Kerry Jackson

Business & Economics

Despite Budget Action, Much Work Remains to Solve State’s Pension Crisis

Anyone worried about an earthquake plunging California into the sea should be more concerned about what is really sinking the state: the cost of public-employee pensions. In the just-enacted 2017-18 state budget, about $8 billion of the state government’s $183 billion spending package will go to the California Public Employees’ Retirement ...
California

CAPITAL IDEAS: Majority Party’s War on Trump Is Really War on California’s Middle Class

Download the Brief KUSI television reported on June 12 that “Gov. Brown and the Democrats in Sacramento are in open revolt against President Trump.” While not a new development, it seems to indicate that California is seceding from the Union as it had threatened without providing official notice. Yes, it’s ...
Business & Economics

Policymakers Ignore Long-Term Consequences Of California Minimum Wage Hike

They were warned and they knew better but they did it nonetheless. It’s become the California Way. Continually legislate, never bother to contemplate. In 1992, economists David Card and Alan B. Krueger published a National Bureau of Economic Research paper that claimed, “Relative to stores in Pennsylvania, fast food restaurants ...
Business & Economics

New PRI Issue Brief Finds Government Policies Have Strangled State’s Housing Market, Made Housing Unaffordable

Big government policies and political constraints are the primary causes for rising California home prices and lack of supply, according to the findings of a new “California Ideas in Action” issue brief released today by the non-partisan Pacific Research Institute. Reforms to open California’s housing market are recommended as the ...
California

Would Single Payer Violate The Gann Limit?

The California Senate voted late on June 1 to create a single-payer health-care system that will cover every resident in the state with no money out of their pockets. But this “free” health care would be anything but. Its costs are going to be steep, painful, probably deadly – and ...
Business & Economics

Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs

No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
Business & Economics

CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs

Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
California

Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’

Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Business & Economics

Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone

Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
Blog

Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs

Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Business & Economics

Despite Budget Action, Much Work Remains to Solve State’s Pension Crisis

Anyone worried about an earthquake plunging California into the sea should be more concerned about what is really sinking the state: the cost of public-employee pensions. In the just-enacted 2017-18 state budget, about $8 billion of the state government’s $183 billion spending package will go to the California Public Employees’ Retirement ...
California

CAPITAL IDEAS: Majority Party’s War on Trump Is Really War on California’s Middle Class

Download the Brief KUSI television reported on June 12 that “Gov. Brown and the Democrats in Sacramento are in open revolt against President Trump.” While not a new development, it seems to indicate that California is seceding from the Union as it had threatened without providing official notice. Yes, it’s ...
Business & Economics

Policymakers Ignore Long-Term Consequences Of California Minimum Wage Hike

They were warned and they knew better but they did it nonetheless. It’s become the California Way. Continually legislate, never bother to contemplate. In 1992, economists David Card and Alan B. Krueger published a National Bureau of Economic Research paper that claimed, “Relative to stores in Pennsylvania, fast food restaurants ...
Business & Economics

New PRI Issue Brief Finds Government Policies Have Strangled State’s Housing Market, Made Housing Unaffordable

Big government policies and political constraints are the primary causes for rising California home prices and lack of supply, according to the findings of a new “California Ideas in Action” issue brief released today by the non-partisan Pacific Research Institute. Reforms to open California’s housing market are recommended as the ...
California

Would Single Payer Violate The Gann Limit?

The California Senate voted late on June 1 to create a single-payer health-care system that will cover every resident in the state with no money out of their pockets. But this “free” health care would be anything but. Its costs are going to be steep, painful, probably deadly – and ...
Business & Economics

Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs

No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
Business & Economics

CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs

Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
California

Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’

Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Business & Economics

Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone

Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
Blog

Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs

Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In some locations, they’re ...
Scroll to Top