As we noted back in 2013, when 8,000 government employees rallied at California’s capitol, Service Employees International Union boss Yvonne Walker proclaimed “We’re letting them know this is our house!” The SEIU and other massive government unions were clamoring for a pay hike at the time. In 2015 we noted two costly bills that…
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California’s Legislative Analyst has released Common Claims About Proposition 13, the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation 65 percent of California voters approved in 1978. The LAO examines whether Proposition 13 stabilizes property taxes, discourages new business creation, increases home ownership, and so forth. Prop 13 opponents, primarily government ruling-class types, claim it reduces…
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Chris Evans, superintendent of the Natomas Unified School District, bears a strong resemblance to the late Chris Farley of “Saturday Night Live,” but for students, parents and taxpayers, Evans’ latest happy meal is no joke. As Diana Lambert notes in the Sacramento Bee, the district’s board just boosted Evans’ pay by $46,130, a raise…
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Government corruption is a staple of the news, with politicians such as San Francisco Democrat Leland Yee, a consort of gangsters such as Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, recently landing in prison. Chris Reed of Calwatchdog has charted corruption in the California city of Bell, which “was being run like a criminal enterprise.” In the…
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Last year an independent audit revealed that the City of Sacramento, California’s capital, had overpaid city retirees by $2.8 million. The overpayments, which had been going on since 2005, prompted the Sacramento Bee to editorialize that “a mistake can balloon into sizable money,” citing a $60 million gap between projected payouts and expected revenue…
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As we noted, California’s $3 billion Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, Proposition 71, promised life-saving cures and therapies for a host of afflictions including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Celebrity promoters included Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2004 voters approved the measure, which created the California Institute for…
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Thanks to bills California governor Jerry Brown signed in July, Californians now face ID and background checks to purchase ammunition, and the state will create a new database of ammunition owners. Magazines holding more than 10 rounds are banned and the state now restricts the loaning of guns, without background checks, even to close…
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Shortly after signing a contract with general manager Mike Wiley, Sacramento’s Sacramento Regional Transit “slipped into financial duress from which it has yet to recover,” wrote Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. “The agency has tapped reserve accounts in the last three years to balance its budget, leaving it with virtually no emergency funds…
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As we noted, California’s vaunted high-speed rail project will require 35 miles of tunnels through the mountains north of Los Angeles. Governor Jerry Brown, a backer of the bullet train, also has tunnel vision for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Brown wants to dig 35 miles of tunnels to convey water to the State Water…
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Politicians may bill it as “free”, but government monopoly in education is big business that racks up considerable public debt. As Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee observes, in recent decades California has issued $45 billion in school bonds now being repaid at a cost of nearly $3 billion a year. With interest the…
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