Sometimes you wish you were wrong. In these pages last month, I worried that Attorney General Kamala Harris would bias the title and summary for Mayor Chuck Reed’s proposed pension reform measure before it could go before voters, a concern that proved prophetic with her summary. Once again, a single person has exerted incredible power over California’s ballot box. Mayor Reed is now considering whether to even move forward with signature-gathering because of Harris’ framing.

In the wake of several municipal bankruptcies and increasing unfunded public sector pension and benefit obligations, Reed’s measure is meant, not to automatically dismantle agreements (as union advocates howl), but to offer California governments the constitutional breathing room to re-negotiate these relationships prospectively – leaving current retirees unaffected, and allowing accrued benefits for current employees to… Read More

In Southern California, there’s not much better than being able to spend a summer day at one of our state’s world-renowned beaches or to spend a cool summer evening surrounded by family and friends around a bonfire.

I know. I have the true pleasure of being able to live right on the beach in Orange County within minutes of the fire rings provided free, for our enjoyment, at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

But today those fire rings are at risk. Assembly Bill 1102, by Assemblyman Travis Allen, will protect fire rings all along our coast so that we may share the joys of an evening bonfire with future generations.

AB 1102 was written in response to new regulations promulgated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that would severely curtail fire rings on public beaches.

The bill will require the SCAQMD, and any other local government, to obtain a permit from the California Coastal Commission before regulating, prohibiting, or restricting fire rings in the south coast district.

That’s good news, because last March, Coastal Commission staff recommended rejecting a city’s plan to remove fire rings along its coast saying, according to… Read More

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After a disease is discovered and isolated, medical researchers search for the first person who got sick to hopefully provide a clue about how the disease was spread. That single individual is always known by one name: Patient Zero.

If Sacramento leaders take forensic awareness of the state’s overwhelming pension and obligation costs and search for how it all began, they’ll trace them straight to Ventura County – the Patient Zero of California’s $500 billion (and growing) unfunded liabilities.

This is because of the “Ventura Decision” – a unanimous 1997 California Supreme Court ruling that dramatically altered the way so-called “37 Act” counties tabulate pensionable salary, expanding it to include bonuses, health care costs, uniform allowances and other forms of pay.

The original case was filed by Ventura County deputy sheriffs arguing that in addition to salary, several additional items (like selling back accrued vacation time), must be counted in every individual pension. The ruling was made despite many years of collective bargaining that this compensation would not be treated as pensionable.

Overnight, the ruling spawned a… Read More

Tuesday’s news that term-limited State Senate president Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will be stepping down after this year’s session leaves me with mixed feelings.

To be clear — his legislative leadership has been a disaster for the State of California. He has championed more and bigger government — higher taxes and more regulation while the state’s liabilities have skyrocketed. Steinberg has worked hard to drag the Senate even further to the left than it would have been on the natural.

So why do I have mixed feeling? Well, to be frank, Steinberg’s political leadership has had a Keystone Coppish feeling to it. But for the vast… Read More

“Although the city is recovering, we are and will continue to have difficulty attracting and retaining experienced and skilled employees if we don’t achieve a solution now.” Palo Alto City Employee and SEIU Local 521 Chapter Chair, Palo Alto Online, January 14, 2014

This refrain has been heard for over 20 years. It plays out in every city and county in California, whereby unionized workforces claim that if their employers don’t pay as much as the neighboring city, all the good employees will leave, and nobody will want to work for them.

The problem with this, of course, is that as soon as one city raised their wages and benefits to make their jobs more attractive than the neighboring city, then the neighboring city had to endure the clamor from their unions to keep pace. The result? We have workers in Palo Alto, whose average pay and benefits were $139,907 during 2012, claiming they don’t make enough money, and so they’re considering going on strike (ref. “Palo Alto calls impasse in union talks,” January 14, 2014,… Read More

“The core reason [Proposition 30] brought people together was a belief in schools and universities and the capacity of government to make wise investments that benefit all of us.” San Jose Mercury News, November 6, 2012.

The above quote well summarizes the hue and cry made to the voters by Governor Brown to convince them to approve two “temporary” tax increases a little over a year ago. At some events, the Governor even brought along Sutter, California’s beloved “First Dog,” to convince voters to tax themselves, even though California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation. The voters, intent on protecting public education and trusting promises that the tax increases would only be temporary, approved Proposition 30.

Now the Legislative Analyst is projecting a $5.6 billion surplus for the coming budget year, significantly more than state financial experts predicted. We are all grateful that schools will stay open and those in need will continue to be served, but there are other priorities that the Legislature seems slow, or even unwilling, to address. Certainly, more revenue will make crafting a budget easier, but at… Read More

Opponents of the push for a heavily subsidized downtown Sacramento basketball arena are closer to forcing key city insiders to tell what they know about how much taxpayers actually will have to pay for the project.

Last week,Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene Balononissued a tentative ruling in the lawsuit targeting the arena deal orchestrated by Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star. It supported petitioners’ requests that they be allowed to depose Sacramento Councilman Kevin McCarty and Sacramento Economic Development Director Jim Rhinehartabout undisclosed dealings between city officials and the new Kings ownership group to help it buy the team.

The Sacramento Investor Group,led by tech entrepreneur… Read More

Today the following piece, authored by yours truly, appeared at the Human Events website…

Billions of people would like to live in America.

At this moment some 4 million people are patiently following the rules, filling out the paperwork, paying the fees, and getting interviews in order to get their chance to immigrate to America legally.

These 4 million, however, have no interest group supporting their plight. Aliens who cut in line are depriving millions of other people of their dream. Most of those legal immigrants are people of color.

Not answered is a fundamental injustice.

What does… Read More