Kerry Jackson

California

California, Poverty Capital

California—not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia—has the highest poverty rate in the United States. According to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure—which accounts for the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income—nearly one out of four Californians is ...
Blog

Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?

On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
California

Kerry Jackson in LA Times: Why Is Liberal California The Poverty Capital of America?

Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and ...
California

Split Roll Would Hit Working Californians Hard

If any state could use inspiration from the recent federal tax cuts, it’s California, which has one of the country’s heaviest overall tax burdens. But there’s no pressure building to cut state and local taxes, or to reform California’s broken income tax system. Instead, the noisiest tax proposal in the ...
Blog

Brown’s Budget Rejects Tax Rebates, Ignores Need for State Tax Reform

Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2018-19 budget proposal is projecting a $6.1 billion surplus by July 1, 2019, further evidence that the taxpayers of California have been overcharged. But there will be no rebates. Brown said at his press conference Wednesday that, in effect, the sky would fall if you give tax ...
Business & Economics

New Issue Brief: State Anti-Poverty Programs Are Well-Intended, Yet Not Very Successful in Reducing Poverty

Brief Says State Policymakers Should Make Pro-Jobs Policies a Priority, And Turn Over More Responsibility to Private Charities That Turn Lives Around SAN FRANCISCO – California policymakers should reform government anti-poverty programs to remove incentives against work while expanding job opportunities in the state’s poorest communities, according to a new ...
California

Expanding SF Restaurant Surcharge Statewide is a Bad Idea

Dining at a premium San Francisco restaurant will always be expensive. But add in the cost of The City’s health care surcharge and eating out, even at modest and lesser establishments, is even more expensive. What’s more, one gubernatorial candidate wants to expand the program that requires the surcharge to ...
Blog

New Studies Confirm the Obvious – $15 Minimum Wage Hurts California Job Opportunities

The negative impacts of setting — and increasing — minimum wages should be beyond debate by now. The economic science is settled. Yet California policymakers continue to believe in unicorn economic fantasies. For example, more than a dozen cities and counties in the Bay Area have changed their minimum-wage ordinances ...
Blog

California Can Expect More of the Same from Sacramento in 2018

There are no fortune tellers at PRI, but it isn’t hard to foresee what is likely to happen in California in 2018. First, it’s a sure bet that the Legislature will pass a boxcar load of unneeded, heavy-handed and odious policies when lawmakers reconvene on Jan. 3. One that will ...
California

What California Should Do To Ease Housing Crisis

In September, Sacramento lawmakers passed more than a dozen bills aiming to begin healing the state’s housing sore. It was, to their thinking, “Housing Day” in California. Two weeks later, legislators joined Gov. Jerry Brown in San Francisco as he signed what he called “15 good bills.” “Today, California begins ...
California

California, Poverty Capital

California—not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia—has the highest poverty rate in the United States. According to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure—which accounts for the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income—nearly one out of four Californians is ...
Blog

Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?

On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
California

Kerry Jackson in LA Times: Why Is Liberal California The Poverty Capital of America?

Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and ...
California

Split Roll Would Hit Working Californians Hard

If any state could use inspiration from the recent federal tax cuts, it’s California, which has one of the country’s heaviest overall tax burdens. But there’s no pressure building to cut state and local taxes, or to reform California’s broken income tax system. Instead, the noisiest tax proposal in the ...
Blog

Brown’s Budget Rejects Tax Rebates, Ignores Need for State Tax Reform

Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2018-19 budget proposal is projecting a $6.1 billion surplus by July 1, 2019, further evidence that the taxpayers of California have been overcharged. But there will be no rebates. Brown said at his press conference Wednesday that, in effect, the sky would fall if you give tax ...
Business & Economics

New Issue Brief: State Anti-Poverty Programs Are Well-Intended, Yet Not Very Successful in Reducing Poverty

Brief Says State Policymakers Should Make Pro-Jobs Policies a Priority, And Turn Over More Responsibility to Private Charities That Turn Lives Around SAN FRANCISCO – California policymakers should reform government anti-poverty programs to remove incentives against work while expanding job opportunities in the state’s poorest communities, according to a new ...
California

Expanding SF Restaurant Surcharge Statewide is a Bad Idea

Dining at a premium San Francisco restaurant will always be expensive. But add in the cost of The City’s health care surcharge and eating out, even at modest and lesser establishments, is even more expensive. What’s more, one gubernatorial candidate wants to expand the program that requires the surcharge to ...
Blog

New Studies Confirm the Obvious – $15 Minimum Wage Hurts California Job Opportunities

The negative impacts of setting — and increasing — minimum wages should be beyond debate by now. The economic science is settled. Yet California policymakers continue to believe in unicorn economic fantasies. For example, more than a dozen cities and counties in the Bay Area have changed their minimum-wage ordinances ...
Blog

California Can Expect More of the Same from Sacramento in 2018

There are no fortune tellers at PRI, but it isn’t hard to foresee what is likely to happen in California in 2018. First, it’s a sure bet that the Legislature will pass a boxcar load of unneeded, heavy-handed and odious policies when lawmakers reconvene on Jan. 3. One that will ...
California

What California Should Do To Ease Housing Crisis

In September, Sacramento lawmakers passed more than a dozen bills aiming to begin healing the state’s housing sore. It was, to their thinking, “Housing Day” in California. Two weeks later, legislators joined Gov. Jerry Brown in San Francisco as he signed what he called “15 good bills.” “Today, California begins ...
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