of state budget – pathetic
A whopping 0.14% of the bloated state general fund budget vetoed by Brown. Sadly, this paltry line item veto amount continues the California governor bipartisan tradition of vetoing almost none of the spending. The traditional amount is about 0.25% — one quarter of one percent. Jerry couldn’t reach even this low benchmark. http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/06/gov-jerry-brown-vetoes-195-million-from-final-ca-budget.html
California unemployment fund is broke — and getting “broker” every day
California is broke. We all know that. But one component that deserves at least passing notice is the state unemployment fund. Surprise! It’s broke. So broke that it’s borrowed federal funds to keep paying people not to work. Now CA has to charge CA employers a payroll surcharge to pay the money back. It’s not a huge tax per employee, …
New poll on HSR — voters would kill it if again on ballot
New poll: If another California HSR vote were held today, 59% would vote against it. With 8% undecided, it probably would end up going down by a 2-1 majority. http://www.cssrc.us/web/4/news.aspx?id=12294&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
With no fiscal oversight, small CA state security guards outfit rapes taxpayers — $124K average salary
Here’s one of those backwater CA state public employee honeypots that for years has operated without meaningful fiscal oversight. Amazing story. Among other things, these “police” got big overtime checks for guarding a closed facility. A quarter of these guards DOUBLE their salary with overtime. Their average annual pay (with overtime) is $124,000. These are SECURITY GUARDS. And remember, they …
Expatriate Saverin saved FAR more on CA income tax than he did on his net federal tax
What is usually overlooked in the discussion of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin leaving the U.S. for Singapore (presumably to sell his Facebook stock) is the CALIFORNIA capital gains tax. Saverin avoided $67 million in net federal income taxes by leaving the country, but he saved several times that amount by leaving CA — which by law has no “exit tax.” …
Gov. Jerry Brown: State budget deficit now $16 billion — up slightly from his $9.2B deficit revision in January
Gov. Jerry Brown: State budget deficit now $16 billion Gov. Jerry Brown said in a video release today that California’s budget deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly twice as high as the $9.2 billion he estimated in January. Gosh, what a stunning revelation! Who’d a thunk it? http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/05/gov-jerry-brown-state-budget-deficit-now-16-billion.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy But the good news is that it’s not Assemblyman’s Nathan Fletcher’s …
Peer review report condemns CA HSR, yet the train lurches on
This week the peer review group studying the California High Speed Rail plan (as amended and/or exposed) came out with their report. Even though they as individuals probably were mildly supportive of the core HSR option, their report has nothing but scathing criticism for this “plan.” http://www.cahsrprg.com/files/CommentsonCHSRA2010FundingPlan.pdf I made a quick search of CA newspapers referencing this report. I could …
Rider on Fox Business News network
Today I did segment on the national Fox Business News network. We dealt with the new California budget, and the planned tax increases. I think it went well. Governor Brown likely would not concur with this assertion — he took a bit of a beating in the interview. Well deserved, of course. It airs TONIGHT after 6 PM Pacific time. …
Top 10 IMPLICIT fallacies justifying opulent government pensions
There are many, many fallacies in the sometimes explicit but often IMPLICIT reasons given for paying out great government pensions. Here’s my selection for the top ten excuses: 1. “Public employees deserve high pensions because they work for low wages.” FALSE. Perhaps true at one time, but not any more. In many instances, today’s government employee is earning 10%-30% more …
Economic Lessons for California from North AND South Dakota
North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 3.5%. Ten counties in ND have less than 2% unemployment. They have an oil and gas extraction boom going on, though their low unemployment rate predates that growth in oil and gas jobs. Critics like to claim that ND is having a temporary boom that will shortly be followed …
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