Budget and Finance

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Does Budget Forum Portend Tax Hikes?

DEC. 9, 2010 By KATY GRIMES In what appeared to be an event designed to prepare California for tax increases, Governor-elect Jerry Brown held a well-attended budget forum on Wednesday to discuss California’s precarious state budget and extraordinary deficit. The

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Forecast: CA Economic Lull to Continue

DEC. 8, 2010 By JOHN SEILER When Gov. Jerry Brown takes office in less than a month and deals with the state’s $25 billion budget deficit, he will get no more help from the state’s economy than he has from

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State Voters Don't Want Tax Hikes

DEC. 8, 2010 Rebuttal to Dan Walters By WAYNE LUSVARDI Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters is calling for a $20 billion tax increase to permanently plug the structural budget deficit in California on the grounds that it would have virtually

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California’s Crippling Brain Drain

DEC. 5, 2010 By LAER PEARCE Three articles caught my eye Sunday morning, and what a tale they tell! The first article said that Donald Lamm, 57, has announced his retirement as city manager of Westminster, an Orange County city

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California's New Depression

DEC. 3, 2010 By JOHN SEILER As California approaches a new year, with a new governor and other statewide officers, it’s worth reviewing what I call “California economic realities.” These are the factors which, at all levels, affect the state’s

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Retrospective: Pork OD Kills Water Project

DEC. 1, 2010 By RICHARD TRAINOR When former San Francisco Mayor and California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said that a “political earthquake” is rumbling in the Central Valley over water he was right on the money, and it seems that

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CA Freebies Enrich Low-Wage Workers

NOV. 29, 2010 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Contrary to half-truths by both liberals who believe the minimum wage is a poverty wage or conservatives who believe it creates more unemployment and sends jobs overseas, at least in California minimum wage is

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State Has Yet To Hit Bottom

NOV. 28, 2010 Anyone who has dealt with a loved one deeply involved in some destructive behavior understands that there’s only so much you can do until the person hits whatever low point is necessary to spark a commitment to

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Texas Beats California on Economy

NOV. 18, 2010 By JOHN SEILER In the competition between America’s two most populous states, California has two recent victories over Texas. In the World Series, the San Francisco Giants stomped on the Texas Rangers. And on election day, Nov.

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Guv Calls Sham Special Session

NOV. 18, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO For the eighth time in his seven-year administration, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called the Legislature back into special session to deal with the state’s budget problems. And for the eighth time, the special session

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