Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Dr. Wayne Winegarden Discusses Prop. 55 On Kgo-Am
PRI Senior Fellow Dr. Wayne Winegarden appeared on The Ethan Bearman Show on KGO-AM to discuss the fiscal consequences of California’s Proposition 55 — the state ballot initiative that would extend the “temporary” personal income tax increases enacted in 2012 on earnings over $250,000. As Dr. Winegarden explains, California needs ...
Business & Economics
Consumers and Grocers Would Benefit Most By Preserving Bag Tradition
Grocery shopping in California isn’t what it used to be. Traditionally, customers carried their items away in paper bags provided by the store through an unspoken, but well-established and always understood, contract between seller and buyer. But then government got involved and turned a simple transaction into an irksome task. ...
Business & Economics
Reformed Public Pensions Can Still Be Generous
As documented in a September 18, 2016 story in the L.A. Times, the problem of California’s unfunded public pensions has reached crisis proportions. The state controller’s office estimates that the total unfunded liabilities of the state and local public pension systems are $241.3 billion. But this assumes an annual return ...
Business & Economics
In California Pension Casino, Taxpayers Going Bust
California has a state pension problem that defies partisan politics. It’s not about Hillary vs. Donald, it’s about math. Past pension promises may exceed the potential for pension asset growth. Whether we are currently or were former California residents, as I am, we all want California to prosper. We want ...
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: Reforming California’s Pension System
California governments owe their current and future retirees maybe as much as $600 billion. But the governments aren’t going to pay. Taxpayers will be handed the bill, and in some cities, each household is on the hook for more than $50,000. In at least one municipality, the household share of ...
Business & Economics
Cigarette Tax Hike Initiative A Bridge Too Far
It seems there is a never-ending war on “sin” and a desire by some to try and tax it away. This includes higher taxes on snacks and cigarettes, among other items. As to the latter item, California voters will weigh in with a November ballot proposal to hike California’s cigarette ...
Business & Economics
Public employee pensions an enormous problem
In January 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown bragged about the state’s new commitment to fiscal responsibility. He talked about “living within our means and not spending what we don’t have.” A year later, in his State of the State address, Brown insisted that “fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our ...
Business & Economics
Proposed Regulatory Expansion Threatens The Education Market
The federal government has taken over the student loan market and currently guarantees (or directly holds) about 90 percent of the 40 million student loans valued in excess of $1.2 trillion. The millions of people at risk of defaulting on this huge student loan portfolio is a large and growing ...
Business & Economics
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
Business & Economics
By Killing Off Ride-Sharing, Austin Puts It In Reverse
“Keep Austin Weird” is a slogan dreamed up by the Texas city’s independent business alliance to promote local businesses and to keep national corporations out of the city. By recently regulating ride-sharing companies out of business, Austin became more than just weird — it’s now perfectly unique. The supposed tech ...
Dr. Wayne Winegarden Discusses Prop. 55 On Kgo-Am
PRI Senior Fellow Dr. Wayne Winegarden appeared on The Ethan Bearman Show on KGO-AM to discuss the fiscal consequences of California’s Proposition 55 — the state ballot initiative that would extend the “temporary” personal income tax increases enacted in 2012 on earnings over $250,000. As Dr. Winegarden explains, California needs ...
Consumers and Grocers Would Benefit Most By Preserving Bag Tradition
Grocery shopping in California isn’t what it used to be. Traditionally, customers carried their items away in paper bags provided by the store through an unspoken, but well-established and always understood, contract between seller and buyer. But then government got involved and turned a simple transaction into an irksome task. ...
Reformed Public Pensions Can Still Be Generous
As documented in a September 18, 2016 story in the L.A. Times, the problem of California’s unfunded public pensions has reached crisis proportions. The state controller’s office estimates that the total unfunded liabilities of the state and local public pension systems are $241.3 billion. But this assumes an annual return ...
In California Pension Casino, Taxpayers Going Bust
California has a state pension problem that defies partisan politics. It’s not about Hillary vs. Donald, it’s about math. Past pension promises may exceed the potential for pension asset growth. Whether we are currently or were former California residents, as I am, we all want California to prosper. We want ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Reforming California’s Pension System
California governments owe their current and future retirees maybe as much as $600 billion. But the governments aren’t going to pay. Taxpayers will be handed the bill, and in some cities, each household is on the hook for more than $50,000. In at least one municipality, the household share of ...
Cigarette Tax Hike Initiative A Bridge Too Far
It seems there is a never-ending war on “sin” and a desire by some to try and tax it away. This includes higher taxes on snacks and cigarettes, among other items. As to the latter item, California voters will weigh in with a November ballot proposal to hike California’s cigarette ...
Public employee pensions an enormous problem
In January 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown bragged about the state’s new commitment to fiscal responsibility. He talked about “living within our means and not spending what we don’t have.” A year later, in his State of the State address, Brown insisted that “fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our ...
Proposed Regulatory Expansion Threatens The Education Market
The federal government has taken over the student loan market and currently guarantees (or directly holds) about 90 percent of the 40 million student loans valued in excess of $1.2 trillion. The millions of people at risk of defaulting on this huge student loan portfolio is a large and growing ...
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
By Killing Off Ride-Sharing, Austin Puts It In Reverse
“Keep Austin Weird” is a slogan dreamed up by the Texas city’s independent business alliance to promote local businesses and to keep national corporations out of the city. By recently regulating ride-sharing companies out of business, Austin became more than just weird — it’s now perfectly unique. The supposed tech ...
