Studies
Business & Economics
Recession and Recovery in California
Last month Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Project, held forth at the University of California Sacramento Center on key themes involving recession and recovery. Nickelsburg agrees that we are in a “deep recession,” in contrast to those of 2001 and 1990, which were “very mild recessions.” He ...
Business & Economics
Bringing More Sunshine to California
To counter the powerful incentives facing elected and appointed public-sector officials and government employees to conceal information and operations, “sunshine laws” have been enacted to open the doors of government so the public can view the debates, decisions, and actions of government and the outcomes of government policies. The laws ...
Business & Economics
National Sunshine Week: New Report Shows How to Bring More Open Government to California
Study looks at the history, strengths, and weaknesses of open-government laws and practices in California and recommends more than two dozen reforms based on a comparative assessment of California’s laws and practices with those in the other 49 states. Sacramento—California’s open-government laws are weak in many areas and in need ...
Business & Economics
Bye-Bye Secret Ballot?
State Democrats are again trying to eliminate the secret-ballot vote for union certification. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg describes his latest measure as the alternative electoral method for choosing collective bargaining representatives. It is that, and a lot more. Under card check, instead of voting for or against union ...
Health Care
Replacing Employer-Monopoly Health Benefits: Tax Deduction or Tax Credit?
Key Points The government forces most Americans to take health benefits chosen by HR managers who work for their employers. This leads to fragmentation, frustration and bureaucracy. Giving individuals ownership of their health dollars relies on reforming the federal tax code to give the tax benefits of health insurance to ...
Health Care
Has the Fight Against Obamacare Morphed into a Fight Against Government-Run Health Care?
The previous congressional majority managed to jam Obamacare down the throats of an increasingly resistant nation. Now the fight against Obamacare may have delivered a shock to the system that goes beyond the battle cry of repeal and replace. Serious health care reformers, however, still face some unpleasant realities. Public-opinion ...
Business & Economics
Analyze This: Unelected Regulatory Zealots Don’t Need More Power
California’s Legislative Analyst (LAO) is a nonpartisan body “providing fiscal and policy advice to the Legislature for more than 70 years,” according to its website. Some of its recent advice is seriously misguided, such as a proposal to expand the power of an unelected body, headed by regulatory zealots, that ...
Business & Economics
Redevelopment is Redistribution
Nine of Californias big-city mayors met recently with Gov. Jerry Brown in an attempt to talk him out of eliminating redevelopment agencies (RDAs) as part of his budget-balancing proposal. The mayors support keeping RDAs intact because they believe it is through redevelopment that cities create jobs. Without redevelopment agencies, several ...
Health Care
There Is No Real Difference Between an “Individual Mandate” to Buy Health Insurance and the Health Benefits We Have Today
Key Points Opponents of the federal government takeover of peoples access to health care have focused on the unconstitutionality of the so-called individual mandate. Two federal judges have recently determined that Obamacares mandate violates the U.S. Constitution, which rightly encourages hope that the Supreme Court will invalidate Obamacare. Economically, the ...
Commentary
Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile
San Francisco—Many policies aiming to “green” the American car culture may do just the opposite, according to a new study from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free market think tank. Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile, by Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., PRI ...
Recession and Recovery in California
Last month Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Project, held forth at the University of California Sacramento Center on key themes involving recession and recovery. Nickelsburg agrees that we are in a “deep recession,” in contrast to those of 2001 and 1990, which were “very mild recessions.” He ...
Bringing More Sunshine to California
To counter the powerful incentives facing elected and appointed public-sector officials and government employees to conceal information and operations, “sunshine laws” have been enacted to open the doors of government so the public can view the debates, decisions, and actions of government and the outcomes of government policies. The laws ...
National Sunshine Week: New Report Shows How to Bring More Open Government to California
Study looks at the history, strengths, and weaknesses of open-government laws and practices in California and recommends more than two dozen reforms based on a comparative assessment of California’s laws and practices with those in the other 49 states. Sacramento—California’s open-government laws are weak in many areas and in need ...
Bye-Bye Secret Ballot?
State Democrats are again trying to eliminate the secret-ballot vote for union certification. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg describes his latest measure as the alternative electoral method for choosing collective bargaining representatives. It is that, and a lot more. Under card check, instead of voting for or against union ...
Replacing Employer-Monopoly Health Benefits: Tax Deduction or Tax Credit?
Key Points The government forces most Americans to take health benefits chosen by HR managers who work for their employers. This leads to fragmentation, frustration and bureaucracy. Giving individuals ownership of their health dollars relies on reforming the federal tax code to give the tax benefits of health insurance to ...
Has the Fight Against Obamacare Morphed into a Fight Against Government-Run Health Care?
The previous congressional majority managed to jam Obamacare down the throats of an increasingly resistant nation. Now the fight against Obamacare may have delivered a shock to the system that goes beyond the battle cry of repeal and replace. Serious health care reformers, however, still face some unpleasant realities. Public-opinion ...
Analyze This: Unelected Regulatory Zealots Don’t Need More Power
California’s Legislative Analyst (LAO) is a nonpartisan body “providing fiscal and policy advice to the Legislature for more than 70 years,” according to its website. Some of its recent advice is seriously misguided, such as a proposal to expand the power of an unelected body, headed by regulatory zealots, that ...
Redevelopment is Redistribution
Nine of Californias big-city mayors met recently with Gov. Jerry Brown in an attempt to talk him out of eliminating redevelopment agencies (RDAs) as part of his budget-balancing proposal. The mayors support keeping RDAs intact because they believe it is through redevelopment that cities create jobs. Without redevelopment agencies, several ...
There Is No Real Difference Between an “Individual Mandate” to Buy Health Insurance and the Health Benefits We Have Today
Key Points Opponents of the federal government takeover of peoples access to health care have focused on the unconstitutionality of the so-called individual mandate. Two federal judges have recently determined that Obamacares mandate violates the U.S. Constitution, which rightly encourages hope that the Supreme Court will invalidate Obamacare. Economically, the ...
Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile
San Francisco—Many policies aiming to “green” the American car culture may do just the opposite, according to a new study from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free market think tank. Car-tastrophe: How federal policy can help, not hinder, the greening of the automobile, by Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., PRI ...
