Business & Economics

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Gas and Diesel Fuel Tax Hikes Begin Today

Californians who didn’t fill up on Tuesday are probably kicking themselves today. Tax hikes on gasoline and diesel fuel went into effect, sending prices significantly higher. The levy on a gallon of gasoline spiked 12 cents, from 18 cents to 30, while diesel jumped from 16 cents a gallon to ...
Agriculture

Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?

This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Business & Economics

Killing the gasoline-powered car in California? That’s what one legislator wants by 2040

A clean energy advocate in the California Legislature wants internal combustion vehicles to sputter out of existence on the state’s roads and highways. “The cars that we drive today are based on technology that’s 100 years old,” said Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. “It’s almost like we’re doing addition ...
Business & Economics

David Crane – California’s Public Pension Crowd Out

David Crane of Govern for California and Stanford University talks about California’s public pension crisis, how more public money spent on pensions takes away funding for key state priorities, and how we can break through the logjam to enact meaningful pension reform.
Business & Economics

To lure Amazon and more, California needs a statewide enterprise zone

Everyone wants a piece of Amazon. A city in Georgia has even offered to rename itself “Amazon” if only the web sales giant would locate its second headquarters there. Jerry Brown is making a pitch, too. The governor, according to the Mercury News, “is offering tax breaks and other incentives ...
Blog

Rent Control for Small Businesses Another Bad Idea

It’s “Basic Economics” that residential rent control is harmful housing policy. So it makes perfect sense that we’re beginning to hear about commercial rent control in California. Why not heap more destructive laws on the pile? San Jose Inside reported earlier this month that “a local community leader” wants the ...
Blog

A Neutral Network is Best for California

Northern California is a hotbed of modern, global technological innovation, particularly internet innovation. Yet, increasingly Washington, D.C. dictates the direction and velocity of innovation, often abetted by the very companies that gained from the permissionless innovation approach of government that so benefitted the industry in the past. For example, in ...
Business & Economics

Bartlett Cleland – Is California’s Innovation Luster Wearing Off?

Bartlett Cleland, PRI’s senior fellow in Tech and Innovation, talks with us about whether California’s innovation luster is wearing off, how poor government policy is impacting the sharing economy, autonomous vehicles, and innovation companies, and the future of artificial intelligence.
Blog

American Dream Denied by Berkeley Government Bureaucrats

I recently read about a case in Berkeley where a hot dog vendor just trying to earn a few dollars was manhandled by city government. Rigoberto “Beto” Matias was selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs outside a Cal football game. A police officer approached Beto and started questioning him.  A customer quickly pulled ...
Blog

The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System

From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
Blog

Gas and Diesel Fuel Tax Hikes Begin Today

Californians who didn’t fill up on Tuesday are probably kicking themselves today. Tax hikes on gasoline and diesel fuel went into effect, sending prices significantly higher. The levy on a gallon of gasoline spiked 12 cents, from 18 cents to 30, while diesel jumped from 16 cents a gallon to ...
Agriculture

Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?

This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Business & Economics

Killing the gasoline-powered car in California? That’s what one legislator wants by 2040

A clean energy advocate in the California Legislature wants internal combustion vehicles to sputter out of existence on the state’s roads and highways. “The cars that we drive today are based on technology that’s 100 years old,” said Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. “It’s almost like we’re doing addition ...
Business & Economics

David Crane – California’s Public Pension Crowd Out

David Crane of Govern for California and Stanford University talks about California’s public pension crisis, how more public money spent on pensions takes away funding for key state priorities, and how we can break through the logjam to enact meaningful pension reform.
Business & Economics

To lure Amazon and more, California needs a statewide enterprise zone

Everyone wants a piece of Amazon. A city in Georgia has even offered to rename itself “Amazon” if only the web sales giant would locate its second headquarters there. Jerry Brown is making a pitch, too. The governor, according to the Mercury News, “is offering tax breaks and other incentives ...
Blog

Rent Control for Small Businesses Another Bad Idea

It’s “Basic Economics” that residential rent control is harmful housing policy. So it makes perfect sense that we’re beginning to hear about commercial rent control in California. Why not heap more destructive laws on the pile? San Jose Inside reported earlier this month that “a local community leader” wants the ...
Blog

A Neutral Network is Best for California

Northern California is a hotbed of modern, global technological innovation, particularly internet innovation. Yet, increasingly Washington, D.C. dictates the direction and velocity of innovation, often abetted by the very companies that gained from the permissionless innovation approach of government that so benefitted the industry in the past. For example, in ...
Business & Economics

Bartlett Cleland – Is California’s Innovation Luster Wearing Off?

Bartlett Cleland, PRI’s senior fellow in Tech and Innovation, talks with us about whether California’s innovation luster is wearing off, how poor government policy is impacting the sharing economy, autonomous vehicles, and innovation companies, and the future of artificial intelligence.
Blog

American Dream Denied by Berkeley Government Bureaucrats

I recently read about a case in Berkeley where a hot dog vendor just trying to earn a few dollars was manhandled by city government. Rigoberto “Beto” Matias was selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs outside a Cal football game. A police officer approached Beto and started questioning him.  A customer quickly pulled ...
Blog

The Price Control Hammer Will Break the Health Care System

From California to Washington D.C. legislators continue to confirm Abraham Kaplan’s famous insight that if you, “give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” In the case of our legislators, that hammer is price controls; and, what needs pounding is the price of ...
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