There’s no single reason why California, once a model of fiscal probity, finds itself with an intractable budget crisis.
Rather, it’s been budgetary death by a thousand cuts — countless single-purpose decisions over several decades by voters and politicians to either increase spending or reduce revenues, eventually resulting in what Capitol bean counters call a “structural deficit.”
Read More
The timing of Gov. Jerry Brown’s “12-point pension-reform plan” last week was no accident.The plan was released a couple days after his negotiations with Republicans on a state budget deal collapsed. The latter contended that Brown had balked at their demands for public pension reforms because of opposition from unions that helped him win the governorship last year.
Read More
Gov. Jerry Brown is coming to town for a discussion on Bay Area economic and political issues. He’s providing the keynote remarks at the Bay Area Council’s 2011 Outlook Conference on April 12.
Read More
I was a homeowner in San Francisco since 1990 and raised my teenage son outside the public school system. I felt it was untenable to ask an 8-year-old boy to ride a bus across town in the interest of a social experiment. What happened to the old days where kids could walk to school, have friends from the neighborhood in that school and participate in after-school activities without requiring the working parent to provide shuttle service — in some cases 45 minutes away?
Read More
Have you ever watched one of those predictable and boring movies where you wish you could just skip the obligatory chase and romance scenes and get to the “I see it coming” ending already? That’s what I feel like as I watch the unfolding drama regarding the state budget crisis. Despite all the machinations, Californians are not going to boost their taxes to prop up this ill-performing government.
Read More
Success, it’s been said, has many fathers, while failure is an unwanted orphan.
Read More
California Republicans love to talk about limiting government, fighting bureaucracy and keeping taxes low, but on March 17 they proved that this is nothing more than a rhetorical device. Given the opportunity to rein in the size and power of government in a tangible way, Assembly Republicans — with one sole exception — punted. They rallied to save some of the most abusive and wastrel government agencies around.
Read More
The good news for Gov. Jerry Brown is that twice as many California voters like his initial performance as governor than dislike it.The bad news is that his approval rating in a new Field Poll is just 48 percent, the lowest level for any governor’s first weeks in office since George Deukmejian in 1983.
Read More
San Mateo County’s efforts to prevent the glassy-winged sharpshooter, the gypsy moth and other harmful pests from damaging a $150 million agricultural industry may take a hit if proposed state budget cuts go through, officials said.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/taxonomy/term/2952?page=17
