California

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Latest Sign Housing Crisis is Hurting State’s Economy

Keeping up with the Great California Exodus can become a tedious task. Stories about businesses or people, or both, fleeing the state are so common that its sometimes seems they are blended all into one. Now comes another. “More Californians are considering fleeing the state as they blame sky-high costs, ...
California

Samuel Coleman on the Impact of the Janus Decision in California

Samuel Coleman, California Outreach Director of the Freedom Foundation, discusses his organization’s efforts to inform union members of their First Amendment rights after the landmark Supreme Court Janus decision in 2018.  Janus ruled that non-union members no longer have to pay dues to their union, effectively making California and other ...
California

California Housing Crisis Prolonged By Policymakers’ Inability To Shed Old Impulses

With every idea offered as a serious “solution,” it becomes clearer why California has a housing crisis. The thinking is stuck on policies that aggravate rather than improve. The latest ill-considered proposal picking up support would enact price-gouging laws to keep rental costs in check. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – February 15

Rowena Itchon – The Economics of Valentine’s Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDbcboJwuPc You may just have gotten over the sticker shock of the flowers, candy, wine, and expensive dinner you shelled out for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, but the “day of love” actually encompasses three important free-market principles as this video from ...
Blog

Green New Deal is Already Here in California

A lot has already been said about the Green New Deal, including my favorite: “What planet is she on?” from Brian Kilmeade of FOX.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on planet California, that’s where.  The “green dream or whatever” as Nancy Pelosi dismissively called it, is being realized in her own home ...
CEQA

CEQA: How to mend it since you can’t end it

By Daniel Kolkey It’s no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, “Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 ...
Blog

Newsom Eats More Cake in First State of the State

A few weeks back, in writing about Gov. Newsom’s first budget proposal – I noted that the Governor was demonstrating how one could have his cake and eat it, too, in his spending plan for the state. As I watched the Governor’s first State of the State address yesterday, it’s ...
Blog

A Modest Start to Solving the Housing Crisis

San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s proposal to boost home building won’t alone relieve the city’ housing shortage. But as starts go, it’s not a bad one. Breed is rolling out a bill that would kill permits and inspection fees, eliminating “thousands of dollars” in building costs, the San Francisco Chronicle ...
California

Sally Pipes on Single-Payer Healthcare

Sally Pipes, president and CEO of PRI and PRI’s health care expert, discusses the future of single-payer health care, which is shaping up to be a hot political issue in the 2020 presidential elections.  She also talks about the future of single-payer in California, especially now that both houses and ...
Blog

New Polling Shows Free Market Ideas Still Hold Sway in Liberal California

The first weeks of 2019 have been dominated by the push from emboldened Sacramento liberals to enact measures increasing our tax burden, imposing new regulations on employers, and taking away some of our personal freedom. Most observers argue, based on the massive 2018 Democrat victories, that voters were giving a ...
Blog

Latest Sign Housing Crisis is Hurting State’s Economy

Keeping up with the Great California Exodus can become a tedious task. Stories about businesses or people, or both, fleeing the state are so common that its sometimes seems they are blended all into one. Now comes another. “More Californians are considering fleeing the state as they blame sky-high costs, ...
California

Samuel Coleman on the Impact of the Janus Decision in California

Samuel Coleman, California Outreach Director of the Freedom Foundation, discusses his organization’s efforts to inform union members of their First Amendment rights after the landmark Supreme Court Janus decision in 2018.  Janus ruled that non-union members no longer have to pay dues to their union, effectively making California and other ...
California

California Housing Crisis Prolonged By Policymakers’ Inability To Shed Old Impulses

With every idea offered as a serious “solution,” it becomes clearer why California has a housing crisis. The thinking is stuck on policies that aggravate rather than improve. The latest ill-considered proposal picking up support would enact price-gouging laws to keep rental costs in check. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, ...
Blog

What We’re Watching – February 15

Rowena Itchon – The Economics of Valentine’s Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDbcboJwuPc You may just have gotten over the sticker shock of the flowers, candy, wine, and expensive dinner you shelled out for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, but the “day of love” actually encompasses three important free-market principles as this video from ...
Blog

Green New Deal is Already Here in California

A lot has already been said about the Green New Deal, including my favorite: “What planet is she on?” from Brian Kilmeade of FOX.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on planet California, that’s where.  The “green dream or whatever” as Nancy Pelosi dismissively called it, is being realized in her own home ...
CEQA

CEQA: How to mend it since you can’t end it

By Daniel Kolkey It’s no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, “Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 ...
Blog

Newsom Eats More Cake in First State of the State

A few weeks back, in writing about Gov. Newsom’s first budget proposal – I noted that the Governor was demonstrating how one could have his cake and eat it, too, in his spending plan for the state. As I watched the Governor’s first State of the State address yesterday, it’s ...
Blog

A Modest Start to Solving the Housing Crisis

San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s proposal to boost home building won’t alone relieve the city’ housing shortage. But as starts go, it’s not a bad one. Breed is rolling out a bill that would kill permits and inspection fees, eliminating “thousands of dollars” in building costs, the San Francisco Chronicle ...
California

Sally Pipes on Single-Payer Healthcare

Sally Pipes, president and CEO of PRI and PRI’s health care expert, discusses the future of single-payer health care, which is shaping up to be a hot political issue in the 2020 presidential elections.  She also talks about the future of single-payer in California, especially now that both houses and ...
Blog

New Polling Shows Free Market Ideas Still Hold Sway in Liberal California

The first weeks of 2019 have been dominated by the push from emboldened Sacramento liberals to enact measures increasing our tax burden, imposing new regulations on employers, and taking away some of our personal freedom. Most observers argue, based on the massive 2018 Democrat victories, that voters were giving a ...
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