California
California
Steven Greenhut – End of Legislative Session Wrap-Up
Our guest this week is Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and a veteran California journalist. Steve recaps the legislative session with the highlights and lowlights (unfortunately for Californians, mostly lowlights). He also weighs in on the new Speaker Robert Rivas, the ever-controversial Public Safety Committee, and Gov. ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Here’s Not How to End the Hollywood Strikes: Granting Unemployment to Strikers
With Hollywood’s strikes in the headlines daily and no end in sight, California Democrats are proposing legislation that would allow striking workers to draw unemployment benefits. If enacted, the bill would be a transparent gift to the unions that control California politics. To be eligible for unemployment compensation under current ...
Blog
Read End of Session Preview
Three Bills to Watch in Final Two Weeks of Legislative Session
While new speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) probably lines up along the same lines ideologically as his predecessor Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), their styles could not be more different. As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Emily Hoeven recently put it, “Rendon had given his appointed committee chairs outsized authority, allowing them ...
Business & Economics
Read about latest tax hike push at State Capitol
California’s Already High Taxes Could Increase if Democratic Legislators Prevail
California has been losing businesses and residents to states with lower tax burdens for years, and the response in Sacramento has been puzzling. Rather than trying to compete with those states, the counter has been to instead raise taxes even higher. Following this formula, legislators recently passed Assembly Constitutional Amendment ...
Blog
Read about latest bill to undermine public safety
SB 94 – Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics – Murderers do not “Age Out”
They received those sentences because their crimes are uniquely heinous and include one or more factors known as “special circumstances” that can include, the murder of public safety officers or officials, murders for financial gain, the use of torture, murders of multiple victims, prior convictions for murder, the use of ...
Blog
Read about controversial Sacramento Forward plan
So-Called Sacramento Forward Plan Would Take City Backwards on Housing, Homelessness
In my most recent blog, I documented the city of Sacramento’s worsening homeless problem, and the inaction by city leaders to get the problem under control. Now entering the policy void are a troika of left-wing city councilmembers who have put forward a plan called “Sacramento Forward” that would be ...
Blog
Read latest on California's growing crime problem
Murders are up – We’re just dying less.
Writing for The Atlantic recently, Jeff Asher predicted that, “The United States may be experiencing one of the largest annual percent changes in murder ever recorded, according to my preliminary data.” That’s a bold statement and will undoubtedly be used to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice policies around the ...
Blog
Read latest about state pension problem
ESG and CalPERS Sub-par Investment Returns
CalPERS has one core social responsibility – maximizing returns to help secure the retirement of millions of current and future pensioners. The pension fund is also a major proponent of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing. CalPERS claims that ESG “disclosures provide important metrics to understand how a company’s practices ...
Blog
Read about Sacramento's growing homeless problem
On Homelessness, Sacramento is “City of Problems”
When you drive into the City of Sacramento on I-5 going north, you are greeted by a massive water tower at the city limits bearing two designations. Sacramento, the city proudly boasts, is the “City of Trees” and “America’s Farm to Fork Capital.” Read a newspaper or walk around downtown ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Why do politicians hate planned communities?
Planned communities simply are centrally planned, residential communities that are built from scratch and filled with amenities designed specifically for residents. They are usually built by private developers – and tend to be less costly to build than multi-family properties within the urban footprint. Many feature significant amounts of infrastructure ...
Steven Greenhut – End of Legislative Session Wrap-Up
Our guest this week is Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and a veteran California journalist. Steve recaps the legislative session with the highlights and lowlights (unfortunately for Californians, mostly lowlights). He also weighs in on the new Speaker Robert Rivas, the ever-controversial Public Safety Committee, and Gov. ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Here’s Not How to End the Hollywood Strikes: Granting Unemployment to Strikers
With Hollywood’s strikes in the headlines daily and no end in sight, California Democrats are proposing legislation that would allow striking workers to draw unemployment benefits. If enacted, the bill would be a transparent gift to the unions that control California politics. To be eligible for unemployment compensation under current ...
Read End of Session Preview
Three Bills to Watch in Final Two Weeks of Legislative Session
While new speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) probably lines up along the same lines ideologically as his predecessor Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), their styles could not be more different. As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Emily Hoeven recently put it, “Rendon had given his appointed committee chairs outsized authority, allowing them ...
Read about latest tax hike push at State Capitol
California’s Already High Taxes Could Increase if Democratic Legislators Prevail
California has been losing businesses and residents to states with lower tax burdens for years, and the response in Sacramento has been puzzling. Rather than trying to compete with those states, the counter has been to instead raise taxes even higher. Following this formula, legislators recently passed Assembly Constitutional Amendment ...
Read about latest bill to undermine public safety
SB 94 – Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics – Murderers do not “Age Out”
They received those sentences because their crimes are uniquely heinous and include one or more factors known as “special circumstances” that can include, the murder of public safety officers or officials, murders for financial gain, the use of torture, murders of multiple victims, prior convictions for murder, the use of ...
Read about controversial Sacramento Forward plan
So-Called Sacramento Forward Plan Would Take City Backwards on Housing, Homelessness
In my most recent blog, I documented the city of Sacramento’s worsening homeless problem, and the inaction by city leaders to get the problem under control. Now entering the policy void are a troika of left-wing city councilmembers who have put forward a plan called “Sacramento Forward” that would be ...
Read latest on California's growing crime problem
Murders are up – We’re just dying less.
Writing for The Atlantic recently, Jeff Asher predicted that, “The United States may be experiencing one of the largest annual percent changes in murder ever recorded, according to my preliminary data.” That’s a bold statement and will undoubtedly be used to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice policies around the ...
Read latest about state pension problem
ESG and CalPERS Sub-par Investment Returns
CalPERS has one core social responsibility – maximizing returns to help secure the retirement of millions of current and future pensioners. The pension fund is also a major proponent of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing. CalPERS claims that ESG “disclosures provide important metrics to understand how a company’s practices ...
Read about Sacramento's growing homeless problem
On Homelessness, Sacramento is “City of Problems”
When you drive into the City of Sacramento on I-5 going north, you are greeted by a massive water tower at the city limits bearing two designations. Sacramento, the city proudly boasts, is the “City of Trees” and “America’s Farm to Fork Capital.” Read a newspaper or walk around downtown ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Why do politicians hate planned communities?
Planned communities simply are centrally planned, residential communities that are built from scratch and filled with amenities designed specifically for residents. They are usually built by private developers – and tend to be less costly to build than multi-family properties within the urban footprint. Many feature significant amounts of infrastructure ...
