State Budget
Blog
New Survey Results Should Give Lawmakers Pause Before Embracing Single-Payer Health Care
One issue that was pushed on the backburner in this year’s very eventful legislative session was single-payer health care. Surprisingly, even though the Senate actually passed a single payer bill (SB 562) last session, a single-payer bill wasn’t even introduced this legislative session. Now as our attention turns to the ...
Blog
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Health Care
Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story
Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
Blog
Don’t Take All That Talk About Economic Growth or a Recession to the Bank (Yet)
It seems you can’t scroll through your social media feed or morning newsletter without reading commentary about inverted yield curve and recession. A 2020 economic recession is the talk of political pundits, financial talking heads, and presidential hopefuls, but the verdict is out on whether the longest sustained economic growth ...
Blog
Split-Roll Forces Challenge Prop 13: How Will Californians React?
Supporters behind the split roll ballot measure that would remove Proposition 13’s tax protection for commercial properties had it been approved are apparently junking the initiative in favor of what they believe will be a “new and improved” plan. “They claim they are strengthening the measure to help it pass,” ...
Business & Economics
Sacramento, not D.C., is responsible for California’s unaffordable tax burden
Last fall, Democratic congressional candidates successfully painted the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a tax increase on hard working Californians to pick-up even more congressional seats. Congress, they charged, raised the tax burden of many Californians by, among other things, capping the State and Local Tax, or ...
Blog
CalPERS & CalSTRS Report Lower Than Expected Returns – Is ESG One Reason Why?
CalPERS and CalSTRS – the two largest public employee pension funds in both California and the nation –just announced their annual investment returns for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Once again, it’s not good news for California taxpayers. Both funds reported that their respective net return of investments came in under ...
Blog
Teacher Unions Veer Far Left
Recently, The Washington Times published an op-ed that I authored where I describe how the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, to use the newspaper’s headline, “Careen Left.” But the reality is that the political landscape and momentum of teacher unions across the country is actually trending ...
Blog
Newsom’s Homeless Task Force Shuts Out Private Charities, Non-Profits
California’s homeless crisis continues to wage out of control on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and communities across the state. State and local politicians have given lots of lip service about “taking action” to solve the problem. Not surprisingly, their vision for addressing the problem only involves ...
Blog
California’s Business Climate Continues to Receive Poor Scores
California has lived on the trope of being the hub of technology startups and innovation for decades. California’s economic success has long been touted and celebrated, none more so than the technology gold rush in the Bay Area. But despite California’s seemingly never-ending economic growth, the Golden State is now ...
New Survey Results Should Give Lawmakers Pause Before Embracing Single-Payer Health Care
One issue that was pushed on the backburner in this year’s very eventful legislative session was single-payer health care. Surprisingly, even though the Senate actually passed a single payer bill (SB 562) last session, a single-payer bill wasn’t even introduced this legislative session. Now as our attention turns to the ...
California State Senate Hands Newsom Decade-old Political Lightning Rod in Redevelopment Agencies
Since 2011, the California State Legislature has been itching to bring back redevelopment agencies. Governor Jerry Brown’s nixing of the 70-year-old program scored the California state budget several billion dollars during the Great Recession in 2011. At the time of their elimination, redevelopment agencies collected around 12 percent of all ...
Sally C. Pipes Comments on CA Medi-Cal expansion in CALmatters story
Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost. The bill, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Maria Elena ...
Don’t Take All That Talk About Economic Growth or a Recession to the Bank (Yet)
It seems you can’t scroll through your social media feed or morning newsletter without reading commentary about inverted yield curve and recession. A 2020 economic recession is the talk of political pundits, financial talking heads, and presidential hopefuls, but the verdict is out on whether the longest sustained economic growth ...
Split-Roll Forces Challenge Prop 13: How Will Californians React?
Supporters behind the split roll ballot measure that would remove Proposition 13’s tax protection for commercial properties had it been approved are apparently junking the initiative in favor of what they believe will be a “new and improved” plan. “They claim they are strengthening the measure to help it pass,” ...
Sacramento, not D.C., is responsible for California’s unaffordable tax burden
Last fall, Democratic congressional candidates successfully painted the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a tax increase on hard working Californians to pick-up even more congressional seats. Congress, they charged, raised the tax burden of many Californians by, among other things, capping the State and Local Tax, or ...
CalPERS & CalSTRS Report Lower Than Expected Returns – Is ESG One Reason Why?
CalPERS and CalSTRS – the two largest public employee pension funds in both California and the nation –just announced their annual investment returns for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Once again, it’s not good news for California taxpayers. Both funds reported that their respective net return of investments came in under ...
Teacher Unions Veer Far Left
Recently, The Washington Times published an op-ed that I authored where I describe how the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, to use the newspaper’s headline, “Careen Left.” But the reality is that the political landscape and momentum of teacher unions across the country is actually trending ...
Newsom’s Homeless Task Force Shuts Out Private Charities, Non-Profits
California’s homeless crisis continues to wage out of control on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and communities across the state. State and local politicians have given lots of lip service about “taking action” to solve the problem. Not surprisingly, their vision for addressing the problem only involves ...
California’s Business Climate Continues to Receive Poor Scores
California has lived on the trope of being the hub of technology startups and innovation for decades. California’s economic success has long been touted and celebrated, none more so than the technology gold rush in the Bay Area. But despite California’s seemingly never-ending economic growth, the Golden State is now ...
