Water
Blog
Latest Attack on “Big Gulps” Would Hurt Poor, Infringe Upon our Freedom
With great fanfare, a group of Democratic lawmakers announced last week their latest effort targeting people who commit the worst social faux pas imaginable – drinking a Big Gulp! Led by Bay Area Democrat Assemblyman Rob Bonta, lawmakers introduced legislation attacking the scourge of so-called “big soda”, including bills limiting ...
Agriculture
Do organic farms really produce ‘chemical free, healthier food’?
In “The Wealth of Nations,” the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
Blog
Will Lawmakers Ever Be Held to Account For Their Legislative Malpractice?
California continues to rank last, or so near the bottom that it makes no difference, in quality-of-life lists, and it’s not quite clear if the news has made it to Sacramento yet. Because there are no efforts being made to turn things around. Instead, it seems the majority of lawmakers ...
Commentary
Do We Still Need the EPA?
Many large bureaucratic organizations are inefficient, but the EPA is in a class by itself. The EPA is incompetent and wasteful, and it often does more harm than good. It’s time for it to go. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulations impose huge costs—about $350 billion annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise ...
California
How Gavin Newsom Could Earn the Title of Best Governor in California History
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown was the best governor California has ever had, many would argue. Free-market economist Art Laffer says Pat’s son Jerry was “one of the best.” Still others would name Earl Warren as the greatest. New Gov. Gavin Newsom would surpass them all, though, if he would complete ...
Commentary
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Agriculture
The Shape of Water Tax
California’s rural residents and coastal elites have at least one thing in common: they’re both drinking bottled water. A McClatchy analysis of data compiled from the State Water Resource Control Board estimates that 360,000 Californians – mostly in inland areas — are served water from unsafe water systems. These include ...
Blog
Newsom’s Budget Plan Shows You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget plan proves the old English proverb is wrong. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, especially when the state has a $21.4 billion budget surplus. Continuing with the clichés – state budgets are usually feast or famine. Over the years, governors ...
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
California
California’s energy mandates amount to state-legislated energy poverty
Every Californian wants to conserve energy and see cleaner air and water in the Golden State. But in their quest to safeguard the state’s environment for future generations, Sacramento policymakers have put in place an overzealous regulatory scheme that negatively impacts poor and minority communities. The new Pacific Research Institute ...
Latest Attack on “Big Gulps” Would Hurt Poor, Infringe Upon our Freedom
With great fanfare, a group of Democratic lawmakers announced last week their latest effort targeting people who commit the worst social faux pas imaginable – drinking a Big Gulp! Led by Bay Area Democrat Assemblyman Rob Bonta, lawmakers introduced legislation attacking the scourge of so-called “big soda”, including bills limiting ...
Do organic farms really produce ‘chemical free, healthier food’?
In “The Wealth of Nations,” the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
Will Lawmakers Ever Be Held to Account For Their Legislative Malpractice?
California continues to rank last, or so near the bottom that it makes no difference, in quality-of-life lists, and it’s not quite clear if the news has made it to Sacramento yet. Because there are no efforts being made to turn things around. Instead, it seems the majority of lawmakers ...
Do We Still Need the EPA?
Many large bureaucratic organizations are inefficient, but the EPA is in a class by itself. The EPA is incompetent and wasteful, and it often does more harm than good. It’s time for it to go. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulations impose huge costs—about $350 billion annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise ...
How Gavin Newsom Could Earn the Title of Best Governor in California History
Edmund G. “Pat” Brown was the best governor California has ever had, many would argue. Free-market economist Art Laffer says Pat’s son Jerry was “one of the best.” Still others would name Earl Warren as the greatest. New Gov. Gavin Newsom would surpass them all, though, if he would complete ...
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
The Shape of Water Tax
California’s rural residents and coastal elites have at least one thing in common: they’re both drinking bottled water. A McClatchy analysis of data compiled from the State Water Resource Control Board estimates that 360,000 Californians – mostly in inland areas — are served water from unsafe water systems. These include ...
Newsom’s Budget Plan Shows You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget plan proves the old English proverb is wrong. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too, especially when the state has a $21.4 billion budget surplus. Continuing with the clichés – state budgets are usually feast or famine. Over the years, governors ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
California’s energy mandates amount to state-legislated energy poverty
Every Californian wants to conserve energy and see cleaner air and water in the Golden State. But in their quest to safeguard the state’s environment for future generations, Sacramento policymakers have put in place an overzealous regulatory scheme that negatively impacts poor and minority communities. The new Pacific Research Institute ...
