Some worthwhile reading from the last few days…

Measure A lost. Here’s what SANDAG opponents want us to do now.

by Barrett Tetlow in the SDUT

“In the aftermath of Measure A’s defeat, SANDAG elites are asking the question “What happened?” The answer is they were completely tone-deaf. They have an opportunity to learn the right lessons from this election — or they will be doomed to repeat this current failure.”

Read it all here.

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What An Election: The Polling Earthquake, Big Wins in SD & More

San Diego voter turnout was high and many are asking about the future of polling.

Competitive Edge Research & Communications provides a trove of insights from the election.

Read the newsletter.

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Speaking of Competitive… Read More

Below is a discouraging chart, ranking the states’ projected public employee pension debt (shortfall) per household. California is in 3rd place, but essentially is in a tie for 2nd worst with basket case Illinois. The worst state by far is Alaska, a state that bet the farm on endless oil company tax revenues so they didn’t fund their state employee pensions much at all.

One takeaway that isn’t discussed in the analysis but should be emphasized: EVERY state has an unfunded (taxpayer) liability for these guaranteed pensions. Every single one!

Clearly these “defined benefit” plans are universally abused by politicians — giving away lush underfunded benefits today that must be paid by others years down the road. The federal government should use the tax code to end the deductibility of guaranteed pension contributions — making such guaranteed pensions illegal for new employees, and frozen for existing employees, allowing no further participation. Replace these abusive pensions with non-guaranteed 401k-type retirement… Read More

Since California voters have voted to make the temporary “soak the rich” state income tax essentially a permanent levy, it’s worth looking at just what this means for the wealthy, and what their residency options are. Here’s a summary of the California state individual income tax, compared with the other 49 states. It is excerpted from my dreary fact sheet “California vs. the Other States”:

www.TinyURL.com/CA-vs-other-states

I’m posting the helpful chart comparing brackets — a newer chart than I’ve referenced before. New though it is, it’s already outdated:

1. Tennessee has TOTALLY repealed their state income tax. Previously they taxed only interest and dividends, but they’ve dropped that tax starting in 2016.

2. New Hampshire also exempts earned income — taxing only interest and dividends at 5%.

EXCERPT: … Read More

The Commonwealth Foundation, a think tank based in Pennsylvania, has recently released a study entitled “Transforming Labor – A Comprehensive, Nationwide Comparison and Grading of Public Sector Labor Laws.” It ranked every state in terms of the relative power of public sector unions. California, along with tiny Maryland, were the only states that got an F.

If you view the map presented in the Commonwealth study, there is a strong correlation between states controlled by the GOP vs those controlled by Democrats. Nearly all the Democrat controlled states with large urban populations get D grades, with the notable exceptions of Florida (C), and Texas (A). We can perhaps learn something from the outliers – why did Texas get an A and why does Montana get a D? But California is in a class by itself.

When performing this analysis, the studies author, Priya M. Abraham,… Read More

California politicians and their union bosses lack all shame in their self-enrichment at public expense. Their outrageous conduct has ravaged the once-prosperous Golden State, consigning taxpayers to $1.5 trillion in debt and another $1 trillion in pension debt. Yet the voting public seems oblivious.

The rest of America has watched without much empathy as California’s politicians deal death-blow after death-blow to the once Golden State through insane, hypocritical and often… Read More

While there is certainly extensive discussion and speculation as to the public policy consequences in Washington, DC about the outcome of the Presidential Election, we here in California know that our Legislature’s policy agenda does not wait for the federal government. In fact, in many ways, we have seen the California Legislature reach far beyond federal laws on important small business issues such as minimum wage, labor mandates, and environmental regulations.

This is why the small business community is paying close attention to what the California… Read More

If taxpayers focus on the results of the recent election, there may not seem to be much to celebrate. While the rest of America took a big step toward fiscal sanity, the same cannot be said of California. At the state level, all 3 taxes, one on marijuana users, one on smokers and another on higher income taxpayers, passed. Fueled by massive special interest campaign spending, tax hike proponents convinced voters that they were simply raising taxes on “other people” which made them more palatable.

The bright spot among the 17 statewide measures was the approval of Proposition 54, which will provide much needed transparency over the California Legislature. For years taxpayers have wanted legislative bills to be available for public review prior to being voted on. Prop 54 makes that happen.

At the local level, it looks like 80 percent of the local taxes and bonds were approved. The good news is that, largely due to the requirements of Jarvis initiatives Proposition 13 and Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, these measures were decided by voters rather than being imposed by out of touch public officials.

To read the entire column click here… Read More

“We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” – Peter Thiel, in his 2011 manifesto “What Happened to the Future.”

Anyone living in California who’s paying attention knows what venture capitalist Thiel meant. While a handful of Silicon Valley social media entrepreneurs have amassed almost indescribable wealth, andfundamentally transformed how humanity communicates, investment in boring things like roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, aqueducts, reservoirs and railroads – the list is endless – has stagnated. Especially in California. Flying cars? Forget about it. Go tweet.

Why? Why the neglect?

(1) For starters, why invest in moving atoms around, which is messy and might incur the wrath of powerful climate change activists, when you can move electrons… Read More