Tag "tax increases"
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Study finds tripling tobacco tax would ignite smuggling
One out of five cigarettes puffed in California is smuggled. Yet a proposed $2 tax increase on every pack of cigarettes, which would increase the price to $9 per pack, would ignite cigarette smuggling, a new study by the California
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Gov. Brown axes 2013-14 school testing for K-12
Most California’s K-12 public schools will go through the 2013-14 school year without standardized testing after Gov. Jerry Brown just signed Assembly Bill 484 into law. The following school year, 2014-15, less rigorous federal Common Core tests will begin. AB484
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SB4 green lights fracking despite enviro protest
Even with a Democratic supermajority, the California Legislature was unable to pass several bills this year to ban hydraulic fracking. All fracking bills died in committees, or were killed during the legislative process — except for one. Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill
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New dose of Obamacare pain arriving by mail
After nearly four years of covering the Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” it's hard not to laugh at a story today in the San Jose Mercury News about two San Francisco Bay Area Obama voters who
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Gov. Jerry Brown forcing electric car market in CA
Gov. Jerry Brown must be in the market for a Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf or Tesla electric car. There could be no other explanation for why he signed six bills this week to force a market for electric cars that
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Domestic workers’ bill recipients received Obamacare grants
SACRAMENTO — With the Republican Party at such a low ebb, the supermajority Democratic Party is advancing connections everywhere. In particular, there’s cross-pollination between groups pushing for overtime for domestic workers — and groups receiving Obamacare money. In some cases,
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Creating a permanent poverty class with minimum wage increases
Assembly Bill 10 to raise the minimum wage in California, is sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. Brown has indicated he is in a signing mood, and will likely sign the bill. However, should AB 10 by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salina, be
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The high cost of ignoring the truth: Sacramento Convention Center
The City of Sacramento, usually on the wrong side of economic sense and accountability, is planning to build an even bigger, more expensive Convention Center, despite $16 million in annual losses over a 10-year period, and cumulative losses of $218 million over
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Don't tell Mom the babysitter's unionized
If Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has his way, your babysitter soon could join a union and cost you a lot more. The San Francisco Democrat has authored several domestic-worker unionization bills that have been vetoed by California governors. Now he's back
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Sacramento's Convention Center money pit
The Sacramento Convention Center is living proof that even if you build it, they don’t come. Despite insistence from Convention Center officials that the center is an economic driver, a new report shows quite the opposite; the convention center is
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