California Archives - Pacific Research Institute

California

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Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
California

Todd Myers – Time to Think Small on the Environment

Our podcast guest this week is Todd Myers, director of the Washington Policy Center’s Center for the Environment.  With more than two decades in environmental policy, Todd’s experience includes work on a range of environmental issues, including climate policy, forest health, old-growth forests, and salmon recovery. Todd’s new book is ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
California

How Can We Actually Reduce Homelessness in California? – 2024 PRI Sacramento Conference

From PRI’s recent Sacramento policy conference, we present a panel discussion featuring elected officials, innovators, and policy researchers discussing creative approaches to addressing California’s homeless problem.  Speakers include Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, who is suing the city of Sacramento over its failure to enforce homeless laws on the ...
Blog

Read latest on SF's growing defecation problem

Scatology 101

It’s hard not to love Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants.   He is the team’s public face and cheerleader in chief – a proud San Franciscan with diplomas from Lowell High School and Cal Berkeley that attest to his deep Bay Area roots. And no one ...
California

Reforming Criminal Justice Policy to Put Victims First – 2024 PRI Sacramento Conference

With reform legislation being debated to address rising incidents of retail and auto theft and a ballot measure in circulation to repeal the most sweeping provisions of Prop. 47, we present a panel discussion on California’s growing crime problem from PRI’s recent Sacramento conference. Speakers include retired Brigadier Gen. Bob ...
Blog

Read latest on California's budget crisis

Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again

When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
Blog

Read latest on corruption in local government

Corruption, crime, and cover-ups

The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
California

Todd Myers – Time to Think Small on the Environment

Our podcast guest this week is Todd Myers, director of the Washington Policy Center’s Center for the Environment.  With more than two decades in environmental policy, Todd’s experience includes work on a range of environmental issues, including climate policy, forest health, old-growth forests, and salmon recovery. Todd’s new book is ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
California

How Can We Actually Reduce Homelessness in California? – 2024 PRI Sacramento Conference

From PRI’s recent Sacramento policy conference, we present a panel discussion featuring elected officials, innovators, and policy researchers discussing creative approaches to addressing California’s homeless problem.  Speakers include Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, who is suing the city of Sacramento over its failure to enforce homeless laws on the ...
Blog

Read latest on SF's growing defecation problem

Scatology 101

It’s hard not to love Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants.   He is the team’s public face and cheerleader in chief – a proud San Franciscan with diplomas from Lowell High School and Cal Berkeley that attest to his deep Bay Area roots. And no one ...
California

Reforming Criminal Justice Policy to Put Victims First – 2024 PRI Sacramento Conference

With reform legislation being debated to address rising incidents of retail and auto theft and a ballot measure in circulation to repeal the most sweeping provisions of Prop. 47, we present a panel discussion on California’s growing crime problem from PRI’s recent Sacramento conference. Speakers include retired Brigadier Gen. Bob ...
Blog

Read latest on California's budget crisis

Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again

When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
Blog

Read latest on corruption in local government

Corruption, crime, and cover-ups

The March 27 sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his role in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme brings closure to years of high living off the backs of his investors in his online crypto trading platform FTX. Fraudsters like Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Jeff ...
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