Columns-Budget and FinanceThe Prop. 25 bait and switchFriday, April 27th, 2012 April 27, 2012 By Joseph Perkins For years, Sacramento’s tax-and-spend Democrats tried to figure out a way to persuade California voters to amend the state Constitution to require a simple -- rather than two-thirds -- majority of the Legislature to pass the state budget. In 2010, they fin... From Golden State to Gambling StateFriday, March 2nd, 2012 March 2, 2012 The tiny Manzanita Band of Mission Indians proposes to build a ginormous “casino facility” on a 61-acre parcel of land. The tribe’s tricked-out casino will boast 2,000 slot machines and 45 gaming tables. It also will have a 200-room hotel, a banquet/meeting hall, three gues... State Edu-Welfare Expansion PlansTuesday, February 21st, 2012 FEB. 21, 2012 More than 50 percent of California college students do not pay for school at the state’s public colleges and universities. Unfortunately, the dropout rate is also about 50 percent. This is because, along with all of the free money for school, there are very dew academic requireme... Redevelopment barons plot comebackMonday, January 9th, 2012 JAN. 9, 2012 I'm still giddy after the California Supreme Court ruled last month that the state had every right to shut down those noxious enemies of property rights and fiscal responsibility -- redevelopment agencies. Better yet, the state's high court ruled that another law that allowed those a... Gov.’s Groundhog Day In CaliforniaSaturday, January 7th, 2012 JAN. 7, 2011 It felt like "Groundhog Day" on Thursday during Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal press conference. I had a flashback to January 2011. Listening to him make the same claims about the budget that he made all year proved that Brown has only one trick in his bag. After attending a... Real Message in Brown’s ‘Open Letter’Monday, December 12th, 2011DEC. 12, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown recently released "An Open Letter to the People of California," in which he called for the state's taxpayers to approve tax-raising initiatives to "fix" the state's structural budget deficit. Here are portions of the letter and my interpretation of what Brown rea... California ‘The Big State that Can’t’Monday, December 5th, 2011DEC. 5, 2011 As the public employee pension and health care benefit crisis sweeps across the nation, some states are dealing seriously with these multibillion-dollar threats to public services and treasuries. And other states remain in deep denial. California, to no one's surprise, is moving stri... Defiling California TaxpayersThursday, December 1st, 2011 NOV. 30, 2011 If growing an economy were as simple as expanding government spending and increasing deficits, then California would be the leader in global economics. Whether it’s highway funds or solar subsidies, for every new construction job politicians claim will be created from gover... Court Case Shows Republican HypocrisyMonday, November 14th, 2011 NOV. 14, 2011 We all know that California's Democratic Party is running the state into the fiscal ground, given how beholden its members are to public-sector unions and how devoted they are to expanding government and raising taxes. The state needs some political competition, but a major court ca... |