Kerry Jackson
Blog
Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle
California law now provides for an annual adjustment to the statewide minimum wage for inflation. On Jan. 1, 2027, it will jump from $16.90 per hour to $17.40., higher than any statewide minimum wage currently in effect. (In a few cities, the minimum wage is already $20 an hour and in many others it’s dangerously ...
Blog
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
Blog
This Is No Way To Close California’s Housing Gap
This is the sort of behavior that is making it nearly impossible for California to ever close its housing gap, which, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2017 campaign material was a 3.5 million unit deficit that needed to be closed by 2025, which turned out to be his next-to-last year in the ...
Blog
Should Californians Trust New Antitrust Legislation?
The Legislature returns this week from its summer recess, kicking off one more month of lawmaking. One proposal that’s expected to draw heavy fire is a bill that beefs up the state’s antitrust law, which is already so harsh that it’s not fit to be copied elsewhere. Assembly Bill 1776, known as the COMPETE ...
Business & Economics
Paramount merger lawsuit could spell trouble for California’s entertainment industry
Rob Bonta’s crusade against a big Hollywood merger could have drastic repercussions for the entertainment industry in California. The state’s Attorney General says his lawsuit is to protect jobs, but those might be in New Jersey soon. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance have agreed to a deal in which ...
Blog
If EVs Sell Themselves, Why Are Taxpayers Paying for More of Them?
The rebates from the MyFirstEV program, which has no income cap (meaning it’s a subsidy for the wealthy), will be paid by taxpayers and participating automakers who will match the state’s contributions dollar-for-dollar. The timing is revealing. The rebate arrives just as the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that two-thirds of Californians now oppose Gov. ...
Blog
California cities turn to tax hikes to deal with overspending
Two years ago, 125 local tax measures appeared on ballots. Ninety, says the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, passed. A number of cities now have local sales taxes that exceed 10%. Several cities in “conservative” Orange County are likewise asking voters to approve various local tax increases. We won’t know until the deadline in August how ...
Blog
How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, passed and signed in 2022, went into effect on May 1. It demands a lot. By 2032, every shred of single-use packaging and single-use plastic food service ware sold in the state has to be recyclable or compostable. The law covers not just ...
Blog
Who Wants To Ride California’s Bullet Buses?
With a grand high-speed rail project struggling to lay its first track nearly two decades after voters approved it, California seems to be moving on to its next transportation fiasco: A high-speed bus system connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco that reaches an implausibly brisk 140 mph along the way. It seems more likely ...
California
The affordability crisis is real. Sacramento just made it worse.
Californians are told almost daily that Sacramento understands the state’s affordability crisis. Lawmakers hold hearings about it. The gubernatorial candidates are campaigning on it. Gov. Gavin Newsom promises to fix it. Then, when budget season arrives, Sacramento does what it always does: make California more expensive. State lawmakers just approved ...
Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle
California law now provides for an annual adjustment to the statewide minimum wage for inflation. On Jan. 1, 2027, it will jump from $16.90 per hour to $17.40., higher than any statewide minimum wage currently in effect. (In a few cities, the minimum wage is already $20 an hour and in many others it’s dangerously ...
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
This Is No Way To Close California’s Housing Gap
This is the sort of behavior that is making it nearly impossible for California to ever close its housing gap, which, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2017 campaign material was a 3.5 million unit deficit that needed to be closed by 2025, which turned out to be his next-to-last year in the ...
Should Californians Trust New Antitrust Legislation?
The Legislature returns this week from its summer recess, kicking off one more month of lawmaking. One proposal that’s expected to draw heavy fire is a bill that beefs up the state’s antitrust law, which is already so harsh that it’s not fit to be copied elsewhere. Assembly Bill 1776, known as the COMPETE ...
Paramount merger lawsuit could spell trouble for California’s entertainment industry
Rob Bonta’s crusade against a big Hollywood merger could have drastic repercussions for the entertainment industry in California. The state’s Attorney General says his lawsuit is to protect jobs, but those might be in New Jersey soon. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance have agreed to a deal in which ...
If EVs Sell Themselves, Why Are Taxpayers Paying for More of Them?
The rebates from the MyFirstEV program, which has no income cap (meaning it’s a subsidy for the wealthy), will be paid by taxpayers and participating automakers who will match the state’s contributions dollar-for-dollar. The timing is revealing. The rebate arrives just as the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that two-thirds of Californians now oppose Gov. ...
California cities turn to tax hikes to deal with overspending
Two years ago, 125 local tax measures appeared on ballots. Ninety, says the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, passed. A number of cities now have local sales taxes that exceed 10%. Several cities in “conservative” Orange County are likewise asking voters to approve various local tax increases. We won’t know until the deadline in August how ...
How California’s Plastic Ban Could Change What Every American Buys
The Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, passed and signed in 2022, went into effect on May 1. It demands a lot. By 2032, every shred of single-use packaging and single-use plastic food service ware sold in the state has to be recyclable or compostable. The law covers not just ...
Who Wants To Ride California’s Bullet Buses?
With a grand high-speed rail project struggling to lay its first track nearly two decades after voters approved it, California seems to be moving on to its next transportation fiasco: A high-speed bus system connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco that reaches an implausibly brisk 140 mph along the way. It seems more likely ...
The affordability crisis is real. Sacramento just made it worse.
Californians are told almost daily that Sacramento understands the state’s affordability crisis. Lawmakers hold hearings about it. The gubernatorial candidates are campaigning on it. Gov. Gavin Newsom promises to fix it. Then, when budget season arrives, Sacramento does what it always does: make California more expensive. State lawmakers just approved ...