California Progress Report

As Mark Paul of the New America Foundation pointed out in his wise article in the latest issue of the American Interest, those cuts are part of the ...

California, said Steven Hill of the New America Foundation, used to be known as a place of innovation; it was time get back to an innovative California. ...

This week, UC-Berkeley Professor Jacob Hacker put out a new report called "Healthy Competition", sponsored by the Institute for America's Future. He lays out how a public health insurance option could compete fairly with private insurance, ...

This year, California state and local governments will spend close to $10 million on at least three elections we do not need. That makes no sense amidst California’s and our nation’s brutal recession.

Election reform expert Steven Hill of the New America Foundation points out another flaw in the open primary system, stating “In a very liberal district, say an urban area like Los Angeles, the top two candidates in November likely would be two ...

With state revenues in free fall, governors are banging on the door of Congress, calling on lawmakers to put assistance to the states at the top of the list in the next economic stimulus package. In the ubiquitous media shorthand, the states want a “bailout.”

This shorthand, however, muddies the issue and the stakes here.

Giving help to the states is not the same thing as opening up the Treasury to shore up a failing private bank or manufacturer. States and the federal government are partners. In… more

Both Governor Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Bass have stated that they would like to form a bipartisan commission to find ways to improve California’s tax system. They seek to modernize our tax system, make the state more economically competitive, and have a system that produces stable revenues.

These are great goals. California’s tax system was designed decades ago in a manufacturing era when borders were important and tangible goods ruled. Our tax system was not designed for the current information age with its mobile capital, worldwide-based workforce,… more

After a fiercely fought primary election, no winner emerged in last week's election in the LA County Supervisor race between City Councilmember Bernard Parks and State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas. With barely one-sixth of all voters participating, millions of dollars spent, and a race that turned increasingly negative, neither Ridley-Thomas nor Parks could muster a majority (50 percent plus one) in the nine-candidate field. As a result, both candidates must now duke it out for another five months until the November… more

Voting just three days before the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the landmark Jarvis-Gann initiative that cut property taxes and triggered a tax revolt across the country, voters in the primary election approved dozens of tax increases in local communities around the state.

By my count from semi-official election results available the day after the election, they passed 26 of 32 proposals to issue school and community college bonds; each of these measures, which raise local property taxes… more

I attended a program earlier today, "Exporting California: California's Influence in 2008 and Beyond", hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California, the James Irvine Foundation and the New America Foundation. The main fare centered around our state's influence on the 2008 Presidential election and also on "Making Policy in the 'Nation-State' of California. There will be some articles on that tomorrow.

But what caught my attention were some comments by Michael Villines, the Republican leader in the Assembly… more