Housing

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Notes from Taxifornia

Last week, as millions of Californians filed their tax returns on the delayed July 15 tax deadline, there was good and bad news on the tax increase front in Taxifornia.  Split Roll Tax Increase Campaign Based on Class Warfare I wrote last month that how the 2020-21 state budget deal, ...
Business & Economics

Basic Income Guarantees Would ‘Warehouse’ Poor, Not Propel Them

As Americans struggle to recover from a deep recession fueled by the COVID-19 crisis, and respond in horror to the violence in many communities following the death of George Floyd, economic inequality and lack of opportunity have risen to the top of the political discussion. Liberal voices like House Speaker ...
Blog

SB 1410 Would Give Renters a Decade to Pay Rent

When Tim Anaya first told me about a California senate bill that would give renters who lost their jobs during the coronavirus shutdown until 2034 to pay back their rent, I thought I didn’t hear him right: “Did you say 2024?” (I thought four years was plenty.) But yes, dear readers, he said 2034. It’s no typo either. SB 1410 would force landlords to enter into a “rent stabilization agreement” with the tenant, and prohibits the landlord ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – June 26

Rowena Itchon – “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” I ran across this teaser on the upcoming documentary “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” by the Moving Picture Institute.  The first 3D printed homes are located in a neighborhood in southern Mexico.  A way to solve California’s homeless problem? Ben Smithwick ...
Business & Economics

California continues to launch businesses, residents into other states

Elon Musk is not alone in his frustration with the way California treats businesses. But he makes the news, and the announcement that SpaceX is abandoning plans to build rockets in Los Angeles and will instead make them in Texas and Florida is another high-profile setback for the state. One ...
Blog

Blocking Evictions Sets Off A Harmful Chain Of Events

In the early days of the pandemic lockdowns, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a temporary moratorium on evictions of small and mid-size businesses “due to a loss of income related to lost revenue or other economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” She also prohibited evictions from “all residential ...
Blog

Coronavirus Chronicles: States Want Bailout for Past Profligate Spending

Even as House members consider themselves non-essential workers (they’ve decided to vote from home), it hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from coming up with bad ideas for the next stimulus package, including relief for states and municipalities with pre-existing economic conditions. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week at his ...
Blog

Can Taxpayers Afford a Big Spending Sacramento “Economic Recovery Plan”?

Speaker Pelosi and her allies in Congress received significant pollical pushback for using the COVID-19 crisis to enact their budget wish list in the $2 billion “phase 3” stimulus. Recently, Rowena Itchon wrote on Right by the Bay about tens of millions being spent on priorities for Democrats like propping ...
California

The left-wing agenda of Newsom’s reopening task force

With huddled masses of Californians yearning to be free, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced the launch of a task force to oversee the reopening of the economy by fostering business and job recovery. Yet it more closely resembles a central committee charged with installing some variant of Cold War-era Bulgarian ...
Agriculture

Earth Day in the Time of Coronavirus

In case anyone has forgotten (and many long have), April 22 is Earth Day.  And while the coronavirus pandemic has put a chill on this year’s worldwide 50th jubilee celebration, it hasn’t caused its demise. If anything, progressive climate change advocates have attempted to leverage the pandemic to further spread ...
Blog

Notes from Taxifornia

Last week, as millions of Californians filed their tax returns on the delayed July 15 tax deadline, there was good and bad news on the tax increase front in Taxifornia.  Split Roll Tax Increase Campaign Based on Class Warfare I wrote last month that how the 2020-21 state budget deal, ...
Business & Economics

Basic Income Guarantees Would ‘Warehouse’ Poor, Not Propel Them

As Americans struggle to recover from a deep recession fueled by the COVID-19 crisis, and respond in horror to the violence in many communities following the death of George Floyd, economic inequality and lack of opportunity have risen to the top of the political discussion. Liberal voices like House Speaker ...
Blog

SB 1410 Would Give Renters a Decade to Pay Rent

When Tim Anaya first told me about a California senate bill that would give renters who lost their jobs during the coronavirus shutdown until 2034 to pay back their rent, I thought I didn’t hear him right: “Did you say 2024?” (I thought four years was plenty.) But yes, dear readers, he said 2034. It’s no typo either. SB 1410 would force landlords to enter into a “rent stabilization agreement” with the tenant, and prohibits the landlord ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – June 26

Rowena Itchon – “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” I ran across this teaser on the upcoming documentary “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future” by the Moving Picture Institute.  The first 3D printed homes are located in a neighborhood in southern Mexico.  A way to solve California’s homeless problem? Ben Smithwick ...
Business & Economics

California continues to launch businesses, residents into other states

Elon Musk is not alone in his frustration with the way California treats businesses. But he makes the news, and the announcement that SpaceX is abandoning plans to build rockets in Los Angeles and will instead make them in Texas and Florida is another high-profile setback for the state. One ...
Blog

Blocking Evictions Sets Off A Harmful Chain Of Events

In the early days of the pandemic lockdowns, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a temporary moratorium on evictions of small and mid-size businesses “due to a loss of income related to lost revenue or other economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” She also prohibited evictions from “all residential ...
Blog

Coronavirus Chronicles: States Want Bailout for Past Profligate Spending

Even as House members consider themselves non-essential workers (they’ve decided to vote from home), it hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from coming up with bad ideas for the next stimulus package, including relief for states and municipalities with pre-existing economic conditions. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week at his ...
Blog

Can Taxpayers Afford a Big Spending Sacramento “Economic Recovery Plan”?

Speaker Pelosi and her allies in Congress received significant pollical pushback for using the COVID-19 crisis to enact their budget wish list in the $2 billion “phase 3” stimulus. Recently, Rowena Itchon wrote on Right by the Bay about tens of millions being spent on priorities for Democrats like propping ...
California

The left-wing agenda of Newsom’s reopening task force

With huddled masses of Californians yearning to be free, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced the launch of a task force to oversee the reopening of the economy by fostering business and job recovery. Yet it more closely resembles a central committee charged with installing some variant of Cold War-era Bulgarian ...
Agriculture

Earth Day in the Time of Coronavirus

In case anyone has forgotten (and many long have), April 22 is Earth Day.  And while the coronavirus pandemic has put a chill on this year’s worldwide 50th jubilee celebration, it hasn’t caused its demise. If anything, progressive climate change advocates have attempted to leverage the pandemic to further spread ...
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