State Budget
Business & Economics
Arnold, for once, is right
From fiscal failure to green destructiveness to an utter lack of courage when it would have mattered most, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure in office has not been an exercise in analytic rigor. But on one proposal – the sale and leaseback of 11 state office buildings – Arnold is correct, ...
Commentary
Health reform’s war on the states
President Obama and Congress have succeeded in a massively disruptive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission, although most people don’t know it, is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage nationwide. Most people remain unaware that health insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax ...
Commentary
Health reform’s unexpected impact on Nevada’s budget
Senator Harry Reid and his D.C. colleagues have succeeded in a massively disruptive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage nationwide. Most people remain unaware that health-insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax revenues. On average, states ...
Business & Economics
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
Health Care
What the Congressional Budget Office Doesn’t Score: More Than $6.5 Billion Annual State Revenue at Risk from Federal Health “Reform”
Key Points State revenues in 2008 included an estimated $6.5 billion in revenues from premium taxes levied on health insurance. The federal takeover of health insurance will lure 15 million more people into Medicaid, and nine million into federally licensed “exchanges” from state-regulated health insurance. The “reform” will reduce states’ ...
Health Care
What CBO Doesn’t Score: Over $6.5 Billion Annual State Revenue At Risk
Now that Congress has reached the “end of the beginning” of the federal take-over of people’s access to medical services, please allow me to point out a cost that Congress has ignored. According the the CBO’s score of the Senate health “reform,” H.R. 3590, the bill would insure 31 million ...
Commentary
Federal health takeover threatens Hawaii budget
Hawaii’s Congressional delegation is committed to a massive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage. Most people remain unaware that health-insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax revenues. On average, states tax private health insurance 2 percent ...
Business & Economics
No roads to recovery in sight
With California teetering on insolvency, government union activists and liberal legislators are trying to whip the public into a “please tax us more” frenzy by scaring people about the consequences of spending cuts. At a union rally in Sacramento recently, one protester hoisted a “Raise Our Taxes” sign, which typifies ...
Business & Economics
The War Against Free Parking
From San Diego to Susanville, Californians know that a free parking space is hard to find. Such spaces may be even harder to find under SB 518, proposed by state senator Alan Lowenthal. Like much of what emerges from Sacramento, the measure is at least instructive. Free parking only encourages ...
Business & Economics
Repair California’s Fiscal Problems Ourselves – or the Capital Markets Will
Events in Washington, D.C. have overshadowed the ongoing fiscal calamity in Sacramento, where earlier this month state legislators basically rejected the governors reforms almost as soon as they were released. Despite the uncertainty shrouding the capital, the budget crisis will be solved one way or another. This certainty is ...
Arnold, for once, is right
From fiscal failure to green destructiveness to an utter lack of courage when it would have mattered most, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure in office has not been an exercise in analytic rigor. But on one proposal – the sale and leaseback of 11 state office buildings – Arnold is correct, ...
Health reform’s war on the states
President Obama and Congress have succeeded in a massively disruptive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission, although most people don’t know it, is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage nationwide. Most people remain unaware that health insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax ...
Health reform’s unexpected impact on Nevada’s budget
Senator Harry Reid and his D.C. colleagues have succeeded in a massively disruptive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage nationwide. Most people remain unaware that health-insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax revenues. On average, states ...
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
What the Congressional Budget Office Doesn’t Score: More Than $6.5 Billion Annual State Revenue at Risk from Federal Health “Reform”
Key Points State revenues in 2008 included an estimated $6.5 billion in revenues from premium taxes levied on health insurance. The federal takeover of health insurance will lure 15 million more people into Medicaid, and nine million into federally licensed “exchanges” from state-regulated health insurance. The “reform” will reduce states’ ...
What CBO Doesn’t Score: Over $6.5 Billion Annual State Revenue At Risk
Now that Congress has reached the “end of the beginning” of the federal take-over of people’s access to medical services, please allow me to point out a cost that Congress has ignored. According the the CBO’s score of the Senate health “reform,” H.R. 3590, the bill would insure 31 million ...
Federal health takeover threatens Hawaii budget
Hawaii’s Congressional delegation is committed to a massive reorganization of health insurance by the federal government. This mission is about to collide with state budgets, causing much collateral damage. Most people remain unaware that health-insurance premiums contribute to states’ tax revenues. On average, states tax private health insurance 2 percent ...
No roads to recovery in sight
With California teetering on insolvency, government union activists and liberal legislators are trying to whip the public into a “please tax us more” frenzy by scaring people about the consequences of spending cuts. At a union rally in Sacramento recently, one protester hoisted a “Raise Our Taxes” sign, which typifies ...
The War Against Free Parking
From San Diego to Susanville, Californians know that a free parking space is hard to find. Such spaces may be even harder to find under SB 518, proposed by state senator Alan Lowenthal. Like much of what emerges from Sacramento, the measure is at least instructive. Free parking only encourages ...
Repair California’s Fiscal Problems Ourselves – or the Capital Markets Will
Events in Washington, D.C. have overshadowed the ongoing fiscal calamity in Sacramento, where earlier this month state legislators basically rejected the governors reforms almost as soon as they were released. Despite the uncertainty shrouding the capital, the budget crisis will be solved one way or another. This certainty is ...
