California Assembly Bill 1250, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Reginald Jones-Sawyer, would restrict counties from contracting out for key services. The bill is sponsored by two of the most powerful government employee unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). As the San Jose…
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Lobbyists seldom get much sympathy from taxpayers, but that could soon change. According to a report by Taryn Luna of the Sacramento Bee, the Asian Pacific Islander, Black, Jewish, Latino, LGBT and Women’s caucuses in the California legislature “are asking lobbying firms to provide them with demographic data – including race, ethnicity, gender and…
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After going over two years without any kind of fiscal plan, Illinois’ state government now has a budget after the state’s legislature overrode a veto by the state’s governor to impose large tax increases on the incomes of the state’s residents and corporations. Unfortunately, Illinois’ legislature made no effort to address the state’s biggest…
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Two years ago, California’s Legislative Analyst learned that 3,500 Caltrans engineers were doing little more than sitting at their desks and sought to eliminate those positions. Caltrans bosses cried foul and so did Bruce Blanning, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government. As the union boss told reporters the Legislative Analyst was “childish,”…
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According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of Education has now cumulatively borrowed over one trillion dollars from the public for the purpose of funding its Federal Direct Student Loan program since January 2009. Political Calculations’ charted the history of the Education Department’s borrowing to support its student loan business. Between January…
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As the Washington Times reports, the “Obamaphone” program, a federal government welfare gambit officially known as the “Lifeline Program,” was a massive fraud. Of the 10.6 million people with Obamaphones, a full 36 percent had dubious qualifications for the handout. Some 5,500 people had two Obamaphones and the program gave 6,400 Obamaphones to people…
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As we’re in the midst of celebrating the founding of the United States on for many is a long holiday weekend, it might also be a good time to consider the state of the federal government’s fiscal ledger on the eve of this year’s Independence Day. In January 2017, the outgoing Secretary of the…
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As Illinois’ debt doomsday clock keeps ticking down to July 1, 2017, where in the absence of the state legislature passing a budget that can be approved by the state’s governor, the state government will almost certainly have its credit rating cut to junk status as it will also stop paying contractors to work…
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The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit by California’s public employee retirement system against investment banks that supposedly “duped” them into buying some $700 million of stock. CalPERS, the nation’s largest pension trust fund, could have joined a class-action with others but declined to do so. Then CalPERS missed the three-year statute of…
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The July 4 holiday is just around the corner but Californians might want to mark their calendar for July 1 because on that day they could become lawbreakers. Last year, the legislature passed gun laws, approved by governor Jerry Brown, that require Californians, by July 1, to get rid of any rifle or pistol…
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