August, 2010Do high taxes cost state jobs?Monday, August 30th, 2010 AUGUST 30, 2010 By JOHN SEILER It's become a commonplace among many Republicans, conservatives and libertarians that California's high-tax climate kills jobs. The jobs are either destroyed, driven to other states, or not created here in the first place. A different view comes from some work... Fiorina’s tough blasts at BoxerSaturday, August 21st, 2010Steven Greenhut: Carly Fiorina is speaking now. "This is a ticket that represents the diversity and prominence and the common sense of California," which perhaps is accurate in a strange kind of way. She promises to put an end to Barbara Boxer's 28-year "partisan reign." Fiorina's talk is tough a... LAUSD spends $30K per studentFriday, August 20th, 2010AUGUST 20, 2010 By JOHN SEILER The research by Adam Schaeffer of the Cato Institute’s Center for Education Freedom seemed shocking: The Los Angeles Unified School District spent $29,780 per student in fiscal year 2007-08. That’s way above the $10,000 as advertised by the school district, a... Tax hikes would harm CA economyTuesday, August 17th, 2010 AUGUST 17, 2010 By JOHN SEILER Do tax hikes fix budgets? That was the subject of an article I wrote last month here on CalWatchDog.com. The question is critical as the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, still unable to pass and sign a budget a month and a half into t... Jerry Brown: State will take ‘problem’ gamblers’ winningsFriday, August 13th, 2010Steven Greenhut: An astute reader sent along a new press release from Attorney General Jerry Brown announcing a program to "help" gamblers. Problem gamblers sign up for an exclusion list (voluntarily for now). If they go to a casino, here's how it works, per the press release [bold face added]: "... Correa introduces pay disclosure actThursday, August 12th, 2010AUGUST 12, 2010 By STEVEN GREENHUT State Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, released language today from his Taxpayer Right to Know Act -- aimed at improving public access to information about the salaries and perks enjoyed by the state's government employees. The bill comes in the aftermath of the... Will California repudiate its debt?Thursday, August 12th, 2010 AUGUST 12, 2010 By JOHN SEILER California's government soon could be paying its bills with IOUs, Controller John Chang announced this week. And a new report found that Californians' personal income dropped 2.5 percent in 2009, the first decline since World War II. Meanwhile, the state ... Sacto’s grimy light rail systemThursday, August 12th, 2010 Steven Greenhut: I had to leave a car in the shop this week, so I got initiated into Sacramento's light-rail experience on the Regional Transit line from Folsom to downtown. No doubt, it was useful to have an alternative means to work and the highly subsidized $2.50 one-way fare made this a cheap ri... No accounting for rail’s mystery workersTuesday, August 10th, 2010 AUG. 10, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO The proposed California High-Speed Rail project is a monumental undertaking in terms of money, personnel, time and effort. The state’s own estimates say the whole system – which includes 800 miles of bullet train rails running up and down California -... Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!Sunday, August 1st, 2010John Seiler: I'd rather have Jerry Springer as governor than Jerry Brown. For one thing, it would get the ex-Cincinnati mayor's show off daytime TV when kids watch it. But, due to Meg's amateurish campaign, it looks like we'll be stuck with Jerry Brown again. So, we'd better get used to such M... |