Tim Anaya
Blog
Sacramento Rent Fund Just Another Name for Basic Income
Last week, I wrote about a controversial plan in the City of Stockton to essentially hand a selected group of people wads of cash each month to do nothing. Under this universal basic income scheme, they wouldn’t have to work or adhere to some milestone to be eligible for the ...
Blog
Giving People Cash to Do Nothing Won’t Reduce California Poverty
The latest hot social theory in California is universal basic income. Essentially, it’s about paying people to do nothing. Academics and tech titans have promoted it to address poverty, rising costs of living, and even the temporarily disruptive effects of innovation. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs has generated national headlines for ...
Blog
You Should’ve Been There – On PRI’s Vancouver Conference on Free-Market Environmentalism
Whenever you hear about efforts to preserve our environment, it always involves ill-conceived policy prescriptions, taxpayer-funded subsidies, or heavy-handed government mandates. Take, for example, the work by PRI’s Wayne Winegarden on electric car subsidies. While noble in intent, the subsidies amount to government playing car salesman. Using your money, government ...
Blog
Is Crony Capitalism Alive and Well in California?
If there’s one thing that unites Californians, it’s a disdain for crony capitalism. What is crony capitalism, you ask? We see it all the time. Think local elected officials throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Amazon to try and lure their second global headquarters to their city. PRI’s senior ...
Blog
Celebrating the Sound of Freedom
That sound you heard on the Fourth of July was not bands playing “God Bless America” or other patriotic songs. No, it was people complaining on social media about fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. Where I live in Sacramento, you can buy fireworks for your family 4th of ...
Blog
Soda Tax Vote Forces Lawmakers to Eat Carrot or Face Local Tax Spigot Shut Off
Usually around this time of year, you’ll see state lawmakers wielding a big stick. In search of headlines or political points, lawmakers will routinely target some politically incorrect industry with punitive legislation. Unless that industry agrees to eat a legislative carrot of new regulations, taxes, or fees that aren’t as ...
Blog
What’s the Deal with Ranked Choice Voting?
June’s elections in California and Maine represented a dream come true for political nerds everywhere. It brought to light a strange voting system in San Francisco and some other liberal California cities called ranked-choice, or instant runoff, voting. Ranked-choice voting takes effect when no candidate receives a majority of votes ...
Blog
After Wayfair Ruling, Will California and Other States Rush to Collect More Sales Taxes?
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a major decision in a case about online retailers collecting sales taxes, South Dakota v. Wayfair. As PRI’s Bartlett Cleland recently wrote in Fox and Hounds, “the case is centered around the notion that an entity must have a physical presence in a jurisdiction ...
Blog
Would Politics as Usual Change Under “Cal 3” Plan?
More than one observer has argued that California is too big population-wise, and the problems too-complex to effectively govern and should be broken up. Recently, it was announced that after years of debate, California is finally going to have a chance to vote on one of these proposals this November. ...
Blog
This Year’s Budget Earns a “Participation Trophy”
It’s amazing what a difference one voter-approved proposition can make. The Legislature is poised again to pass a budget before the June 15 constitutional deadline. Gov. Brown has until June 30 to sign it into law. Budgets used to be a lengthy, messy fight at the Capitol. Back in the ...
Sacramento Rent Fund Just Another Name for Basic Income
Last week, I wrote about a controversial plan in the City of Stockton to essentially hand a selected group of people wads of cash each month to do nothing. Under this universal basic income scheme, they wouldn’t have to work or adhere to some milestone to be eligible for the ...
Giving People Cash to Do Nothing Won’t Reduce California Poverty
The latest hot social theory in California is universal basic income. Essentially, it’s about paying people to do nothing. Academics and tech titans have promoted it to address poverty, rising costs of living, and even the temporarily disruptive effects of innovation. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs has generated national headlines for ...
You Should’ve Been There – On PRI’s Vancouver Conference on Free-Market Environmentalism
Whenever you hear about efforts to preserve our environment, it always involves ill-conceived policy prescriptions, taxpayer-funded subsidies, or heavy-handed government mandates. Take, for example, the work by PRI’s Wayne Winegarden on electric car subsidies. While noble in intent, the subsidies amount to government playing car salesman. Using your money, government ...
Is Crony Capitalism Alive and Well in California?
If there’s one thing that unites Californians, it’s a disdain for crony capitalism. What is crony capitalism, you ask? We see it all the time. Think local elected officials throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Amazon to try and lure their second global headquarters to their city. PRI’s senior ...
Celebrating the Sound of Freedom
That sound you heard on the Fourth of July was not bands playing “God Bless America” or other patriotic songs. No, it was people complaining on social media about fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. Where I live in Sacramento, you can buy fireworks for your family 4th of ...
Soda Tax Vote Forces Lawmakers to Eat Carrot or Face Local Tax Spigot Shut Off
Usually around this time of year, you’ll see state lawmakers wielding a big stick. In search of headlines or political points, lawmakers will routinely target some politically incorrect industry with punitive legislation. Unless that industry agrees to eat a legislative carrot of new regulations, taxes, or fees that aren’t as ...
What’s the Deal with Ranked Choice Voting?
June’s elections in California and Maine represented a dream come true for political nerds everywhere. It brought to light a strange voting system in San Francisco and some other liberal California cities called ranked-choice, or instant runoff, voting. Ranked-choice voting takes effect when no candidate receives a majority of votes ...
After Wayfair Ruling, Will California and Other States Rush to Collect More Sales Taxes?
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a major decision in a case about online retailers collecting sales taxes, South Dakota v. Wayfair. As PRI’s Bartlett Cleland recently wrote in Fox and Hounds, “the case is centered around the notion that an entity must have a physical presence in a jurisdiction ...
Would Politics as Usual Change Under “Cal 3” Plan?
More than one observer has argued that California is too big population-wise, and the problems too-complex to effectively govern and should be broken up. Recently, it was announced that after years of debate, California is finally going to have a chance to vote on one of these proposals this November. ...
This Year’s Budget Earns a “Participation Trophy”
It’s amazing what a difference one voter-approved proposition can make. The Legislature is poised again to pass a budget before the June 15 constitutional deadline. Gov. Brown has until June 30 to sign it into law. Budgets used to be a lengthy, messy fight at the Capitol. Back in the ...
