State Budget
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 ...
Commentary
The March of the Senate Democrats
As one early morning report put it, the Senate was marching to passage on Christmas Eve of its version of health overhaul. What does this Democrats-only bill do? What are the consequences? As it stands today, the health overhaul bill is a hoax. We all may know some part of ...
Business & Economics
Calif. Gov. Calls For More Federal Aid As States Bleed Red
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should have said “I’ll be back” when the state got billions of dollars from the federal government last year. Because on Wednesday, he demanded another handout. In his state of the state speech, Schwarzenegger acknowledged California faces deep budget woes and called for federal assistance. He ...
Business & Economics
Plunder: New Book Exposes Power of Unions
Last month, the Legislative Analyst Office predicted a budget shortfall for Californias next fiscal year so large it shocked even seasoned observers. The projected $20 billion shortfall is larger than the entire state budgets of all but a handful of other states. The LAO also excoriated the continued use of ...
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 ...
The March of the Senate Democrats
As one early morning report put it, the Senate was marching to passage on Christmas Eve of its version of health overhaul. What does this Democrats-only bill do? What are the consequences? As it stands today, the health overhaul bill is a hoax. We all may know some part of ...
Calif. Gov. Calls For More Federal Aid As States Bleed Red
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should have said “I’ll be back” when the state got billions of dollars from the federal government last year. Because on Wednesday, he demanded another handout. In his state of the state speech, Schwarzenegger acknowledged California faces deep budget woes and called for federal assistance. He ...
Plunder: New Book Exposes Power of Unions
Last month, the Legislative Analyst Office predicted a budget shortfall for Californias next fiscal year so large it shocked even seasoned observers. The projected $20 billion shortfall is larger than the entire state budgets of all but a handful of other states. The LAO also excoriated the continued use of ...
