Blog
Bay Area transit tax would lock in flawed spending system for decades
It’s a tax that would run for 14 years and raise an average of $1.2 billion a year. The four northern counties of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma looked at the deal and opted out. To work around the need for a two-thirds majority, tax proponents funded a petition drive to place ...
Blog
The High Cost of Doing the Right Thing – What a Trip to the Dump Has in Common with the DMV
Oakland has become one of America’s most visible symbols of illegal dumping. Discarded mattresses line neighborhood streets. Sofas, refrigerators, tires, construction debris and bags of household garbage accumulate beneath freeway overpasses, in vacant lots and along roadsides. The consequences extend well beyond appearance. Illegal dumping attracts rodents, creates fire hazards, ...
Blog
California’s New Software Tax Is Another Step Toward More Digital Taxes
Senate Bill 122 is projected to raise roughly $2 billion annual tax increase on the software businesses use to operate, and its costs will spread far beyond company software bills. Since software as a service supports nearly every part of the modern economy, businesses will have to absorb those higher ...
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 Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires.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
Charter reform is fine, but sinkhole points to LA’s deeper problems
That’s just one facet of the recommendations delivered to Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission (CRC) members in April while the primary campaign was in full swing. An abundance of Angelenos clearly want something better than spending their tax dollars on failed policies, programs and virtue-signaling. LA residents certainly want functioning ...
Blog
It’s Reparations Season Again, Again
There is, as they say, a lot here – including many points that illustrate serious problems with the overall idea of reparations. First, speaking as a businessman, it is unclear how many firms would actually be impacted by the bill. Roughly 99.9% of all America-based corporations were founded after 1865, ...
AI
California’s Next Governor Inherits an AI Mess. Whoever Wins Must Manage Better.
A new Public Policy Institute of California survey found that seventy-three percent of Californians oppose building data centers in their own communities. Sixty-three percent worry about the environmental effects. Majorities of both parties are opposed. The divide isn’t as partisan as it is a divide between the communities enjoying the ...
Agriculture
ESA changes make for a robust law
The most recent revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are almost exclusively addressing property rights and which entity – state or federal – is responsible for the protection of land where threatened and endangered wildlife live. The federal government recently narrowed the definition of “harm” in the ESA. Citing ...
Blog
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization By Sal Rodriguez | August 11, 2026 Fiscal challenges — from diminishing revenues to rising expenses — are a common reason for localities to decide to put out services to bid. For the vast majority of things a city government can ...
Bay Area transit tax would lock in flawed spending system for decades
It’s a tax that would run for 14 years and raise an average of $1.2 billion a year. The four northern counties of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma looked at the deal and opted out. To work around the need for a two-thirds majority, tax proponents funded a petition drive to place ...
The High Cost of Doing the Right Thing – What a Trip to the Dump Has in Common with the DMV
Oakland has become one of America’s most visible symbols of illegal dumping. Discarded mattresses line neighborhood streets. Sofas, refrigerators, tires, construction debris and bags of household garbage accumulate beneath freeway overpasses, in vacant lots and along roadsides. The consequences extend well beyond appearance. Illegal dumping attracts rodents, creates fire hazards, ...
California’s New Software Tax Is Another Step Toward More Digital Taxes
Senate Bill 122 is projected to raise roughly $2 billion annual tax increase on the software businesses use to operate, and its costs will spread far beyond company software bills. Since software as a service supports nearly every part of the modern economy, businesses will have to absorb those higher ...
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, ...
Charter reform is fine, but sinkhole points to LA’s deeper problems
That’s just one facet of the recommendations delivered to Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission (CRC) members in April while the primary campaign was in full swing. An abundance of Angelenos clearly want something better than spending their tax dollars on failed policies, programs and virtue-signaling. LA residents certainly want functioning ...
It’s Reparations Season Again, Again
There is, as they say, a lot here – including many points that illustrate serious problems with the overall idea of reparations. First, speaking as a businessman, it is unclear how many firms would actually be impacted by the bill. Roughly 99.9% of all America-based corporations were founded after 1865, ...
California’s Next Governor Inherits an AI Mess. Whoever Wins Must Manage Better.
A new Public Policy Institute of California survey found that seventy-three percent of Californians oppose building data centers in their own communities. Sixty-three percent worry about the environmental effects. Majorities of both parties are opposed. The divide isn’t as partisan as it is a divide between the communities enjoying the ...
ESA changes make for a robust law
The most recent revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are almost exclusively addressing property rights and which entity – state or federal – is responsible for the protection of land where threatened and endangered wildlife live. The federal government recently narrowed the definition of “harm” in the ESA. Citing ...
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization By Sal Rodriguez | August 11, 2026 Fiscal challenges — from diminishing revenues to rising expenses — are a common reason for localities to decide to put out services to bid. For the vast majority of things a city government can ...