Budget and Finance
Back to homepageBid to reform teacher firing process thwarted
June 29, 2012 By Joseph Perkins After passage in the state Senate by a 33-4 bipartisan majority, the Assembly Education Committee bowed this week to the state’s all-too-powerful teachers unions, rejecting a bill authored by Padilla, D-Van Nuys, that would
Read MoreGov. Brown signs another fraudulent budget
June 28, 2012 By John Seiler When he was inaugurated on Jan. 3, 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown solemnly promised in his address to the people of California: “First, speak the truth. No more smoke and mirrors on the budget. No
Read MoreSkelton misleads on car tax
June 28, 2012 By John Seiler Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton recently was feted by liberal journos and others for reporting on California for 50 years. Actually, usually he’s been just a rubber stamp for the centralized tyranny known
Read MoreDeregulating ‘earmarks’ saved schools, didn’t hurt poor
June 27, 2012 By Wayne Lusvardi Deregulation got a bad rap in California ever since it was wrongly blamed as causing the Energy Crisis of 2001 and the San Diego Blackout of 2011. But a new study by the Rand
Read MoreThe Math Scam
June 26, 2012 By Stan Brin Some of us are good at math, some of us struggle merely to get through it. Whether we’re good at it or bad, few of us will ever again use anything we learned in
Read MoreThe Establishment killed cig tax Prop. 29
June 25, 2012 By John Seiler The backers of the Proposition 29 cigarette tax increase finally snubbed out the butt of their vigil over the June 5 vote. It lost by just 28,000 votes. Proponents blamed the $47 million spent
Read MoreNBA Championship goes to no-income-tax Florida
June 22, 2012 By John Seiler Hail the tax-free champions! Yesterday LeBron James won the NBA championship for the Miami Heat. Back when James jumped from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat a couple of years ago, one reason
Read MoreState seeking to grab private pensions
June 21, 2012 By Katy Grimes Because California is doing such a bang-up job of managing the state employee pension systems, some lawmakers are pushing to create and manage another retirement program–for the private sector. According to Sen. Kevin de
Read MoreAssembly committee kills bond misuse bill
June 20, 2012 By Katy Grimes SACRAMENTO — California’s bond debt is on steroids, but it’s the taxpaying residents who will be responsible for the financial meltdown. California politicians are well known for their budget fund shifts, “borrowing” from agencies and
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Legislature deep-sixes Gov. Brown’s education ‘reform’
June 19, 2012 By Lance T. Izumi Last week, I wrote about Governor Jerry Brown’s weighted-student-formula proposal, which attached a base state-funding amount plus various supplemental amounts to individual students that would then be collected by school districts. The plan
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