Environment
Commentary
Single-Payer Would Sicken, Not Cure, Massachusetts
Progressives in Massachusetts believe they’ve taken the first step toward a government-run, single-payer health care, thanks to a bill that passed the state Senate in November. The measure would, among other things, commission a study to analyze the cost of a statewide single-payer system. If the tab is less expensive ...
Blog
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
California
Fantasy Train
When the father of the current governor of California was governor, he was a driving force behind the highway building boom that gilded the already Golden State. Aggressive road construction and free-flowing water were Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Sr.’s lasting legacies. By contrast, Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. is ...
Agriculture
Cedar Point Nursery Case Could End Trespassing on Private Land
Unions have long had government-protected privileges that no other institution or organization has. They hold monopolies as exclusive collective bargaining units; can collect dues before paychecks are even issued (government is the only other institution that can withhold earnings); and have forced unionization on, and collected dues from, workers who ...
Business & Economics
Skimming Hurts California’s Most Vulnerable
Skimming is not a union practice that went out when the closing credits for “On The Waterfront” first rolled in 1954. It’s still alive today. And it’s hurting some of California’s most vulnerable residents, while at the same time stuffing the treasury of politically powerful unions and financially exploiting those ...
Blog
A Novel Way to Educate Californians About State Gas Tax Increase
Everyone who drives in California suspects that fuel prices here are painfully high. And their suspicions are well-founded. Only Hawaii has more expensive gasoline. Or did. Thanks to the 12-cents-a-gallon tax hike on gasoline that went into effect on Nov. 1, California now has the highest average price in the ...
Blog
Gas and Diesel Fuel Tax Hikes Begin Today
Californians who didn’t fill up on Tuesday are probably kicking themselves today. Tax hikes on gasoline and diesel fuel went into effect, sending prices significantly higher. The levy on a gallon of gasoline spiked 12 cents, from 18 cents to 30, while diesel jumped from 16 cents a gallon to ...
Agriculture
Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?
This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Business & Economics
Killing the gasoline-powered car in California? That’s what one legislator wants by 2040
A clean energy advocate in the California Legislature wants internal combustion vehicles to sputter out of existence on the state’s roads and highways. “The cars that we drive today are based on technology that’s 100 years old,” said Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. “It’s almost like we’re doing addition ...
Blog
Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires
A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County. Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
Single-Payer Would Sicken, Not Cure, Massachusetts
Progressives in Massachusetts believe they’ve taken the first step toward a government-run, single-payer health care, thanks to a bill that passed the state Senate in November. The measure would, among other things, commission a study to analyze the cost of a statewide single-payer system. If the tab is less expensive ...
Political Investment Decisions Hurt Taxpayers, State Retirees
The most recent estimate says that California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public employee pension fund in the nation with about 1.8 million beneficiaries, has an unfunded liability of roughly $138 billion with total obligations of around $435 billion. While part of that gap is due to the government ...
Fantasy Train
When the father of the current governor of California was governor, he was a driving force behind the highway building boom that gilded the already Golden State. Aggressive road construction and free-flowing water were Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Sr.’s lasting legacies. By contrast, Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. is ...
Cedar Point Nursery Case Could End Trespassing on Private Land
Unions have long had government-protected privileges that no other institution or organization has. They hold monopolies as exclusive collective bargaining units; can collect dues before paychecks are even issued (government is the only other institution that can withhold earnings); and have forced unionization on, and collected dues from, workers who ...
Skimming Hurts California’s Most Vulnerable
Skimming is not a union practice that went out when the closing credits for “On The Waterfront” first rolled in 1954. It’s still alive today. And it’s hurting some of California’s most vulnerable residents, while at the same time stuffing the treasury of politically powerful unions and financially exploiting those ...
A Novel Way to Educate Californians About State Gas Tax Increase
Everyone who drives in California suspects that fuel prices here are painfully high. And their suspicions are well-founded. Only Hawaii has more expensive gasoline. Or did. Thanks to the 12-cents-a-gallon tax hike on gasoline that went into effect on Nov. 1, California now has the highest average price in the ...
Gas and Diesel Fuel Tax Hikes Begin Today
Californians who didn’t fill up on Tuesday are probably kicking themselves today. Tax hikes on gasoline and diesel fuel went into effect, sending prices significantly higher. The levy on a gallon of gasoline spiked 12 cents, from 18 cents to 30, while diesel jumped from 16 cents a gallon to ...
Whatever Happened to Spending Cuts?
This week, Republicans are preparing to unveil the details of a tax reform proposal that would deliver tax relief to individuals and businesses, as well as simplify the tax filing process. How to “pay for” the tax cuts will be the big debate in the weeks and months ahead. Some ...
Killing the gasoline-powered car in California? That’s what one legislator wants by 2040
A clean energy advocate in the California Legislature wants internal combustion vehicles to sputter out of existence on the state’s roads and highways. “The cars that we drive today are based on technology that’s 100 years old,” said Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. “It’s almost like we’re doing addition ...
Housing shortage goes from dire to desperate after wildfires
A few months ago, Tim Anaya and I interviewed for PRI’s podcast Farhad Zabihi, a math professor at the College of Marin, who had been house hunting for nearly a year in Marin County. Marin is just south of Napa and Sonoma — two of the hardest hit counties in ...
