State Budget

Business & Economics

The Golden State’s Golden Tax Opportunity

Next month, California legislators may have the opportunity for a long-term solution to the Golden State’s notorious boom-bust cycle, currently in its “bust” stage. A state commission launched by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may recommend a flat tax on income, which would stabilize revenue and help launch a recovery. If so, ...
Business & Economics

How California Can Avoid a Sequel of the Budget Crisis

At long last Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed the budget, but Californians may want to hold off on any celebration. The blockbuster $84.6 billion deal is packed with accounting tricks that virtually guarantee a sequel of the crisis. A long-term solution could be at hand, but only if legislators come ...
Commentary

Obamacare’s Error

The New York Post, July 31, 2009 DON’T be distracted by the inside-the-beltway haggling over arcane details — ponder the big picture and apply common sense to the claims of our would-be health reformers. This week’s so-called breakthroughs on both the House and Senate sides illustrate how our politicians are ...
Commentary

Slimming Down the Waste-Watchers Way: A Radical New Diet Plan for California

Today, California formalizes the budget deal struck Monday night between the governor and California lawmakers to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes. The Governator has also launched a new Waste Watchers website, where he urges visitors to “report wasteful practices in state government.” As yet, there ...
Business & Economics

Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute

SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
Business & Economics

An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform

The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
Business & Economics

Nanny Government Plays from the Rough

As readers of the Contrarian know from the recent piece on Billie Jean King, my game is tennis. I’m not much of a golfer, but I can recognize a wild tee shot that lands deep in the rough. That is especially true when the shot comes from a politically correct ...
Commentary

W. Va. May Hike Cigarette Tax to Expand Medicaid

West Virginia legislators are considering a bill to fund an expansion of the state Medicaid program through an increase in the cigarette tax. The proposal would hike the tax 118 percent, from 55 cents to $1.20 per pack. The proposal comes on the heels of the recently passed increase in ...
Commentary

School districts illegally stockpiled millions of dollars

Sonoran Alliance (AZ), May 1, 2009 (STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – As the rest of the state struggles with devastating economic conditions with cuts, layoffs and the associated financial and emotional trauma, schools have been illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars. “I am outraged at members of the education community ...
Business & Economics

Prop. 1A’s passage would open doors to more taxation

In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian gave California taxpayers a $1.1 billion rebate. Due to the Gann spending limit enacted in 1979, named after Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann, the state had a budget surplus, making the rebate mandatory. Subsequent ballot measures, however, rendered the limit meaningless. Now we are being ...
Business & Economics

The Golden State’s Golden Tax Opportunity

Next month, California legislators may have the opportunity for a long-term solution to the Golden State’s notorious boom-bust cycle, currently in its “bust” stage. A state commission launched by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may recommend a flat tax on income, which would stabilize revenue and help launch a recovery. If so, ...
Business & Economics

How California Can Avoid a Sequel of the Budget Crisis

At long last Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed the budget, but Californians may want to hold off on any celebration. The blockbuster $84.6 billion deal is packed with accounting tricks that virtually guarantee a sequel of the crisis. A long-term solution could be at hand, but only if legislators come ...
Commentary

Obamacare’s Error

The New York Post, July 31, 2009 DON’T be distracted by the inside-the-beltway haggling over arcane details — ponder the big picture and apply common sense to the claims of our would-be health reformers. This week’s so-called breakthroughs on both the House and Senate sides illustrate how our politicians are ...
Commentary

Slimming Down the Waste-Watchers Way: A Radical New Diet Plan for California

Today, California formalizes the budget deal struck Monday night between the governor and California lawmakers to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes. The Governator has also launched a new Waste Watchers website, where he urges visitors to “report wasteful practices in state government.” As yet, there ...
Business & Economics

Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute

SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
Business & Economics

An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform

The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
Business & Economics

Nanny Government Plays from the Rough

As readers of the Contrarian know from the recent piece on Billie Jean King, my game is tennis. I’m not much of a golfer, but I can recognize a wild tee shot that lands deep in the rough. That is especially true when the shot comes from a politically correct ...
Commentary

W. Va. May Hike Cigarette Tax to Expand Medicaid

West Virginia legislators are considering a bill to fund an expansion of the state Medicaid program through an increase in the cigarette tax. The proposal would hike the tax 118 percent, from 55 cents to $1.20 per pack. The proposal comes on the heels of the recently passed increase in ...
Commentary

School districts illegally stockpiled millions of dollars

Sonoran Alliance (AZ), May 1, 2009 (STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – As the rest of the state struggles with devastating economic conditions with cuts, layoffs and the associated financial and emotional trauma, schools have been illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars. “I am outraged at members of the education community ...
Business & Economics

Prop. 1A’s passage would open doors to more taxation

In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian gave California taxpayers a $1.1 billion rebate. Due to the Gann spending limit enacted in 1979, named after Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann, the state had a budget surplus, making the rebate mandatory. Subsequent ballot measures, however, rendered the limit meaningless. Now we are being ...
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