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Back to homepageCalifornia Budget: Austerity or Audacity?
JULY 7, 2011 It’s not over. Even though Gov. Jerry Brown signed the budget on June 30, lawmakers are churning out more legislation. And Capitol legislative committees are currently hearing hundreds of new spending and regulation bills. Facing a $26
Read More$700K State Salaries Bust Budget
JUNE 6, 2011 He’s not a Nobel Prize-winning physician. He’s not the founder of a life science company. He’s not even a Hollywood plastic surgeon. Yet he earned an enviable $777,423 last year. He’s a doctor at High Desert State
Read MoreLegislators: 'Less Power to the People'
JULY 4, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT California legislators — who seem unable to come up with an honest balanced budget, who always seek tax increases, and who won’t pass even modest reforms to the state’s unfunded pension system or to
Read MoreCal Biz Climate Ranks Pathetic 32nd
JUNE 30, 2011 By JOSEPH PERKINS The Legislature passed a budget this week that assumes $10.6 billion in higher tax revenues flowing into the state’s coffers next year. That sum includes not only the $6.6 billion Gov. Jerry Brown projected
Read MoreCalifornia's Mess Not Texas' Fault
June 27, 2011 As California’s budget battle continues, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a rhetorical battle regarding the relative merits and demerits of our lovely state and one of the nation’s other megastates, Texas. This debate started after a
Read MoreCA Overdue For Part-Time Legislature
JUNE 27, 2011 The latest budget drama shows how California needs a part-time Legislature. It hasn’t had one since the late 1960s. Since then, few budgets have been balanced while meeting the June 15 constitutional deadline. In the past 24
Read MoreHow to Save $$ Executing Killers
JUNE 22, 2011 State Sen. Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley, said this week that she plans to introduce legislation that would shutter California’s death row. She argues that capital punishment has proven “an expensive failure” and proposes that the sentences of inmates
Read MoreRedevelopment Agencies on the Brink
JUNE 20, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT Hours before the midnight Wednesday deadline for passing a state budget, legislative Democrats rammed through a ridiculous, gimmick-laden, majority-vote spending plan that failed to reform anything and failed to impress Gov. Jerry Brown, who
Read MoreThe Paycheck Protection Budget
JUNE 17, 2011 The California Legislature just passed a budget. Less than 24 hours later, the governor vetoed it, leaving many political wonks scratching their heads in wonderment at why Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a budget from his own party.
Read MoreCA GOP Shouldn't 'Go Wobbly' on Taxes
JUNE 16, 2011 I met Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, back in 1993 on a visit she made to California to promote her memoir. I remember her talking about the first Gulf War and how she overcame the
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