Rowena Itchon
Blog
Why Women Make Less than Men
Citing an oft-used U.S. Census Bureau statistic that women earn 80 percent of what their male counterparts earn, presidential hopeful and California Senator Kamala Harris said that if elected, she would end gender pay discrimination by requiring companies to disclose salary data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and secure ...
Blog
Are ESG Funds a Proxy for the Green New Deal?
After being soundly defeated in the Senate 0-57 (43 Democrats voted “present”), the Green New Deal continues to languish in the House. Roll Call reported the following excuse from Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I can’t say we’re going to take that and pass it because we have to go through our ...
Agriculture
PRI’s Summer Reading List
What’s a summer without a reading list? And what’s a think tank without ideas? So, we just couldn’t help ourselves and came up with the list below compiled from PRI’s staff. Lest you stop reading now because you think that all the books are wonky — not true. To my ...
Blog
Union Membership Doesn’t Mean a Job Forever
PRI has a helpful calculator that shows how much a union member could save throughout his or her working years from not paying union dues. In California, the average fee-paying teacher owes $650 a year while the average worker owes $1,000. A 45-year old teacher who leaves the union and ...
Blog
On Gov. Newsom’s “Parents Agenda”
In 1987, it was the talk of the South Bay neighborhood where my parents lived: a tax rebate check of $236 from the state government for every household up and down the street. My mother was delighted. At the time, my sister was going to UCLA and living on campus, ...
Blog
How Saving $1,000 Annually in Union Dues Can Turn into Real Money
“A penny saved is a penny earned,” said Ben Franklin. So, imagine what saving $1,000 each year by opting out of paying union dues can do for a government worker’s bottom line. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed the right of government workers to opt-out of a union and ...
Blog
It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!
Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying. That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
Blog
Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions
When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
Blog
Rentonomics in California: It’s Worse than We Think
Right by the Bay has sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis, especially our colleague Kerry Jackson, who has written about it here, here, and here. But until we get real reform, like Sam in Casablanca, we plan to play it again and again. A new study by Apartment ...
Blog
It’s Taxfest in Sacramento
Will Rogers said, “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” But Rogers never came up against the current California legislature, which these days isn’t just holding a legislative session but an all-out Tax Hike Convention. Today, the state enjoys a ...
Why Women Make Less than Men
Citing an oft-used U.S. Census Bureau statistic that women earn 80 percent of what their male counterparts earn, presidential hopeful and California Senator Kamala Harris said that if elected, she would end gender pay discrimination by requiring companies to disclose salary data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and secure ...
Are ESG Funds a Proxy for the Green New Deal?
After being soundly defeated in the Senate 0-57 (43 Democrats voted “present”), the Green New Deal continues to languish in the House. Roll Call reported the following excuse from Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I can’t say we’re going to take that and pass it because we have to go through our ...
PRI’s Summer Reading List
What’s a summer without a reading list? And what’s a think tank without ideas? So, we just couldn’t help ourselves and came up with the list below compiled from PRI’s staff. Lest you stop reading now because you think that all the books are wonky — not true. To my ...
Union Membership Doesn’t Mean a Job Forever
PRI has a helpful calculator that shows how much a union member could save throughout his or her working years from not paying union dues. In California, the average fee-paying teacher owes $650 a year while the average worker owes $1,000. A 45-year old teacher who leaves the union and ...
On Gov. Newsom’s “Parents Agenda”
In 1987, it was the talk of the South Bay neighborhood where my parents lived: a tax rebate check of $236 from the state government for every household up and down the street. My mother was delighted. At the time, my sister was going to UCLA and living on campus, ...
How Saving $1,000 Annually in Union Dues Can Turn into Real Money
“A penny saved is a penny earned,” said Ben Franklin. So, imagine what saving $1,000 each year by opting out of paying union dues can do for a government worker’s bottom line. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed the right of government workers to opt-out of a union and ...
It’s Raining IPOs, Hallelujah!
Silicon Valley and Wall Street aren’t the only ones celebrating IPOs this year – Sacramento is doing its share of the partying. That’s because the state is expected to receive a deluge of tax dollars over the next several years thanks to capital gains generated by the current hot IPO ...
Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions
When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
Rentonomics in California: It’s Worse than We Think
Right by the Bay has sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis, especially our colleague Kerry Jackson, who has written about it here, here, and here. But until we get real reform, like Sam in Casablanca, we plan to play it again and again. A new study by Apartment ...
It’s Taxfest in Sacramento
Will Rogers said, “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” But Rogers never came up against the current California legislature, which these days isn’t just holding a legislative session but an all-out Tax Hike Convention. Today, the state enjoys a ...
