Long before his latest State of the State address, governor Jerry Brown has been proclaiming that California is back, and as City Journal California associate editor Ben Boychuk notes, there is some ground for optimism. The Golden State has enjoyed impressive job growth over the past three years and this year might overtake Brazil…
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A major statewide pension reform measure will not, as expected, be on the 2016 ballot. That is bad news for California’s working taxpayers. As Lawrence McQuillan notes, California accounts for $550 billion to $750 billion of the nation’s total unfunded pension liabilities. In his research for California Dreaming: Lessons on How to Resolve America’s…
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Politicians talk about spreading the wealth but ruling-class redistribution works best in one direction. Government takes money from the workers and gives gobs of it to government bosses, often on their way out the door. As we noted, when Jim Estep parted company with the northern California city of Lincoln he bagged a separation…
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In 1999, Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee notes in a recent column, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, “abetted one of the most irresponsible political acts in state history – a massive increase in public pension benefits.” CalPERS did this by telling legislators, “the benefit increase state worker unions were seeking could be…
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As Lawrence McQuillan has noted, unfunded pension liabilities have soared to $4.7 trillion nationwide and California accounts for $550 billion to $750 billion of the total. A case outlined by Brad Branan in the Sacramento Bee shows why California is a leader in this field. In Loomis, near Sacramento, town councilman Brad Wheeler was…
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In California Dreaming: Lessons on How to Resolve America’s Public Pension Crisis, Lawrence McQuillan discovered that California accounts for $550 billion to $750 billion of the $4.7 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities nationwide. The biggest player is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) which in 1999 assured legislators that its investment earnings would…
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California taxpayers, the most embattled in the nation, have good reason to wonder how much their government is spending. According to Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee, a veteran observer, government is spending a lot more than people think. The 2015 state budget has been reported as $115.4 billion, for the general fund, and…
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