Budget and Finance
Back to homepageBee's Glaring Op Ed Omission
Katy Grimes: Martha Penry, “a special education teacher’s assistant in the Twin Rivers school district” wrote an op ed in today’s Sacramento Bee, defending the escalating and unsustainable spending on California’s public employee pensions, and even blamed “Wall Street greed” for the
Read MoreWalters Wrong: Arnold DID Wreck Budget
MAY 30, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Dan Walters is the dean of California columnists. But sometimes he gets one wrong. In the wake of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s personal problems, attacks have increased on Arnold’s performance as governor, especially on the
Read MoreMemorial Day Weekend in So. Cal.
John Seiler: Forget politics for a couple of days. It’s a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Southern California. Yesterday I took this picture of a 59 Cadillac. What a beauty. It was in front of a Bank of America in
Read MoreBrown Budget Based on Phantom Jobs?
MAY 27, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Gov. Jerry Brown’s May 2011 Revised State Budget is based on a rosy assumption of an economic and jobs recovery over the next four years that will result in 7.3 percent more tax revenues
Read MoreCFT Explains Tax-Increase Strategy
MAY 26, 2011 By JOHN SEILER If you listen to people in the political game, they usually tell you what they’re going to do. But you sometimes have to check out their internal communications. One of my best sources is
Read MoreJailbreak: Ruling Could Spark Crime Wave
This article first appeared in the new City Journal California Web site. MAY 25, 2011 By HEATHER MacDONALD If the real-world consequences for individuals and communities were not so potentially dire, the mass release of inmates from California prisons just
Read MoreBrown Budget Flies to Fantasyland
MAY 24, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI There is a children’s fairy tale about a Sacramento government accountant for the State of California who takes his new poor stepdaughter all the way to Orange County to go to Disneyland for the
Read MoreCourt Decision Could Spur Prison Reform
MAY 23, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision mandating California state prison reductions must lead to long-needed reforms. The decision upheld a lower court ruling that from 38,000 to 46,000 must be released due to overcrowding that
Read MoreCalifornia Now a 'Zombie State'
MAY 23, 2011 By JOHN SEILER In our 18 months online, we at CalWatchDog.com have detailed the massive burden of government that weighs down our state. We’ve also sometimes criticized Dan Walters for backing tax increases. He’s the dean of
Read MoreSen. Lieu And The River Called Denial
Commentary MAY 19, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT California’s fiscal problems are only front-page national news thanks to the state’s structural deficit, unfunded pension liabilities and other problems that stem from a Democratic-controlled government that loves nothing more than to tax,
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