State Budget
Business & Economics
Watch Wayne Winegarden on Fox News: Learn how wealth tax defeat could slow CA exodus
Wayne Winegarden, an economist at the Pacific Research Institute, tells Fox News that the defeat of Proposition 40, the wealth tax initiative, may halt further departures tied to wealth taxes, though California could keep losing residents as its competitive edge erodes. Watch the latest video at foxbusiness.com Click here to ...
Blog
Another Bite At The Rotten Apple Of Publicly Financed Political Campaigns
Financing candidates’ campaigns with public dollars has been largely prohibited in California since 1988, when voters enacted a ban by passing Proposition 73. Prop. 73 also placed restrictions on incumbent officeholders’ use of tax money to send newsletters and mass mailings, which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said at the ...
Blog
Another Bad Idea From Sacramento: Bailing Out Local Media
Sacramento seems to think that we can’t have newspapers without government. A recently signed bill aims to provide targeted government relief for struggling local media. It’s an improper, and impractical, use of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Under Assembly Bill 2222, local news outlets will receive a $20,000 tax credit for every ...
California
The Wealth Tax will cost Californians dearly
California has a budget problem. Proposition 40 will make it worse. The November ballot measure promises an irresistible political bargain: Tax roughly 200 billionaires, raise tens of billions of dollars and use the money for health care, education and food assistance. But there’s a catch buried in the state’s own ...
Blog
California’s New Software Tax Is Another Step Toward More Digital Taxes
Senate Bill 122 is projected to raise roughly $2 billion annual tax increase on the software businesses use to operate, and its costs will spread far beyond company software bills. Since software as a service supports nearly every part of the modern economy, businesses will have to absorb those higher ...
Blog
It’s Reparations Season Again, Again
There is, as they say, a lot here – including many points that illustrate serious problems with the overall idea of reparations. First, speaking as a businessman, it is unclear how many firms would actually be impacted by the bill. Roughly 99.9% of all America-based corporations were founded after 1865, ...
Blog
Taxpayer Dollars Should Not Fund Political Campaigns
Taxpayer dollars should be used for legitimate public responsibilities, such as maintaining roads, public safety, education, keeping communities clean, and paying down debt. Financing political campaigns should not become another government responsibility. Public campaign-financing programs use taxpayer dollars to help qualifying candidates run for office. Supporters argue that these programs ...
California
The affordability crisis is real. Sacramento just made it worse.
Californians are told almost daily that Sacramento understands the state’s affordability crisis. Lawmakers hold hearings about it. The gubernatorial candidates are campaigning on it. Gov. Gavin Newsom promises to fix it. Then, when budget season arrives, Sacramento does what it always does: make California more expensive. State lawmakers just approved ...
Blog
Newsom’s May budget portends future crises for local governments
Gov. Jerry Brown’s last budget spent $140.4 billion in the general fund for fiscal year 2018-19. Newsom’s May Revision to his 2026-27 budget exploded that to $246.6 billion. That’s a 76% increase in eight years at a time the state’s population didn’t grow and the Consumer Price Index rose just ...
Blog
Why Don’t We Find More Waste, Fraud and Abuse in California?
Shocking exposes of waste, fraud, and abuse in state government have dominated media headlines in recent weeks. Our friends Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp at the Manhattan Institute uncovered an unfinished wildlife “bridge to nowhere” in Agoura Hills, which has cost taxpayers over $100 million to date and counting. CBS ...
Watch Wayne Winegarden on Fox News: Learn how wealth tax defeat could slow CA exodus
Wayne Winegarden, an economist at the Pacific Research Institute, tells Fox News that the defeat of Proposition 40, the wealth tax initiative, may halt further departures tied to wealth taxes, though California could keep losing residents as its competitive edge erodes. Watch the latest video at foxbusiness.com Click here to ...
Another Bite At The Rotten Apple Of Publicly Financed Political Campaigns
Financing candidates’ campaigns with public dollars has been largely prohibited in California since 1988, when voters enacted a ban by passing Proposition 73. Prop. 73 also placed restrictions on incumbent officeholders’ use of tax money to send newsletters and mass mailings, which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said at the ...
Another Bad Idea From Sacramento: Bailing Out Local Media
Sacramento seems to think that we can’t have newspapers without government. A recently signed bill aims to provide targeted government relief for struggling local media. It’s an improper, and impractical, use of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Under Assembly Bill 2222, local news outlets will receive a $20,000 tax credit for every ...
The Wealth Tax will cost Californians dearly
California has a budget problem. Proposition 40 will make it worse. The November ballot measure promises an irresistible political bargain: Tax roughly 200 billionaires, raise tens of billions of dollars and use the money for health care, education and food assistance. But there’s a catch buried in the state’s own ...
California’s New Software Tax Is Another Step Toward More Digital Taxes
Senate Bill 122 is projected to raise roughly $2 billion annual tax increase on the software businesses use to operate, and its costs will spread far beyond company software bills. Since software as a service supports nearly every part of the modern economy, businesses will have to absorb those higher ...
It’s Reparations Season Again, Again
There is, as they say, a lot here – including many points that illustrate serious problems with the overall idea of reparations. First, speaking as a businessman, it is unclear how many firms would actually be impacted by the bill. Roughly 99.9% of all America-based corporations were founded after 1865, ...
Taxpayer Dollars Should Not Fund Political Campaigns
Taxpayer dollars should be used for legitimate public responsibilities, such as maintaining roads, public safety, education, keeping communities clean, and paying down debt. Financing political campaigns should not become another government responsibility. Public campaign-financing programs use taxpayer dollars to help qualifying candidates run for office. Supporters argue that these programs ...
The affordability crisis is real. Sacramento just made it worse.
Californians are told almost daily that Sacramento understands the state’s affordability crisis. Lawmakers hold hearings about it. The gubernatorial candidates are campaigning on it. Gov. Gavin Newsom promises to fix it. Then, when budget season arrives, Sacramento does what it always does: make California more expensive. State lawmakers just approved ...
Newsom’s May budget portends future crises for local governments
Gov. Jerry Brown’s last budget spent $140.4 billion in the general fund for fiscal year 2018-19. Newsom’s May Revision to his 2026-27 budget exploded that to $246.6 billion. That’s a 76% increase in eight years at a time the state’s population didn’t grow and the Consumer Price Index rose just ...
Why Don’t We Find More Waste, Fraud and Abuse in California?
Shocking exposes of waste, fraud, and abuse in state government have dominated media headlines in recent weeks. Our friends Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp at the Manhattan Institute uncovered an unfinished wildlife “bridge to nowhere” in Agoura Hills, which has cost taxpayers over $100 million to date and counting. CBS ...