Infrastructure
Blog
Is Push to Lower Local Tax Threshold About Funding Vital Projects or Funding Public Pensions?
Yesterday, my colleague Rowena Itchon wrote about Sacramento’s “taxfest” – the various proposals introduced this year to raise taxes on hard-working Californians. That’s only part of the story. A group of lawmakers wants to make it easier to raise local taxes. Thanks to Proposition 13, a two-thirds vote of the ...
Agriculture
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
California
Pacific Research Institute Responds to Cal Fire Ruling: Supreme Court Decision is ‘Victory for Taxpayers’
SAN FRANCISCO – California-based non-partisan think tank Pacific Research Institute today applauded the California Supreme Court’s decision in a landmark case on public employee pension reform, Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS and the State of California. PRI submitted an amicus brief in the case, arguing that a favorable ruling ...
Blog
Round 1: Old Left vs. Far Left
They say that age and cunning always beats youth and exuberance. But when it comes to the latest dust-up between the Left’s old guard and the new Far Left, how it all plays out in the end isn’t so clear. The Left’s old guard has reacted with smug disdain to ...
Business & Economics
Facing $22 Trillion National Debt, New PRI Report Shows How “15 Percent Solution” Can Cut Debt, Grow Economy
On the heels of the news that the national debt has surpassed $22 trillion, the Pacific Research Institute today recommended reforms to bring spending under control, reduce the national debt and maximize economic growth in the latest report in its Beyond the New Normal series. “Just last week, as we learned ...
Commentary
The GND: Glitter, Nonsense, and Devitalization
By Andrew I. Fillat and Henry I. Miller The latest public policy bandwagon is the “Green New Deal,” or GND, whose acronym could well stand for Glitter, Nonsense, and Devitalization. Some of its proposals are so outlandish that they would be more appropriate coming from enthusiastic (but not very smart) ...
Commentary
Arizona Patients Should Welcome Medicaid Work Requirements
Arizona just received the Trump Administration’s go-ahead to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Under the policy, able-bodied enrollees between the ages of 19 and 49 will have to spend 80 hours a month working, attending school, or giving back to their community in some way. Arizona will be the eighth state ...
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 ...
Blog
Meet the Trumpelschumers
Reality TV doesn’t get any better than the recent Oval Office brawl with Trump, Pelosi, and Schumer duking it out over border security. The media made much of it: “pitched partisan argument” (Politico), “testy confrontation” (New York Times), “political fireworks” (ABC). The days of smiling, comfy, fireside photo-ops may be ...
Blog
Sacramento’s “Funniest Unfunny Man” Prepares to Exit Stage Left
Gov. Jerry Brown was once described by my former boss, Connie Conway, as the “funniest unfunny man” she’d ever met. For anyone who had the opportunity to watch his “exit interview” at the Sacramento Press Club, you’d know that this is an apt description. When asked to make a particularly ...
Is Push to Lower Local Tax Threshold About Funding Vital Projects or Funding Public Pensions?
Yesterday, my colleague Rowena Itchon wrote about Sacramento’s “taxfest” – the various proposals introduced this year to raise taxes on hard-working Californians. That’s only part of the story. A group of lawmakers wants to make it easier to raise local taxes. Thanks to Proposition 13, a two-thirds vote of the ...
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
Pacific Research Institute Responds to Cal Fire Ruling: Supreme Court Decision is ‘Victory for Taxpayers’
SAN FRANCISCO – California-based non-partisan think tank Pacific Research Institute today applauded the California Supreme Court’s decision in a landmark case on public employee pension reform, Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS and the State of California. PRI submitted an amicus brief in the case, arguing that a favorable ruling ...
Round 1: Old Left vs. Far Left
They say that age and cunning always beats youth and exuberance. But when it comes to the latest dust-up between the Left’s old guard and the new Far Left, how it all plays out in the end isn’t so clear. The Left’s old guard has reacted with smug disdain to ...
Facing $22 Trillion National Debt, New PRI Report Shows How “15 Percent Solution” Can Cut Debt, Grow Economy
On the heels of the news that the national debt has surpassed $22 trillion, the Pacific Research Institute today recommended reforms to bring spending under control, reduce the national debt and maximize economic growth in the latest report in its Beyond the New Normal series. “Just last week, as we learned ...
The GND: Glitter, Nonsense, and Devitalization
By Andrew I. Fillat and Henry I. Miller The latest public policy bandwagon is the “Green New Deal,” or GND, whose acronym could well stand for Glitter, Nonsense, and Devitalization. Some of its proposals are so outlandish that they would be more appropriate coming from enthusiastic (but not very smart) ...
Arizona Patients Should Welcome Medicaid Work Requirements
Arizona just received the Trump Administration’s go-ahead to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Under the policy, able-bodied enrollees between the ages of 19 and 49 will have to spend 80 hours a month working, attending school, or giving back to their community in some way. Arizona will be the eighth state ...
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 ...
Meet the Trumpelschumers
Reality TV doesn’t get any better than the recent Oval Office brawl with Trump, Pelosi, and Schumer duking it out over border security. The media made much of it: “pitched partisan argument” (Politico), “testy confrontation” (New York Times), “political fireworks” (ABC). The days of smiling, comfy, fireside photo-ops may be ...
Sacramento’s “Funniest Unfunny Man” Prepares to Exit Stage Left
Gov. Jerry Brown was once described by my former boss, Connie Conway, as the “funniest unfunny man” she’d ever met. For anyone who had the opportunity to watch his “exit interview” at the Sacramento Press Club, you’d know that this is an apt description. When asked to make a particularly ...
