Budget and Finance
Back to homepageCap and trade shifts from cutting smog to shifting wealth
March 17, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi California is subtly shifting the spending goals of its cap-and-trade taxes from reducing air pollution to reducing the “urban heat island effect.” In so doing, it believes it has found a green justification finally
Read MoreBalanced budget amendment for Congress discussed at CPAC
March 16, 2013 By Josephine Djuhana NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Some conservatives believe a federal balanced budget amendment is an essential reform for fiscal management in Congress. That was the topic of discussion during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference
Read MoreAssembly shuns accountability for slush fund
March 1, 2013 By Katy Grimes California Assembly leaders enjoy an annual slush fund of $38 million. It’s money they can do with however they please. The Assembly’s operating budget was $112 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year that ended June
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Video: Can closing down public pensions save California?
March 1, 2013 CalWatchDog.com writer John Hrabe explains how public-employee unions continue to fight pension reform in San Diego:
Read MoreU.S., CA could be hit by Federal Reserve potential massive loss
Feb. 28, 2013 By Chriss Street Last week in my article here, “Misery Index about to soar in CA, US,” I warned that a rise in a combination of inflation and unemployment, known as the Misery Index, could “distort financial markets.”
Read MoreSequester would axe large federal spending programs in CA
Feb. 25, 2013 By Chriss Street Over the weekend, the White House released a report detailing some of the programs and services in California that would be impacted beginning on March 1. The Obama Administration has threatened that the cuts
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Voters can dry up ‘inevitable’ tax on rain
Feb. 25, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi The lyrics to Celine Dion song, “Rain Tax (It’s Inevitable),” suggested that some day government was bound to levy a tax on natural rainfall. By 2009, the California legislature voted to impose just such a
Read MoreDemocrats addicted to tax increases
Feb. 25, 2013 By Joseph Perkins You’ve heard the familiar fable about the scorpion and the frog? They meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on his back. The frog
Read MoreMisery Index about to soar in CA, US
Feb. 22, 2013 By Chriss Street The “Misery Index” is inflation plus the unemployment rate. For example, today the U.S. unemployment rate is 7.9 percent and inflation is 1.7 percent. So the “Misery Index” (rounding off) is 10 points. Anything above
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