California
Business & Economics
Enriching Lawyers Is Not the Solution to the Opioid Crisis
Effective health care reforms must reduce the excessive costs imposed by frivolous lawsuits. Studies have shown that medical tort reform could reduce total health care premiums between 1 and 3 percent. As estimated by the American Action Forum, this could mean “roughly $15 billion” in savings from effective (but partial) ...
Blog
Legislature Serves Up Bad Recipe for Innovation Economy
Recently, a friend of mine told me how much she and her husband enjoyed subscribing to a home meal prep delivery service. Instead of having to go to the grocery story, they deliver all the fresh ingredients you need to make a gourmet recipe right to your doorstep. She suggested ...
Blog
Court Ruling Shuts Down Effective Private-Sector Restorative Justice Program
Given a choice, would someone caught shoplifting rather make a voluntary arrangement with the victim to pay for their crime, or become involved with the police and courts? That’s a pointless question in California. There is no longer a choice. The choice has been eliminated. Earlier this month a judge ...
California
Reforms Should Improve the Efficiency of the Pharmaceutical Market
The refrain that pharmaceuticals are driving the health care affordability problem has been repeated so often that it is becoming an illusory truth – people believe it to be true simply because they have heard it repeated so often. Obviously, repeating the same incorrect statement over and over again does ...
Blog
Price Transparency Occurs in Markets, Not Government Offices
The wrong model, no matter how hard it is worked, always provides the wrong answer. And, so it is with a bill being considered in Sacramento (SB 17). SB 17 is supposed to address the problem of skyrocketing health care costs by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to give 60-day notice for ...
Blog
How About CEQA Exemptions for All?
The California Environmental Quality Act is by far the most destructive of the causes that factor into California’s housing crisis. Its regulatory hurdles have sharply increased the cost of building, which has led to a severe shortage of homes that pushed prices to levels that many can’t afford. Even Gov. ...
Agriculture
Taxing Robots Will Hurt California Innovation and Opportunity
A California governor who went on to greater things was known to say that if government sees something move, it will tax it. Ronald Reagan’s words, spoken more than 30 years ago, are being played out today by a lawmaker who wants to enact a robot tax. Jane Kim, a ...
California
End-of-Session Housing Push Won’t Make Dent in State’s Housing Problem
Lawmakers haven’t yet voted on legislation they say addresses the state’s housing crisis, but it’s just as well. The proposals they were trying to pass off as solutions aren’t solutions at all. One bill that’s key to the rest of the legislative package would add to real estate costs, while ...
Blog
UC Has a Long Way to Go to Build Back Trust of Students, Taxpayers, Lawmakers
A recently-released state audit faulting the University of California president’s office for mishandling the switch to a new payroll system – which was supposed to save money but will now cost nearly $1 billion – is the latest self-inflicted wound for the beleaguered system. Earlier this summer, UC announced that ...
California
Critics Say Republican Budget Threatens Californians’ Health
As Congress works to pass a budget by the end of the month, advocates for the poor warn Republicans’ proposed cuts to safety-net programs could hurt Californians’ health. The California Budget and Policy Center has crunched the numbers in the House Budget Committee’s proposed budget. The Center says it would ...
Enriching Lawyers Is Not the Solution to the Opioid Crisis
Effective health care reforms must reduce the excessive costs imposed by frivolous lawsuits. Studies have shown that medical tort reform could reduce total health care premiums between 1 and 3 percent. As estimated by the American Action Forum, this could mean “roughly $15 billion” in savings from effective (but partial) ...
Legislature Serves Up Bad Recipe for Innovation Economy
Recently, a friend of mine told me how much she and her husband enjoyed subscribing to a home meal prep delivery service. Instead of having to go to the grocery story, they deliver all the fresh ingredients you need to make a gourmet recipe right to your doorstep. She suggested ...
Court Ruling Shuts Down Effective Private-Sector Restorative Justice Program
Given a choice, would someone caught shoplifting rather make a voluntary arrangement with the victim to pay for their crime, or become involved with the police and courts? That’s a pointless question in California. There is no longer a choice. The choice has been eliminated. Earlier this month a judge ...
Reforms Should Improve the Efficiency of the Pharmaceutical Market
The refrain that pharmaceuticals are driving the health care affordability problem has been repeated so often that it is becoming an illusory truth – people believe it to be true simply because they have heard it repeated so often. Obviously, repeating the same incorrect statement over and over again does ...
Price Transparency Occurs in Markets, Not Government Offices
The wrong model, no matter how hard it is worked, always provides the wrong answer. And, so it is with a bill being considered in Sacramento (SB 17). SB 17 is supposed to address the problem of skyrocketing health care costs by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to give 60-day notice for ...
How About CEQA Exemptions for All?
The California Environmental Quality Act is by far the most destructive of the causes that factor into California’s housing crisis. Its regulatory hurdles have sharply increased the cost of building, which has led to a severe shortage of homes that pushed prices to levels that many can’t afford. Even Gov. ...
Taxing Robots Will Hurt California Innovation and Opportunity
A California governor who went on to greater things was known to say that if government sees something move, it will tax it. Ronald Reagan’s words, spoken more than 30 years ago, are being played out today by a lawmaker who wants to enact a robot tax. Jane Kim, a ...
End-of-Session Housing Push Won’t Make Dent in State’s Housing Problem
Lawmakers haven’t yet voted on legislation they say addresses the state’s housing crisis, but it’s just as well. The proposals they were trying to pass off as solutions aren’t solutions at all. One bill that’s key to the rest of the legislative package would add to real estate costs, while ...
UC Has a Long Way to Go to Build Back Trust of Students, Taxpayers, Lawmakers
A recently-released state audit faulting the University of California president’s office for mishandling the switch to a new payroll system – which was supposed to save money but will now cost nearly $1 billion – is the latest self-inflicted wound for the beleaguered system. Earlier this summer, UC announced that ...
Critics Say Republican Budget Threatens Californians’ Health
As Congress works to pass a budget by the end of the month, advocates for the poor warn Republicans’ proposed cuts to safety-net programs could hurt Californians’ health. The California Budget and Policy Center has crunched the numbers in the House Budget Committee’s proposed budget. The Center says it would ...
