Yesterday Neel Kashkari of Laguna Beach formally entered the race for Governor of California. Kashkari, a Republican, served as Assistant Treasury Secretary in Washington, D.C., and as an executive with PIMCO. He enters the Republican field at a time when the only other GOP candidate of note is Assemblyman Tim Donnelly. For the past year (it seemed) former appointed Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado had been engaged in a seemingly quixotic quest for relevance in the form of his own bid for Governor — one which he abruptly terminated last week.

No doubt over the coming months I will pen more than a view commentary and analysis pieces on the race for Governor. But with Kashkari’s entrance into the race, I wanted to open my coverage with an interview with Kashkari, who enters the race relatively unknown to California politicos and voters alike. The gubernatorial aspirant has sat down for many interviews in advance of his announcement, resulting in a number of articles and columns (like this one by my friend Steve Greenhut who writes for the Union Tribune San… Read More

For the second year in a row, California is the most impoverished state in the nation, according to the latest statistics from Obama’s Census Bureau. And it is no coincidence that the poor have become poorer in California in the last two years, since enactment of Jerry Brown’s and the liberal Democrats’ Proposition 30 tax hikes in 2012.

More than 6.2 million Californians live in poverty today. That is an appalling fact, given all the opportunity in this state. But that opportunity, which can result in a $271,000 annual salary for a maintenance yard foreman in Oakland who is a member of the public employee union at the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, is not making its way to California’s poorest. And in fact, the taxes the liberal Democrats are inflicting on our state are having a devastating affect on poor families, and making them poorer.

I attended a conference at Pepperdine Law School last weekend and an economist from Stanford, Joseph Bankman, who testified in Sacramento last year in support of hiking the gasoline tax to the highest level of any state in the nation, admitted that transportation costs for some of the poorest… Read More

“If you say you can’t afford it, prove it. If you can’t prove it, pay up. We’re not being greedy here. It’s embarrassing how low we are paid compared to others.The average salary of a city employee in Redondo Beach is $47,000″– President, Redondo Beach Fire Association, January 15, 2014, Daily Breeze article “Negotiations become hostile between Redondo Beach and employee union.”

Notwithstanding that this statement, “If you say you can’t afford it, prove it. If you can’t prove it, pay up,” sounds like something a gangster would say in a mafia movie, it’s this line, “We’re not being greedy here,” that merits close examination. To start, that would require us to verify this, “The average salary of a city employee in Redondo Beach is $47,000.”

It’s hard to imagine that a coastal city in California would be paying a mere $47,000 to their employees, but that is what the California State Controller’s data “… Read More

A handful of far-left, Bay Area activists think they have come up with a clever plan to chip away at Proposition 13. Specifically, they are attempting to persuade local school boards and city councils to pass resolutions in support of removing Prop 13 protections for business property. While “resolutions” are not laws, they nonetheless can lay the groundwork for future political action.

To bolster their argument in favor of higher taxes on businesses, these activists falsely claim that… Read More

California’s budget situation is rosy for the first time in my more than three years in the legislature. I’d like to say “You’re welcome.” But I can’t for two reasons:

First, while my Republican colleagues and I have been fiscally responsible in our legislative priorities, it is you, not me or Gov. Brown or anyone else in Sacramento, who is fiscally responsible for the surplus. You paid the additional income, sales, and capital gains taxes that gave us the healthy budget we enjoy today. You are responsible for the surplus, not the politicians.

Second, it won’t last. That is not me talking, that’s the governor’s own warning in the budget he put out last week. There is just no sense in any legislator taking credit for a temporary improvement in the state’s fiscal health unless . . . well, I’ll come back to that in a moment.

There are several things to like about the governor’s proposed 2014-15 budget. Most importantly, it admits that the surplus will be short-lived. It comes from – to use the governor’s words – a “windfall” in capital gains receipts and “temporary” tax… Read More

SUMMATION: Updated data from reputable (even pro-labor union) sources show that the mortality risk for police and firefighters is lower than most people think. It’s even significantly lower than I found in previous research just a few years ago — when the police and firefighter mortality figures were both about 16-17 deaths per hundred thousand — vs. the (current) national all-occupation average mortality rate of 3.5 per 100K.

Today the national mortality figure for full-time paid firefighters is about 11.1 per 100K. Certainly more dangerous than most people’s work, but now roughly on a par with “Athletes, Coaches and Umpires” (see chart below).

Even more dramatic, in California, the police and sheriff average mortality rate (2008-2012) was only 4.9 per 100K — only modestly above the 3.5 mortality average forall U.S. jobs. Millions of jobs are more dangerous than being a cop or firefighter — often MUCH more dangerous. A table of some of the more dangerous occupations is included below.

BACKGROUND:Periodically the defenders of big pensions for government employees… Read More

News media and California Republican Party activists are focused on which Republicans are running for Governor, and rightfully so.

But there is anotherelected statewide office that invites a campaign based on intellectual and popular arguments in support of fiscal responsibility.

That obscure but influential office is California State Treasurer.

And that office is quite winnable for a libertarian populist-styleRepublican who can credibly argue to The People against crony capitalism and build a majority coalition of support from voters on the Left and Right.

Why isn’t a smart, dynamic Republican with this kind of thinking jumping into this race? What an opportunity! Below are five winning issues for a Republican candidate for California State Treasurer.

Bonds are free money that comes from President Obama or somewhere, right?

Californians don’t know that state and local “bond measures” on the ballot authorize governments to borrow money from Wall Street and pay it back – with interest. The so-called “One Percent”… Read More

The hilariously mislabeled “Golden State” USED to be ranked “only” number two. But no more. The new Kiplinger study is out.

California is now ranked as the worst state to retire in. Easily the lowest percentage of people over age 65. We “beat” ’em all – NY, NJ, etc.

https://www.fidelity.com/insights/retirement/10-worst-states-to-retire-2014… Read More