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Back to homepageBye-bye budget deadline
June 15, 2010 By LAURA SUCHESKI Boiled down, the state government has one big job: levy taxes and spend the revenues. But California’s statutory budget deadline passed again today with little notice from Sacramento lawmakers. The Legislature hasn’t met the
Read MoreFPPC investigates ‘No on 17’
JUNE 14, 2010 By LAURA SUCHESKI Proposition 17 may have been defeated at the polls, but that doesn’t mean the work is over for the campaign that successfully fought the measure on June 8. The Fair Political Practices Commission has
Read MoreGOP split weakens party
Steven Greenhut: My old friend and OC political activist and blogger Larry Gilbert offers his thoughts on the Republican Party after the election: The GOP– At War With Itself By Larry Gilbert While recently looking for documents in our garage
Read MoreMoney wins in CA election
JUNE 9, 2010 By JOHN SEILER The entry level of personal worth for winning the GOP nomination for governor now is $1 billion. That’s the net worth of Meg Whitman, who won yesterday’s primary nomination for governor. That’s up from the more
Read More'No on 17' funding questioned
JUNE 4, 2010 By LAURA SUCHESKI Both proponents and opponents of controversial Proposition 17 are spending the eleventh hour before the June 8 primary lobbing accusations at each other from the trenches. Prop. 17 would modify a previous law enacted
Read MoreCARB's leadership fetish
JUNE 3, 2010 The word is “leadership.” These days, it’s hard to find a news article or press release about the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that doesn’t talk up the agency’s “leadership” in something or other. California’s automobile fuel
Read MoreElection pre-mortem
JUNE3, 2010 By JOHN SEILER What a mess departing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is leaving for his successor. Endemic deficits. A bond rating the lowest of any state, inching toward junk-bond status. School performance vying with Louisiana for America’s worst. The
Read MoreWhitman: banal and unconvincing
JUNE 1, 2010 Steven Greenhut: I have rarely seen a political candidate who avoided taking tough stances during the election campaign suddenly get some courage and embrace a firm reform platform once in office. Unfortunately, the Republican Party’s best hope
Read MoreGreen-job future a fraud
JUNE 1, 2010 By JOHN SEILER California’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, at 12.6 percent. That’s 2.7 percentage points above the national average. The persistence of unemployment also is something Californians haven’t seen since the Great Depression. The May 30
Read MoreCA budget tops sensible limits
MAY 27, 2010 By JOHN SEILER Budget time. So I thought I would revisit an analytical tool I devised a few years ago to help better understand the California state budget. Back in the early 2000s, I was pouring over
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