Posts From Joel Fox
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Joel Fox
Schwarzenegger Calls for 2016 Water Infrastructure Bond
“California is short of water, but it’s flooded with headlines about the drought,” former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said kicking off USC’s Schwarzenegger Institute and the Public Policy Institute of California program on the state’s drought. The goal of the program
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Minimum wage debate playing out in Los Angeles theaters
“All the world’s a stage,” wrote William Shakespeare, and political theater on the hot topic of the minimum wage is playing out in smaller Los Angeles theaters. We’re not talking about minimum wage as the topic of a play,
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Court strikes down tiered water pricing in San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano’s water fee usage plan ran afoul of Proposition 218’s taxpayer shield to protect taxpayers from being charged taxes disguised as fees and assessments. The goal of the tiered water plan was designed as a financial punishment for
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Environmental Views: Gray Davis vs. Pete Wilson
Town Hall Los Angeles hosted a discussion between former California governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis yesterday with the two disagreeing over environmental law regulations and touching on other policy issues and state politics. Wilson argued that the reason California
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BOE Study: Proposed tax on services would take in $122.6 billion
Just in time for Tax Day, the Board of Equalization issued a study requested by the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance estimating the revenue take from taxing untaxed services would be $122.6 billion. The study will become fodder in
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CA leads nation in job creation — Should CalChamber ‘job killer’ list receive credit?
While surveys of business executives still rank California as one of the worst places to do business, the record on job creation has been bright in the Golden State over the last year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
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California’s income tax rate drives NFL players away
Last month on CalWatchdog.com, prompted by the efforts to build a Los Angeles football stadium and lure an NFL team, I wrote on how Proposition 13’s tax-vote provisions were influential in the moves and counter-moves on the stadium debate over public funding.
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Big UC changes may come from private ‘Committee of Two’ meetings
Ironically, in the midst of Sunshine Week, designed to create more open government and freedom of information, the “Committee of Two” considering the financial situation of the UC system – Gov. Jerry Brown and University of California President Janet Napolitano – are
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Top 5 taxes you may see on the 2016 ballot
Last June, I wrote a column forecasting which tax increase measures might be on the Nov. 2016 ballot given the conversations going on then. Time for an update. As is nearly always the case in the political world, situations and
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Treasurer Chiang talks taxes and the economy
With the rising conversation about extending Proposition 30‘s temporary taxes, I asked state Treasurer John Chiang if he would advise that the taxes be continued. Chiang said a promise was made that the taxes would be temporary and circumstances would
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