Infrastructure
Agriculture
Same Old Water Policy Won’t Get the Job Done for California
Snowpack estimates have experts predicting an average or higher amount of runoff water from the spring snowmelt in California this year. Shasta Lake, the states largest reservoir, is standing at an average fill level for this time of year, though several years of drought have taken their toll. Lake Oroville, ...
Business & Economics
The $2 Trillion Hole
Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored ...
Business & Economics
No roads to recovery in sight
With California teetering on insolvency, government union activists and liberal legislators are trying to whip the public into a “please tax us more” frenzy by scaring people about the consequences of spending cuts. At a union rally in Sacramento recently, one protester hoisted a “Raise Our Taxes” sign, which typifies ...
Business & Economics
Califailure: Steven Greenhut on the governor
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s final State of the State Address, delivered Wednesday in the Capitol, was a microcosm of his entire failed administration. It was a reminder that those who govern the nation’s most populous state have no clue how to solve the fiscal mess they have created, are drunk on ...
Commentary
Hike In Long-Term Care Benefits Is Really Just Low-CLASS Trickery
The extent of smoke and mirrors in both the House and Senate health care bills is frightening. Much mischief is easily concealed in each 2,000-plus-page bill. One part of the health reform bills that has not garnered much attention is Congress’ expansion into long-term care. Just a few months ago, ...
Business & Economics
Misguided move to the middle
As a believer in limited government, free markets and low taxes, I rarely find myself in agreement with the state’s liberal Democrats, and my libertarian bent sometimes puts me at odds with conservative Republicans, at least when it comes to their approach to law-and-order and social issues. But both factions ...
Business & Economics
People vote for freedom with their feet and effort
“Why are they all running to Colorado? What have they got down there that we haven’t got?” So asks a villain in Ayn Rand’s, “Atlas Shrugged.” He complains about Colorado’s primitive, lazy government that “does nothing outside of keeping law courts and a police department.” A young worker answers, “Maybe ...
Agriculture
Pork, water policy don’t mix
SACRAMENTO – Advocates for government “solutions” for everything from health care to education argue that some aspects of life are just so darn complicated that only a centralized authority with taxing and spending power can handle such matters. Yet whenever we look at those areas of life dominated by the ...
Business & Economics
Sneaky way to murder Prop. 13
Easier tax increases and budget approvals seems to be the primary goals of a proposed state constitutional convention. SACRAMENTO — There ain’t no such thing as bipartisan, nondivisive reform. Any real change to California’s dysfunctional political structure and culture must gore somebody’s ox, stir up contentious battles and draw vicious ...
Business & Economics
More of a Web world for print journalists
Think-tank Pacific Research Institute has announced it will launch a Sacramento-based investigative reporting Web site in January. The San Francisco-based institute has retained veteran journalist Steven Greenhut, who most recently served as deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register, to establish and lead the site, called “CalWatchdog.” Greenhut ...
Same Old Water Policy Won’t Get the Job Done for California
Snowpack estimates have experts predicting an average or higher amount of runoff water from the spring snowmelt in California this year. Shasta Lake, the states largest reservoir, is standing at an average fill level for this time of year, though several years of drought have taken their toll. Lake Oroville, ...
The $2 Trillion Hole
Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored ...
No roads to recovery in sight
With California teetering on insolvency, government union activists and liberal legislators are trying to whip the public into a “please tax us more” frenzy by scaring people about the consequences of spending cuts. At a union rally in Sacramento recently, one protester hoisted a “Raise Our Taxes” sign, which typifies ...
Califailure: Steven Greenhut on the governor
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s final State of the State Address, delivered Wednesday in the Capitol, was a microcosm of his entire failed administration. It was a reminder that those who govern the nation’s most populous state have no clue how to solve the fiscal mess they have created, are drunk on ...
Hike In Long-Term Care Benefits Is Really Just Low-CLASS Trickery
The extent of smoke and mirrors in both the House and Senate health care bills is frightening. Much mischief is easily concealed in each 2,000-plus-page bill. One part of the health reform bills that has not garnered much attention is Congress’ expansion into long-term care. Just a few months ago, ...
Misguided move to the middle
As a believer in limited government, free markets and low taxes, I rarely find myself in agreement with the state’s liberal Democrats, and my libertarian bent sometimes puts me at odds with conservative Republicans, at least when it comes to their approach to law-and-order and social issues. But both factions ...
People vote for freedom with their feet and effort
“Why are they all running to Colorado? What have they got down there that we haven’t got?” So asks a villain in Ayn Rand’s, “Atlas Shrugged.” He complains about Colorado’s primitive, lazy government that “does nothing outside of keeping law courts and a police department.” A young worker answers, “Maybe ...
Pork, water policy don’t mix
SACRAMENTO – Advocates for government “solutions” for everything from health care to education argue that some aspects of life are just so darn complicated that only a centralized authority with taxing and spending power can handle such matters. Yet whenever we look at those areas of life dominated by the ...
Sneaky way to murder Prop. 13
Easier tax increases and budget approvals seems to be the primary goals of a proposed state constitutional convention. SACRAMENTO — There ain’t no such thing as bipartisan, nondivisive reform. Any real change to California’s dysfunctional political structure and culture must gore somebody’s ox, stir up contentious battles and draw vicious ...
More of a Web world for print journalists
Think-tank Pacific Research Institute has announced it will launch a Sacramento-based investigative reporting Web site in January. The San Francisco-based institute has retained veteran journalist Steven Greenhut, who most recently served as deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register, to establish and lead the site, called “CalWatchdog.” Greenhut ...
