Budget and Finance
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Bring Out the Budget Scissors
MARCH 31, 2011 By JOHN SEILER The voters have spoken: Cut the budget even more. Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats in the Legislature have spent several months insisting that voters must have the opportunity to approve extensions of Gov. Arnold
Read MoreIs the Budget Kabuki Dance Ending?
MARCH 31, 2011 By KATY GRIMES The budget dance between the Republican legislators and Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown appears to have ended. The auditorium lights have been turned back on, the band is packing up but everyone is still awkwardly
Read MoreParent Trigger Wins Court Fight
MARCH 30, 2011 By BRIAN CALLE It is no big surprise that, in recent years, California has been far from a leader in public policy and good governance reforms. Every once and awhile there is an exception. Last year’s exception
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Brown's Punch & Judy Budget Show
MARCH 30, 2011 By JOHN SEILER California’s budget comedy resembles an old Punch & Judy puppet show, with Gov. Jerry Brown in the role of Punch, whom Wikipedia describes: He carries a stick as large as himself, which he freely uses
Read MoreWill High-Speed Rail Kill All Rail?
MARCH 30, 2011 The promise of California’s proposed high-speed rail network is unambiguous: the 800 miles of bullet trains across the state will run clean, make money, put people to work and get people out of their cars. “California’s high-speed
Read MoreWyland Bill Targets the 'Bill Factory'
MAR. 29, 2011 By KATY GRIMES The massive production process of the “bill factory” at the Capitol can be considered a success if quantity is the goal, rather than quality. More than 2,000 bills have already been introduced since January
Read MoreWill Brown Hike Taxes w/o Election?
MARCH 28, 2011 By JOHN SEILER If you watch politics long enough, you see everything. The latest is progressives acting like conservatives on the state budget deficit and the liberals’ desire to raise taxes $12 billion. Last week a PPIC
Read MoreDems Put Brakes on Budget Train Wreck
MARCH 28, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI A new Field Poll found that a supermajority of Democrats has swung against tax increases and wants to halt what appears to be an unstoppable future state budget train wreck. In what should have been
Read MoreAdachi Pushes New S.F. Pension Reform
MARCH 28, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s elected public defender, is a modern-day Don Quixote tilting at unionized windmills while singing “To Dream the Impossible Pension Reform Dream.” The self-described progressive dared to take on that city’s
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