State Budget
Business & Economics
Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
Business & Economics
A Strike Against Labor
If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
Commentary
Patients need control to fix state’s health care system
To help fix Rhode Island’s budget mess, Gov. Don Carcieri has proposed an overhaul of the state Medicaid program. Such a move is certainly welcome. But Carcieri’s Medicaid overhaul won’t be able to cut costs unless policymakers relax their regulatory stranglehold on private insurance and address the state’s miserable medical ...
Commentary
A Healthcare Fix for the Green Mountain State
As Vermont grapples with a projected $32-million budget shortfall, Gov. James Douglas and state lawmakers have been forced to consider cuts in several government health programs. Such cuts are critical, given that Vermont spends more per capita on health care than almost any other state. But yet another round of ...
Business & Economics
My View: State budget mess: We can learn from Canada
California’s new budget deal is a short-term fix that leaves the Golden State without a long-term solution to its financial woes. More often than not, lessons from our neighbors to the north concern what not to do. However, in the case of budgets, there is much to gain by replicating ...
Commentary
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...
Commentary
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
Commentary
Why is The Budget Always Late?
Systemic Problems Cause Budget Woes Longtime California residents may have noticed a trend in state politics: The California State Budget is almost never passed by the constitutionally-mandated deadline, July 1. This year is no different. In fact, the state budget hasn’t been passed on time for three years, and the ...
Commentary
Remedial education a big cost for state’s colleges
Remedial education classes for students enrolling in the state’s public colleges and universities are costing California as much as $14 billion a year, according to a report from the Pacific Research Institute. That figure was reached after the authors estimated several costs, including the $274 million the colleges spend providing ...
Commentary
Remedial education costs billions
The poor performance of California’s public schools costs Californians up to $14 billion in remedial education programs, rivaling the state’s current budget deficit of $15 billion. “The High Price of Failure in California: How Inadequate Education Costs Schools, Students, and Society,” released Tuesday by the Pacific Research Institute, calculates the ...
Sacramento Sell-Out: Even the Laws Have a Price
Only two weeks after lawmakers in Sacramento passed a budget, the state is already in the red. As Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature debate more spending cuts and accounting tricks, another solution may be right in front of them: more laws. In California, government owns the laws and forces people ...
A Strike Against Labor
If one were looking to make a statement about fiscal prudence in the $3.3 billion budget for the University of California system, wiping out a single $5.4 million research program probably wouldn’t be how you’d do it. Which suggests that, despite his remarks to the contrary, there was probably another ...
Patients need control to fix state’s health care system
To help fix Rhode Island’s budget mess, Gov. Don Carcieri has proposed an overhaul of the state Medicaid program. Such a move is certainly welcome. But Carcieri’s Medicaid overhaul won’t be able to cut costs unless policymakers relax their regulatory stranglehold on private insurance and address the state’s miserable medical ...
A Healthcare Fix for the Green Mountain State
As Vermont grapples with a projected $32-million budget shortfall, Gov. James Douglas and state lawmakers have been forced to consider cuts in several government health programs. Such cuts are critical, given that Vermont spends more per capita on health care than almost any other state. But yet another round of ...
My View: State budget mess: We can learn from Canada
California’s new budget deal is a short-term fix that leaves the Golden State without a long-term solution to its financial woes. More often than not, lessons from our neighbors to the north concern what not to do. However, in the case of budgets, there is much to gain by replicating ...
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
Why is The Budget Always Late?
Systemic Problems Cause Budget Woes Longtime California residents may have noticed a trend in state politics: The California State Budget is almost never passed by the constitutionally-mandated deadline, July 1. This year is no different. In fact, the state budget hasn’t been passed on time for three years, and the ...
Remedial education a big cost for state’s colleges
Remedial education classes for students enrolling in the state’s public colleges and universities are costing California as much as $14 billion a year, according to a report from the Pacific Research Institute. That figure was reached after the authors estimated several costs, including the $274 million the colleges spend providing ...
Remedial education costs billions
The poor performance of California’s public schools costs Californians up to $14 billion in remedial education programs, rivaling the state’s current budget deficit of $15 billion. “The High Price of Failure in California: How Inadequate Education Costs Schools, Students, and Society,” released Tuesday by the Pacific Research Institute, calculates the ...
