Commentary
Business & Economics
Earth Day Agenda: Cap and Trade Plan for AB 32
California environmental officials have decided against implementing the “cool car” regulations they finalized last June. The move could be a first step toward a better environmental policy and an improved economy. Last June the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted a rule forcing car companies to install metallic reflective windows, ...
Business & Economics
New study cites California’s high taxes and spending
California has one of the nation’s highest levels of government spending and taxes, and it adversely affects the state’s economic competitiveness, according to a new report by the conservative, San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute. Titled “Taxifornia,” the study by Robert P. Murphy and Jason Clemens found that state and local ...
Commentary
Poison pill could be among drug imports
In recent testimony before Congress, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg reiterated the agency’s opposition to the importation of prescription drugs from foreign shores. “There are genuine safety concerns,” she explained. For years, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have supported legislation to legalize foreign drug importation. Yet ...
Business & Economics
Grading California’s Tax System
Every April California workers square up with the federal and state governments. This April deadline is a good time to grade the Golden State on its tax policy, which not only takes a lot of money from workers but manages to do so in a relatively counterproductive way. On the ...
California
HOW OBAMA-ED HURTS CALIFORNIA
California’s rigorous academic content standards are one of the few bright spots on the state’s otherwise dismal education landscape. Now, however, President Obama’s drive to nationalize education could doom the standards. Created in the late 1990s, California’s math and English standards give guidance to educators regarding the grade-level knowledge and ...
Commentary
First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd
The Daily Caller, April 12, 2010 President Obama has extended federal control over health care and is now trying to centralize education policy by imposing Washington’s dictates on states and local jurisdictions. Though aimed at improvement, the president’s agenda will weaken strong state standards, set in motion a domino effect ...
Business & Economics
Lobbying needs cleansing effect of transparency
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all heightened the public’s interest in lobbying. Most of the new interest, however, is focused on Washington, D.C. Not much has trickled down to the states that need it, such as Alabama. Overall, Alabama ranked a dismal 43rd among the states ...
Commentary
Uncle Sam, MD?
(April 10) — Now that health care reform is the law of the land, state governments will have to start looking for serious ways to control health costs. And one tempting target will be prescription drugs, which account for an increasing share of the nation’s health tab. But one cost-cutting ...
Business & Economics
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
Commentary
California Lawmakers Should Read the Writing on the Wall
Black, Hispanic, and low-income Florida fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders in reading, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released last month by the U.S. Department of Education. Also known as the Nation’s Report Card, experts consider NAEP fourth-grade reading a leading predictor of success since ...
Earth Day Agenda: Cap and Trade Plan for AB 32
California environmental officials have decided against implementing the “cool car” regulations they finalized last June. The move could be a first step toward a better environmental policy and an improved economy. Last June the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted a rule forcing car companies to install metallic reflective windows, ...
New study cites California’s high taxes and spending
California has one of the nation’s highest levels of government spending and taxes, and it adversely affects the state’s economic competitiveness, according to a new report by the conservative, San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute. Titled “Taxifornia,” the study by Robert P. Murphy and Jason Clemens found that state and local ...
Poison pill could be among drug imports
In recent testimony before Congress, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg reiterated the agency’s opposition to the importation of prescription drugs from foreign shores. “There are genuine safety concerns,” she explained. For years, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have supported legislation to legalize foreign drug importation. Yet ...
Grading California’s Tax System
Every April California workers square up with the federal and state governments. This April deadline is a good time to grade the Golden State on its tax policy, which not only takes a lot of money from workers but manages to do so in a relatively counterproductive way. On the ...
HOW OBAMA-ED HURTS CALIFORNIA
California’s rigorous academic content standards are one of the few bright spots on the state’s otherwise dismal education landscape. Now, however, President Obama’s drive to nationalize education could doom the standards. Created in the late 1990s, California’s math and English standards give guidance to educators regarding the grade-level knowledge and ...
First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd
The Daily Caller, April 12, 2010 President Obama has extended federal control over health care and is now trying to centralize education policy by imposing Washington’s dictates on states and local jurisdictions. Though aimed at improvement, the president’s agenda will weaken strong state standards, set in motion a domino effect ...
Lobbying needs cleansing effect of transparency
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all heightened the public’s interest in lobbying. Most of the new interest, however, is focused on Washington, D.C. Not much has trickled down to the states that need it, such as Alabama. Overall, Alabama ranked a dismal 43rd among the states ...
Uncle Sam, MD?
(April 10) — Now that health care reform is the law of the land, state governments will have to start looking for serious ways to control health costs. And one tempting target will be prescription drugs, which account for an increasing share of the nation’s health tab. But one cost-cutting ...
Pension crater much deeper
SACRAMENTO – A new report from Stanford University’s well-respected economic policy institute has revealed that those of us who have been warning about California’s severely underfunded public employee retirement systems have, quite frankly, been wrong. We have been understating the scope of the problem. Pension critics, myself included, have been ...
California Lawmakers Should Read the Writing on the Wall
Black, Hispanic, and low-income Florida fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders in reading, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released last month by the U.S. Department of Education. Also known as the Nation’s Report Card, experts consider NAEP fourth-grade reading a leading predictor of success since ...
