Author Archive: K. Lloyd Billingsley

K. Lloyd Billingsley is Communications Counsel at the Independent Institute.
Full biography and recent publications

More Change Taxpayers Can’t Believe In


Friday July 14th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 3:20pm PDT   •   1 Comment

As we noted, California taxpayers were the first to pay for the sexual-reassignment surgery of a violent criminal, Shiloh Heavenly Quine, who as Rodney Quine gunned down Shahid Ali Baig, a father of three, then stole his car. Taxpayers nationwide have also been footing the bill for sex-change surgery, and Congress just decided that…
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Contract on Private Contracts


Wednesday July 12th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 10:26am PDT   •   0 Comments

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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Quotas Crash the Lobby


Tuesday July 11th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 4:58am PDT   •   0 Comments

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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GovWasteBloviator.Con


Thursday July 6th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 3:17pm PDT   •   0 Comments

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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Government Phones In Fraud and Waste


Wednesday July 5th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 11:23am PDT   •   0 Comments

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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CalPERS Court Loss a Big Hit on Taxpayers


Wednesday June 28th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:23am PDT   •   1 Comment

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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Uncle Jerry Wants Your Magazine


Monday June 26th, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 10:10am PDT   •   0 Comments

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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California Expands Travel Ban Inequality


Friday June 23rd, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 1:07pm PDT   •   0 Comments

California has added Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota to its travel ban. State attorney general Xavier Becerra made the announcement accompanied by representatives from the ACLU and Equality California, which apparently fancy themselves part of government. California’s AB1887, enacted last year, purports to ban state employees from travelling to states perceived to discriminate…
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California High-Speed Rail Rides No-Bid Gravy Train


Thursday June 22nd, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:42am PDT   •   1 Comment

California’s vaunted bullet train has yet to carry a single passenger but it has managed to make the news. As it turns out, the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority offered a contract extension of $3 million on a noncompetitive basis. In other words, it was a no-bid sweetheart deal. That emerged in a new report…
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U.S. Forest Service Can’t Cut It


Wednesday June 21st, 2017   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 8:15am PDT   •   0 Comments

“Budget cuts threaten forests’ roads, hunting, fishing,” headlines the piece by McClatchy reporter Anshu Siripurapu. Trails “could get messier,” and maintenance on bridges, dams and recreation sites “could” become tougher. “That’s the potential fate of national forest projects, thanks to President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2018,” Siripurapu warns. The president seeks $100…
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