California
Blog
Criminal Justice Policy in SF Upside Down Under New SF District Attorney
It’s been recently said that with Chesa Boudin as district attorney, San Francisco has two public defenders: Manohar Raju, the appointed public defender, and Boudin, the former public defender who critics might say acts more like a legal advocate for the accused than the prosecutor he’s supposed to be. Though ...
Blog
State Budget Update: Get Ready for the ‘August Revision’
Observers wondering just how different this year’s state budget would be got confirmation this week that the 2020-21 budget will be far different from envisioned in January. In a memo to the Capitol community released on Tuesday, the Assembly Budget Committee acknowledged this new reality: “When we reconvene, we will ...
Agriculture
Proposition 13, Back On The Ballot, In A Sense, In California
Voters will likely have a chance in November to decide if Proposition 13 will remain as it has since its passage in 1978, or if it will turn it into a chimera that treats homes and businesses differently, bleeding the latter for tens of billions of dollars. Supporters of a ...
Blog
Is Coronavirus Triggering De-Facto Early Release for Thousands of Offenders?
In recent years, California has undergone a significant change in its approach to criminal justice. As PRI’s Kerry Jackson writes in his book, Living in Fear in California, once California’s prison population reached an all-time high of 160,000 in 2006, “a May 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling . . . ...
Blog
Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
Public banks, it seems, are the next wrongheaded progressive movement in state overrun with them. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted last month “to reach out to nearby jurisdictions proposing a viability study, the first step in the creation of a public bank” the Monterey County Weekly has ...
Business & Economics
Daniel Kolkey – What the Governor Can Do to Help Californians in the Next Fire Season
This podcast is a recorded lecture from PRI’s second annual policy conference in Sacramento. The speaker is Judge Daniel Kolkey, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Pete Wilson. California is approaching ...
California
Coronavirus Shows State Push for Public Transit is Hazardous to our Health
On March 11, 2020, the Legislative Analyst’s Office published a handout, which included a passage on the climate benefits of mass transit over private vehicles. Within days, a spreading virus made the case that our cars are a more hygienic means of travel than public transportation, where humanity is crammed ...
Blog
Amidst Coronavirus-Fueled Economic Downturn, State Leaders Must Suspend Government Barriers to Opportunity
In his “Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity” series, PRI’s Dr. Wayne Winegarden has argued that one of the most important ways that elected officials can help to lift people up the economy ladder is by embracing policies that encourage entrepreneurship. As many Californians struggle to stay afloat financially during the ...
Blog
How State Budget Will Be Impacted by Coronavirus Coming More into Focus
A clearer picture formed this week about how the coronavirus will affect the state budget, with action in Sacramento and Washington. Director of Finance Keely Bosler sent a letter to lawmakers that the department will “reevaluate all budget changes within the context of a workload budget.” “While our first priority ...
Blog
What Governments Are Doing to Try and Salvage the Economy
Until recently, terms like social distancing and even the coronavirus were nonexistent. Now these terms could come to define the beginning of a pending global recession the likes of which have yet to test modern economic markets. As parts of California shelter in place and millions engage in the largest ...
Criminal Justice Policy in SF Upside Down Under New SF District Attorney
It’s been recently said that with Chesa Boudin as district attorney, San Francisco has two public defenders: Manohar Raju, the appointed public defender, and Boudin, the former public defender who critics might say acts more like a legal advocate for the accused than the prosecutor he’s supposed to be. Though ...
State Budget Update: Get Ready for the ‘August Revision’
Observers wondering just how different this year’s state budget would be got confirmation this week that the 2020-21 budget will be far different from envisioned in January. In a memo to the Capitol community released on Tuesday, the Assembly Budget Committee acknowledged this new reality: “When we reconvene, we will ...
Proposition 13, Back On The Ballot, In A Sense, In California
Voters will likely have a chance in November to decide if Proposition 13 will remain as it has since its passage in 1978, or if it will turn it into a chimera that treats homes and businesses differently, bleeding the latter for tens of billions of dollars. Supporters of a ...
Is Coronavirus Triggering De-Facto Early Release for Thousands of Offenders?
In recent years, California has undergone a significant change in its approach to criminal justice. As PRI’s Kerry Jackson writes in his book, Living in Fear in California, once California’s prison population reached an all-time high of 160,000 in 2006, “a May 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling . . . ...
Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
Public banks, it seems, are the next wrongheaded progressive movement in state overrun with them. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted last month “to reach out to nearby jurisdictions proposing a viability study, the first step in the creation of a public bank” the Monterey County Weekly has ...
Daniel Kolkey – What the Governor Can Do to Help Californians in the Next Fire Season
This podcast is a recorded lecture from PRI’s second annual policy conference in Sacramento. The speaker is Judge Daniel Kolkey, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Pete Wilson. California is approaching ...
Coronavirus Shows State Push for Public Transit is Hazardous to our Health
On March 11, 2020, the Legislative Analyst’s Office published a handout, which included a passage on the climate benefits of mass transit over private vehicles. Within days, a spreading virus made the case that our cars are a more hygienic means of travel than public transportation, where humanity is crammed ...
Amidst Coronavirus-Fueled Economic Downturn, State Leaders Must Suspend Government Barriers to Opportunity
In his “Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity” series, PRI’s Dr. Wayne Winegarden has argued that one of the most important ways that elected officials can help to lift people up the economy ladder is by embracing policies that encourage entrepreneurship. As many Californians struggle to stay afloat financially during the ...
How State Budget Will Be Impacted by Coronavirus Coming More into Focus
A clearer picture formed this week about how the coronavirus will affect the state budget, with action in Sacramento and Washington. Director of Finance Keely Bosler sent a letter to lawmakers that the department will “reevaluate all budget changes within the context of a workload budget.” “While our first priority ...
What Governments Are Doing to Try and Salvage the Economy
Until recently, terms like social distancing and even the coronavirus were nonexistent. Now these terms could come to define the beginning of a pending global recession the likes of which have yet to test modern economic markets. As parts of California shelter in place and millions engage in the largest ...
