Kerry Jackson
Business & Economics
Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs
No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
California
Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’
Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Business & Economics
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
Blog
Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Business & Economics
Prevailing Wage Would Make California’s Housing Crisis Worse
California has a grim housing problem and nearly everyone in the state, whether they have tried to buy or rent a home or not, is aware of it. Apparently, though, some in Sacramento haven’t noticed and hope to mix in more of the poison that created the crisis in the ...
Business & Economics
Free Market Would Do More to Protect California’s Environment Than State Regulation
California is home to six of the 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the country. This seems inconceivable, given that the state has the strictest environmental rules in the nation. Clearly, policymakers have been making the wrong choices. Of course, there’s little chance they’ll admit error. Their response ...
California
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
Download the Brief It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix California’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they ...
Agriculture
One State, Under Water
After a particularly soppy winter refilled California’s gasping reservoirs and swelled the Sierra Nevada snowpack—to 175 percent above its historical average, in some spots—grateful residents hailed the end of a dry spell that stretched back six years. Governor Jerry Brown has declared that the state’s drought is mostly over, though ...
Business & Economics
San Diego Ruling Could Be First Step To Real Public Pension Reform
Sound judgment, which is too rare in the halls of California officialdom, won a round on Tuesday when the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that San Diego’s pension cutbacks for city workers were indeed lawful. The case was the appeal of the state Public Employment Relations Board’s 2015 ...
Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs
No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’
Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Prevailing Wage Would Make California’s Housing Crisis Worse
California has a grim housing problem and nearly everyone in the state, whether they have tried to buy or rent a home or not, is aware of it. Apparently, though, some in Sacramento haven’t noticed and hope to mix in more of the poison that created the crisis in the ...
Free Market Would Do More to Protect California’s Environment Than State Regulation
California is home to six of the 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the country. This seems inconceivable, given that the state has the strictest environmental rules in the nation. Clearly, policymakers have been making the wrong choices. Of course, there’s little chance they’ll admit error. Their response ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will Largest Gas Tax Increase In State History Bring Traffic Relief?
Download the Brief It’s painfully obvious that lawmakers in Sacramento just can’t help themselves. Otherwise Gov. Jerry Brown and a majority of legislators wouldn’t support a $52 billion tax hike to fix California’s gouged, pitted and cracked roads. They would find a way to do it with the resources they ...
One State, Under Water
After a particularly soppy winter refilled California’s gasping reservoirs and swelled the Sierra Nevada snowpack—to 175 percent above its historical average, in some spots—grateful residents hailed the end of a dry spell that stretched back six years. Governor Jerry Brown has declared that the state’s drought is mostly over, though ...
San Diego Ruling Could Be First Step To Real Public Pension Reform
Sound judgment, which is too rare in the halls of California officialdom, won a round on Tuesday when the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that San Diego’s pension cutbacks for city workers were indeed lawful. The case was the appeal of the state Public Employment Relations Board’s 2015 ...
