California

California

Costs Soaring After Bay State Health Change

Anyone wanting a preview of Obama-Care need just focus on Massachusetts, the state that provided the blueprint for Obama’s plan. It makes a great case for making haste in repealing ObamaCare. In Massachusetts, health care prices are out of control, emergency rooms are overcrowded, the government is at war with ...
California

Boxer, Fiorina mostly MIA on war

SACRAMENTO – As usual, American policy-makers, the media and California’s political candidates avoid the big issues while they make a huge deal out of the small stuff. The latest example is Afghanistan, where Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and coalition commander, got booted from his post by the president Wednesday ...
Business & Economics

What an economist learned in Haiti

I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics

At the crossroads of Silicon Valley, Sacramento

California is pursuing an IT Strategic Plan, the official state blueprint for improving citizen and internal services through technology investments. Though launched with good intentions, the plan could benefit from some revision and more input from Silicon Valley. Historically, government officials have struggled to effectively manage the state’s massive, decentralized ...
Business & Economics

No pension fix from Capitol

“One cannot be both a progressive and be opposed to pension reform,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top pension adviser, David Crane, said during a pension-reform hearing May 10. “The math is irrefutable that the losers from excessive and unfunded pensions are precisely the programs progressive Democrats tend to applaud. Those programs ...
Business & Economics

Government by State Employees is Not Government by the People

SACRAMENTO—From Susanville to San Diego, California cities are struggling financially but now face more bad news. Assembly Bill 155, by Tony Mendoza, Artesia Democrat, would prevent California cities from filing for federal bankruptcy protection. The union-backed bill would allow a union-friendly state agency, the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, ...
Business & Economics

Taxifornia by Jason Clemens

California

Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess

Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
Business & Economics

Taking On The Unions In Calif. — And Winning

A political candidate can take on the public-employee unions in a nasty street rumble and emerge bloodied but victorious. That’s the message from Tuesday’s election to fill a board of supervisors seat in Orange County, Calif. It was a race that could have statewide and even national implications because of ...
Business & Economics

Will California’s ‘Top Two’ Primary Work?

California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 14, which replaces traditional partisan primaries in state and Congressional races. Starting in 2011, candidates for an office would be on a single ballot, regardless of political affiliation, and the top two vote-getters (even if from the same party) would advance to the general ...
California

Costs Soaring After Bay State Health Change

Anyone wanting a preview of Obama-Care need just focus on Massachusetts, the state that provided the blueprint for Obama’s plan. It makes a great case for making haste in repealing ObamaCare. In Massachusetts, health care prices are out of control, emergency rooms are overcrowded, the government is at war with ...
California

Boxer, Fiorina mostly MIA on war

SACRAMENTO – As usual, American policy-makers, the media and California’s political candidates avoid the big issues while they make a huge deal out of the small stuff. The latest example is Afghanistan, where Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and coalition commander, got booted from his post by the president Wednesday ...
Business & Economics

What an economist learned in Haiti

I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics

At the crossroads of Silicon Valley, Sacramento

California is pursuing an IT Strategic Plan, the official state blueprint for improving citizen and internal services through technology investments. Though launched with good intentions, the plan could benefit from some revision and more input from Silicon Valley. Historically, government officials have struggled to effectively manage the state’s massive, decentralized ...
Business & Economics

No pension fix from Capitol

“One cannot be both a progressive and be opposed to pension reform,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top pension adviser, David Crane, said during a pension-reform hearing May 10. “The math is irrefutable that the losers from excessive and unfunded pensions are precisely the programs progressive Democrats tend to applaud. Those programs ...
Business & Economics

Government by State Employees is Not Government by the People

SACRAMENTO—From Susanville to San Diego, California cities are struggling financially but now face more bad news. Assembly Bill 155, by Tony Mendoza, Artesia Democrat, would prevent California cities from filing for federal bankruptcy protection. The union-backed bill would allow a union-friendly state agency, the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, ...
Business & Economics

Taxifornia by Jason Clemens

California

Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess

Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
Business & Economics

Taking On The Unions In Calif. — And Winning

A political candidate can take on the public-employee unions in a nasty street rumble and emerge bloodied but victorious. That’s the message from Tuesday’s election to fill a board of supervisors seat in Orange County, Calif. It was a race that could have statewide and even national implications because of ...
Business & Economics

Will California’s ‘Top Two’ Primary Work?

California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 14, which replaces traditional partisan primaries in state and Congressional races. Starting in 2011, candidates for an office would be on a single ballot, regardless of political affiliation, and the top two vote-getters (even if from the same party) would advance to the general ...
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