State Budget
Business & Economics
Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute
SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
Business & Economics
An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform
The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
Business & Economics
Nanny Government Plays from the Rough
As readers of the Contrarian know from the recent piece on Billie Jean King, my game is tennis. I’m not much of a golfer, but I can recognize a wild tee shot that lands deep in the rough. That is especially true when the shot comes from a politically correct ...
Commentary
W. Va. May Hike Cigarette Tax to Expand Medicaid
West Virginia legislators are considering a bill to fund an expansion of the state Medicaid program through an increase in the cigarette tax. The proposal would hike the tax 118 percent, from 55 cents to $1.20 per pack. The proposal comes on the heels of the recently passed increase in ...
Commentary
School districts illegally stockpiled millions of dollars
Sonoran Alliance (AZ), May 1, 2009 (STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – As the rest of the state struggles with devastating economic conditions with cuts, layoffs and the associated financial and emotional trauma, schools have been illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars. “I am outraged at members of the education community ...
Business & Economics
Prop. 1A’s passage would open doors to more taxation
In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian gave California taxpayers a $1.1 billion rebate. Due to the Gann spending limit enacted in 1979, named after Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann, the state had a budget surplus, making the rebate mandatory. Subsequent ballot measures, however, rendered the limit meaningless. Now we are being ...
Commentary
Energy freedom is crux of solution to economic woes
Washington. The maxim states that the simplest solution is usually the correct one. And America’s financial crisis is no exception to the rule. Overwhelmed by bailout plans and other convoluted proposals, many of our nation’s leaders are missing the obvious answer to our economic woes: energy freedom. For that reason, ...
Business & Economics
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
Environment
Cap and Trade in the Western States
In a review of the claims made by the Western Climate Initiative, the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston identified several flaws made by the seven-state consortium, calling into question claimed cost savings ranging between $11.4 billion and $23.5 billion. These flaws render WCI’s projections useless in determining ...
Climate Change
CA Nightmare: Worsening State’s Fiscal Crisis Through Bad Climate Policy
I have spent my entire 35 year professional life developing and implementing energy policies vital to our state. So it pains me to now see California taking an unfortunate misstep: embracing participation in the Western Climate Initiative. WCI, developed by seven U.S. states (California is joined by Oregon, Washington, Utah, ...
Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute
SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform
The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
Nanny Government Plays from the Rough
As readers of the Contrarian know from the recent piece on Billie Jean King, my game is tennis. I’m not much of a golfer, but I can recognize a wild tee shot that lands deep in the rough. That is especially true when the shot comes from a politically correct ...
W. Va. May Hike Cigarette Tax to Expand Medicaid
West Virginia legislators are considering a bill to fund an expansion of the state Medicaid program through an increase in the cigarette tax. The proposal would hike the tax 118 percent, from 55 cents to $1.20 per pack. The proposal comes on the heels of the recently passed increase in ...
School districts illegally stockpiled millions of dollars
Sonoran Alliance (AZ), May 1, 2009 (STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – As the rest of the state struggles with devastating economic conditions with cuts, layoffs and the associated financial and emotional trauma, schools have been illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars. “I am outraged at members of the education community ...
Prop. 1A’s passage would open doors to more taxation
In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian gave California taxpayers a $1.1 billion rebate. Due to the Gann spending limit enacted in 1979, named after Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann, the state had a budget surplus, making the rebate mandatory. Subsequent ballot measures, however, rendered the limit meaningless. Now we are being ...
Energy freedom is crux of solution to economic woes
Washington. The maxim states that the simplest solution is usually the correct one. And America’s financial crisis is no exception to the rule. Overwhelmed by bailout plans and other convoluted proposals, many of our nation’s leaders are missing the obvious answer to our economic woes: energy freedom. For that reason, ...
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
Cap and Trade in the Western States
In a review of the claims made by the Western Climate Initiative, the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston identified several flaws made by the seven-state consortium, calling into question claimed cost savings ranging between $11.4 billion and $23.5 billion. These flaws render WCI’s projections useless in determining ...
CA Nightmare: Worsening State’s Fiscal Crisis Through Bad Climate Policy
I have spent my entire 35 year professional life developing and implementing energy policies vital to our state. So it pains me to now see California taking an unfortunate misstep: embracing participation in the Western Climate Initiative. WCI, developed by seven U.S. states (California is joined by Oregon, Washington, Utah, ...
