California government in general, and the state Board of Equalization in particular, are hives of nepotism. That ought not to be the case, particularly in a state with a voter-approved law, Proposition 209, against preferences in state employment, education and contracting. Nobody does anything about favoritism and lately lawmakers have been taking it to…
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Two years ago, as we noted, California’s high-speed rail project was facing 36 miles of tunnels through the mountains north of Los Angeles, a tectonically complex area abounding in earthquake faults. As independent experts observed, these tunnels would have been the most ambitious tunneling project in U.S. history, with 90% odds of massive cost…
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As we noted, even with a single tunnel, Jerry Brown’s massive $16 billion “WaterFix” for the delta is a financial bust. According to Benefit-Cost Analysis of The California WaterFix, by Jeffrey Michael of the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific, construction costs, estimated at $16 billion, are still more than…
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California’s Board of Equalization does not equalize anything, so even its name is misleading. It’s a tax agency, with a budget of more than $650 million, so no surprise that the BOE has misallocated $50 million in tax revenue and members use BOE events to promote their own careers, at taxpayer expense. State government…
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As we noted, the University of California at Davis garnered national attention in 2011 when campus cops pepper-sprayed students peacefully demonstrating against tuition hikes. The ensuing lawsuits cost taxpayers more than $1 million, most of it going to crony consultants. No UCD administrators got fired, least of all chancellor Linda Katehi, who also came…
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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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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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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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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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