California

California

Expanding SF Restaurant Surcharge Statewide is a Bad Idea

Dining at a premium San Francisco restaurant will always be expensive. But add in the cost of The City’s health care surcharge and eating out, even at modest and lesser establishments, is even more expensive. What’s more, one gubernatorial candidate wants to expand the program that requires the surcharge to ...
Commentary

ObamaCare Faces Two Existential Challenges In 2018

It’s a New Year — but not a happy one for ObamaCare’s defenders. Two recent developments could lead to the collapse of the health law’s exchanges. First, the Trump administration will soon announce that it will allow insurers to sell “short-term” health plans that last up to 364 days.  Currently, insurers ...
Blog

Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High

An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check.  Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
California

What’s Next for Net Neutrality in California?

Early last year, several states, including California, began to consider various forms of online privacy legislation. Most of these efforts failed, including in the Golden State, in part because such moves would have actually placed citizen’s privacy at greater jeopardy. But with the recent vote by the Federal Communications Commission ...
Blog

New Studies Confirm the Obvious – $15 Minimum Wage Hurts California Job Opportunities

The negative impacts of setting — and increasing — minimum wages should be beyond debate by now. The economic science is settled. Yet California policymakers continue to believe in unicorn economic fantasies. For example, more than a dozen cities and counties in the Bay Area have changed their minimum-wage ordinances ...
Blog

With Silicon Valley Exodus Looming, Lawmakers Must Make Tax Relief Top 2018 Priority

Last week, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said in an interview that tech companies are already beginning an exodus away from expensive coastal areas such as Silicon Valley and Los Angeles toward more affordable cities in America’s heartland. He said that the trend will likely be accelerated in response to the ...
Blog

Help Us Make 2018 A Great Year for Freedom

With the end of the year upon us, what better time to talk about all that we have accomplished at the Pacific Research Institute in 2017. In the past 12 months, we have: promoted policies that expand access to high-quality education through school choice, charter schools, and digital learning opportunities ...
Business & Economics

2018’s challenge: Too many jobs, not enough workers

By Danielle Paquette Employers nationwide are grappling with a problem that threatens to stall economic growth: vacancies — and lots of them. In Maine, where flurries can fall as late as April, the state transportation department is struggling to find snowplow drivers, thanks to the increasingly tight labor market. Ski resorts in ...
Blog

California Can Expect More of the Same from Sacramento in 2018

There are no fortune tellers at PRI, but it isn’t hard to foresee what is likely to happen in California in 2018. First, it’s a sure bet that the Legislature will pass a boxcar load of unneeded, heavy-handed and odious policies when lawmakers reconvene on Jan. 3. One that will ...
California

First Annual PRI Year-End Awards

Listen to a special holiday episode of PRI’s podcast as Sally Pipes, Rowena Itchon, Lance Izumi, Tim Anaya, and Ben Smithwick review the year in policy in 2017, hand out their year-end awards, and make their predictions for 2018 – in the style of The McLaughlin Group.
California

Expanding SF Restaurant Surcharge Statewide is a Bad Idea

Dining at a premium San Francisco restaurant will always be expensive. But add in the cost of The City’s health care surcharge and eating out, even at modest and lesser establishments, is even more expensive. What’s more, one gubernatorial candidate wants to expand the program that requires the surcharge to ...
Commentary

ObamaCare Faces Two Existential Challenges In 2018

It’s a New Year — but not a happy one for ObamaCare’s defenders. Two recent developments could lead to the collapse of the health law’s exchanges. First, the Trump administration will soon announce that it will allow insurers to sell “short-term” health plans that last up to 364 days.  Currently, insurers ...
Blog

Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High

An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check.  Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
California

What’s Next for Net Neutrality in California?

Early last year, several states, including California, began to consider various forms of online privacy legislation. Most of these efforts failed, including in the Golden State, in part because such moves would have actually placed citizen’s privacy at greater jeopardy. But with the recent vote by the Federal Communications Commission ...
Blog

New Studies Confirm the Obvious – $15 Minimum Wage Hurts California Job Opportunities

The negative impacts of setting — and increasing — minimum wages should be beyond debate by now. The economic science is settled. Yet California policymakers continue to believe in unicorn economic fantasies. For example, more than a dozen cities and counties in the Bay Area have changed their minimum-wage ordinances ...
Blog

With Silicon Valley Exodus Looming, Lawmakers Must Make Tax Relief Top 2018 Priority

Last week, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said in an interview that tech companies are already beginning an exodus away from expensive coastal areas such as Silicon Valley and Los Angeles toward more affordable cities in America’s heartland. He said that the trend will likely be accelerated in response to the ...
Blog

Help Us Make 2018 A Great Year for Freedom

With the end of the year upon us, what better time to talk about all that we have accomplished at the Pacific Research Institute in 2017. In the past 12 months, we have: promoted policies that expand access to high-quality education through school choice, charter schools, and digital learning opportunities ...
Business & Economics

2018’s challenge: Too many jobs, not enough workers

By Danielle Paquette Employers nationwide are grappling with a problem that threatens to stall economic growth: vacancies — and lots of them. In Maine, where flurries can fall as late as April, the state transportation department is struggling to find snowplow drivers, thanks to the increasingly tight labor market. Ski resorts in ...
Blog

California Can Expect More of the Same from Sacramento in 2018

There are no fortune tellers at PRI, but it isn’t hard to foresee what is likely to happen in California in 2018. First, it’s a sure bet that the Legislature will pass a boxcar load of unneeded, heavy-handed and odious policies when lawmakers reconvene on Jan. 3. One that will ...
California

First Annual PRI Year-End Awards

Listen to a special holiday episode of PRI’s podcast as Sally Pipes, Rowena Itchon, Lance Izumi, Tim Anaya, and Ben Smithwick review the year in policy in 2017, hand out their year-end awards, and make their predictions for 2018 – in the style of The McLaughlin Group.
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