A More Effective Safety Net, Not A Basic Income, Will Help Lift People Out of Poverty Wayne Winegarden and Nikhil Agarwal December 2024 2024 was a good year for proponents of a universal basic income (UBI). Following the 2019 experiment in Stockton, UBI pilot programs are underway across cities in California including Fresno and Sacramento. This is unfortunate. Advocates such as former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs argue that “we need a social safety net that ...

While National Economic Performance Has Supported State Revenue Growth, Greater Spending Restraint Is Still Required Wayne Winegarden and Nikhil Agarwal November 2024 Three months into the 2024-25 fiscal year, state revenues are outperforming lowered expectations. Should these trends continue, the FY2025-26 budget process may avoid the crushing deficit problem that plagued the FY2024-25 budget negotiations, but only if our political leaders employ a disciplined approach toward spending. The need for spending control is amplified because ...

The Governor’s Special Session Will Worsen Gasoline Affordability Wayne Winegarden and Kerry Jackson September 2024 The special session called by Governor Gavin Newsom is supposed to save Californians from price gasoline spikes. The governor wants to blame the price spikes on greedy corporations. His accusations are merely a diversion from the actual culprits – politicians in Sacramento. Instead of alleviating consumers affordability problems, the special session may inevitably prove Gideon Tucker’s maxim that “no man’s ...

California’s Expensive but Ineffective Income Support Spending Wayne Winegarden August 2024 Including federal, state, and local funds, California’s per capita spending on income support programs is 81 percent higher than the average expenditures for all other states – per capita spending of $3,869 compared to $2,141. These expenditures include “cash assistance paid directly to needy persons . . . vendor payments made directly to private purveyors for medical care, burials, and other commodities and services ...

Californians Have Little to Show for All That Government Spending Wayne Winegarden     July 2024 It should not shock anyone that the FY2024-25 budget was short on fiscal discipline and long on budget gimmicks and fund shifts. Now that this year’s budget process is coming to an end, it is imperative to step back and gain some budgetary perspective. The Governor seems to think “this agreement sets the state on a path for long-term fiscal ...