We were severely criticized last week by the left and the right for publishing “CALIFORNIA DEFAULT RISK TURNS BROWN INTO A CAPITALIST.” The report highlighted that California Governor Jerry Brown is steam-rolling environmentalists and regulators to generate more state tax revenue by expediting approval of pro-business infrastructure. But our detractors were stunned to learn from [...]
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The State of California was already facing a $19 billion budget deficit, had shorted K-12 public schools $8 billion and are releasing imprisoned rapists into “community probation” when the California Legislature’s Democratic majority voted last week to approve selling $4.6 billion in new state bonds to build 130 miles of railroad track through some of [...]
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“Only Nixon could go to China” is a political metaphor referring to the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his supporters for staunchly representing and defending their values, to take actions that would draw vicious criticism and fierce opposition if taken by someone without those credentials. With California’s financial condition in free [...]
READ MORE »The ballooning Orange County financial crisis continued to spiral out of control as the State of California filed a law suit to force return of $73.5 million of property tax revenue the County skimmed from local schools and community colleges last November. At the time, it seemed bizarre that the supposed “Most Conservative County in [...]
READ MORE »Two weeks ago I published in Big Government and on the Pacific Research Institute’s CalWatchdog website: “New California Budget Crisis May Torpedo November Tax Increase Initiative”, a report illuminating how State Controller John Chaing had shocked California’s spendthrift politicians by announcing the State would be out of cash beginning March 8th and would miss up [...]
READ MORE »Jerry Brown, California’s quirky Governor, has made a credible first step on the road to reforming the State’s insolvent public pension plans. The state is the global leader for financially irresponsible government by racking-up $350 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. But with the threat of California’s credit rating being cut to the same “junk” level [...]
READ MORE »For the State of California and its counties and cities; tax collections tend to be lumpy during the year due to half of all income, corporate and other taxes being collected in the two months of November and April. Given that the fiscal year starts on July 1st and politicians like to spend money all [...]
READ MORE »Ten years from now university economists will analyze Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s recent presentation to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee as the successful turning point in American economic policy from a focus on demand side consumption spending to supply side production investment. As Bernanke clearly stated: “We need to think about making investments for [...]
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