Water
Blog
Will Funding for New Water Storage Be Hijacked at the Last Minute?
The effort to build more water storage in California just hit another setback. The bureaucrats at the California Water Commission just released their scorecards for 11 proposed water projects from around the state. Their scorecard – which supposedly ranks their “public benefit” to California taxpayers – ranked two critical statewide ...
Blog
Do We Really Need to Legislate Plastic Straws?
Ian Calderon, the Assembly’s Democratic majority leader, wants to criminalize the act of providing unrequested free plastic straws at sit-down restaurants. Assembly Bill 1884 threatens waiters who give customers straws they didn’t ask for with as many as six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Lawmakers ...
Blog
Nothing Is Certain but Death, Taxes . . . and Silly Bills
The famous quote goes that there is nothing certain in life but death and taxes. When talking about your California Legislature, I’d add a third item to the list – there’s nothing certain in life but death, taxes, and silly bills. In my past life working at the Capitol, we’d ...
Blog
Are Trailers the Solution to LA’s Homeless Problem?
A dashcam video of downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Day 2017 revealed the devastating reality of the city’s homelessness problem. The video, shot in the city’s Skid Row district, shows dozens of tents, makeshift shelters, and people walking aimlessly along streets littered with trash. The video looked like it was ...
California
Water from the Sands
There’s no thirstier state than California. Its history of water wars, droughts—both natural and manmade—and, according to some, outright theft of water from the Owens Valley about four hours north of Los Angeles, has inspired legend, myth, and movies. But even after roughly a century of water flowing into an otherwise ...
California
Kerry Jackson Cited in Mises Wire: Why California Has the Nation’s Worst Poverty Rate
Earlier this week, the LA Times reminded its readers that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. Specifically, when using the Census Bureau’s most recent” Supplemental Poverty Measure” (SPM), California clocks in with a poverty rate of 20 percent, which places it as worst in the nation. To be sure, California ...
Blog
Infrastructure Should Be Budget Priority – Here’s 2 Smart Ways to Make It So
Repairing California’s crumbling roads and highways, and investing in our other infrastructure needs should be at the top of the agenda in Sacramento. Often, it falls victim to other budget priorities. There’s no question that setting aside a secure and stable annual funding stream to fix our roads, bridges, and ...
Blog
Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?
On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
Blog
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
California
CAPITAL IDEAS: Court Should Pave Way for State to Plan for Next Drought
Download the PDF Things became so heated during the state’s painful six-year man-made drought that government agencies asked some Californians to snitch on neighbors they thought used too much water. Things are calmer now, but just as surely as clear skies follow rain, there’ll be another drought. It would be ...
Will Funding for New Water Storage Be Hijacked at the Last Minute?
The effort to build more water storage in California just hit another setback. The bureaucrats at the California Water Commission just released their scorecards for 11 proposed water projects from around the state. Their scorecard – which supposedly ranks their “public benefit” to California taxpayers – ranked two critical statewide ...
Do We Really Need to Legislate Plastic Straws?
Ian Calderon, the Assembly’s Democratic majority leader, wants to criminalize the act of providing unrequested free plastic straws at sit-down restaurants. Assembly Bill 1884 threatens waiters who give customers straws they didn’t ask for with as many as six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Lawmakers ...
Nothing Is Certain but Death, Taxes . . . and Silly Bills
The famous quote goes that there is nothing certain in life but death and taxes. When talking about your California Legislature, I’d add a third item to the list – there’s nothing certain in life but death, taxes, and silly bills. In my past life working at the Capitol, we’d ...
Are Trailers the Solution to LA’s Homeless Problem?
A dashcam video of downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Day 2017 revealed the devastating reality of the city’s homelessness problem. The video, shot in the city’s Skid Row district, shows dozens of tents, makeshift shelters, and people walking aimlessly along streets littered with trash. The video looked like it was ...
Water from the Sands
There’s no thirstier state than California. Its history of water wars, droughts—both natural and manmade—and, according to some, outright theft of water from the Owens Valley about four hours north of Los Angeles, has inspired legend, myth, and movies. But even after roughly a century of water flowing into an otherwise ...
Kerry Jackson Cited in Mises Wire: Why California Has the Nation’s Worst Poverty Rate
Earlier this week, the LA Times reminded its readers that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. Specifically, when using the Census Bureau’s most recent” Supplemental Poverty Measure” (SPM), California clocks in with a poverty rate of 20 percent, which places it as worst in the nation. To be sure, California ...
Infrastructure Should Be Budget Priority – Here’s 2 Smart Ways to Make It So
Repairing California’s crumbling roads and highways, and investing in our other infrastructure needs should be at the top of the agenda in Sacramento. Often, it falls victim to other budget priorities. There’s no question that setting aside a secure and stable annual funding stream to fix our roads, bridges, and ...
Higher Prices During Crises – Is It Really Price Gouging?
On New Year’s Day, months after wildfires had started their deadly march through California, the Los Angeles Times published an article headlined “After the flames, allegations of rent-gouging fly in devastated wine country communities.” It did not include a single defense of higher prices, which indicates bias, or economic ignorance ...
More Red, White … or Blue
In 2017, PRI launched its first podcast, and because we are headquartered near Wine Country, and because no other think tank does wine better than PRI (okay, I may be biased), we made it our tradition to ask each guest for a wine or cocktail recommendation at the end of ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Court Should Pave Way for State to Plan for Next Drought
Download the PDF Things became so heated during the state’s painful six-year man-made drought that government agencies asked some Californians to snitch on neighbors they thought used too much water. Things are calmer now, but just as surely as clear skies follow rain, there’ll be another drought. It would be ...
