Posts Tagged ‘Jerry Brown’
Monday, August 25th, 2014
Another look at how Texas stacks up to the no-longer-so-Golden state:
Problem: Those lousy taxpayers get pension reform passed. Solution: CalPERS uses “99 categories of ‘special pay'” to go on a pension spiking orgy.
What are some of those 99 categories? “Clerks who type well. Cops who shoot straight. Librarians who are “assigned to provide direction or resources to library patrons.” I’m too scared to check if “Teachers who don’t rape their students” is an actual category or not…
Governor Jerry Brown is sending mixed signals on the pension spiking issue.
Who actually owns the CalPERS gap between actual funding and what they’ll need to pay out? “CalPERS can be risky (and it has been) with no consequences. The taxpayers have all the responsibility, but none of the control.”
So how much payroll and pension did Stockton trim in their bankruptcy? Zero.
There is no California comeback. “Personal income-tax revenues fell by 11 percent in the first quarter of this year and more than 6 percent through June.”
California cities are among the slowest to recover from the recession.
The only way California can get pensions under control is through a constitutional amendment.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is asking for more money. They’re also asking Angelinos to overlook their high salaries and lack of accountability.
City leaders are battling with DWP’s union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, to release financial records of a nonprofit trust, run jointly by labor- and management-appointed trustees, that has run through $40 million in ratepayer money. Brian D’Arcy, IBEW Local 18’s business manager, has refused to turn over the trust’s financial records, and DWP executives have said they don’t know how the money was spent.
California voters get to weigh in on a 7.5 billion water bill in November, which seems to have considerably less pork than a previously delayed $11 billion bill.
So how does bankrupt San Bernardino plan to climb into the black? Cutting back on outrageous pensions? Ha, you must be high! “Help us, weed, you’re our only hope!”
I know this is a shock, but California’s High Speed Rail Authority is behind schedule on buying land for it’s doomed boondoggle.
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz opposes ride share programs like Uber and Lyft. Strangely enough, he’s also received $11,000 in campaign contributions from the taxi industry. Quid pro, meet quo.
YTexas helps companies relocating to Texas connect with local businesses.
Tags:California, CalPERs, fraud, Jerry Brown, Los Angeles, marijuana, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
Chief Executive ranks the states for business friendliness. Once again, Texas is ranked the best state for doing business in. And once again, California is ranked the worst.
“Texas is the best state for business and I don’t see anything to slow TX down. The education and quality of eligible employees is excellent right now. Business is booming and growing quicker and more rapidly in 2014 than any other year. It’s an exciting time in Texas.”
“California goes out of its way to be anti-business and particularly where one might put manufacturing and/or distribution operations.”
“California continues to lead in disincentives for growth businesses to stay.”
“California’s attitude toward business makes you question why anyone would build a business there.”
“California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing.”
California Governor Jerry Brown unveils a budget that takes baby steps toward actual pension and budget reform. Naturally Brown’s fellow Democrats in the state legislature are fighting him every step of the way.
Texas vs. California? Try Houston vs. California:
California state rep thinks the minimum wage in the state should be $26 an hour. I agree, especially if they call it the “Let’s Drive All Remaining Business to Texas Act”…
When he was a San Diego City Councilman, California Democrat Congressman Scott Peters not only underfunded the city’s pension plan while hiking benefits, he indemnified the pension board for doing so.
More on Peters, via an attack ad:
“A new analysis of California’s independent public retirement systems suggests they are more woefully underfunded than they appear, and that Los Angeles County is among the worst of all.”
Bankrupt Stockton’s last remaining big creditor refuses to take 1¢ on the dollar for debts the city owes. (Remember: State pension fund CalPERS didn’t take any haircut at all.)
In bankrupt San Bernardino, talks between the city and CalPERS are making the federal judge overseeing the case impatient.
Chuck DeVore on why Texans trust their state government more than most:
Then factors that appear to explain from 13 percent to 30 percent of the differences in trust among the states: rate of union membership,with more trust in states with lower union membership; state’s level of soft tyranny, a measure of the power of state government over its people; percentage of state and local taxes as a share of income, with lower taxes leading to more trust; the right to keep and bear arms, with citizens trusting a government that trusts them to defend themselves; a business-friendly lawsuit climate; the days the legislature is in session, with less trust as the legislature approaches full-time; and the average commute time, with less time spent in traffic leading to more trust.
Lastly, a combination of from two to four of the previous factors correlates to 34 to 41 percent of the trust in each state with a mix of four: taxes, gun rights, lawsuit reform and commute time, showing the highest link to trust. Comparatively speaking, Texas lawmakers have done well in these four areas of public policy.
When building trust in state government, enacting liberty-minded legislation is a good place to start.
But it isn’t all sunshine in Texas Local debt continues to rise, though Eanes School District voters finally decide that they’ve had enough and defeat a bond proposal.
Tags:Budget, California, CalPERs, Chuck DeVore, Democrats, Jerry Brown, pension crisis, Regulation, San Bernardino, Scott Peters, Stockton, Texas, unions, video
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Regulation, Texas, unions, video, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Monday, March 24th, 2014
In California, I would say that March Madness is ignoring the looming pension crisis, except that madness extends to every other month as well…
Where is income inequality worst in the U.S.? Well, for one thing, in California:
Perhaps no place is inequality more evident than in the rural reaches of California, the nation’s richest agricultural state. The Golden State is now home to 111 billionaires, by far the most of any state; California billionaires personally hold assets worth $485 billion, more than the entire GDP of all but 24 countries in the world. Yet the state also suffers the highest poverty rate in the country (adjusted for housing costs), above 23%, and a leviathan welfare state. As of 2012, with roughly 12% of the population, California accounted for roughly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients.
With the farm economy increasingly mechanized and industrial growth stifled largely by regulation, many rural Californians particularly Latinos, are downwardly mobile, and doing worse than their parents; native-born Latinos actually have shorter lifespans than their parents, according to a 2011 report. Although unemployment remains high in many of the state’s largest urban counties, the highest unemployment is concentrated in the rural counties of the interior. Fresno was found in one study to have the least well-off Congressional district.
The vast expanse of economic decline in the midst of unprecedented, but very narrow urban luxury has been characterized as “liberal apartheid.” The well-heeled, largely white and Asian coastal denizens live in an economically inaccessible bubble insulated from the largely poor, working-class, heavily Latino communities in the eastern interior of the state.
The Myth of the California Renaissance:
California also has the nation’s highest poverty rate and the most food stamp recipients, and policymakers have done little to address profligate spending, unfunded pensions, and ever-growing retiree health-care obligations.”
Inland California, from Imperial in the south to Modoc in the north, remains one of the poorest regions in the nation. Though the state unemployment rate fell in February to 8.1 percent, inland unemployment ranges from 9.5 percent in Riverside to 25.9 percent in Colusa. Of the 20 counties in the United States with the largest unemployment rates, 11 are in California.
California only has the second highest taxes in the nation! Thank God for New York!
Unfavorable ballot language stymies a California pension reform effort…
…but pension reform advocates are regrouping to make another push in 2016.
Indeed, pension reform will be the biggest issue for southern California voters this fall.
More on how government at the state and national level is destroying California agriculture in the name of protecting the Delta Smelt.
There’s speculation that California Governor Jerry Brown actually wants to see the illegal, underfunded, and ill-fated “bullet train to nowhere” die, he just doesn’t want to get the blame for killing it.
How Texas job growth has outpaced both the nation and California.
Occidental Petroleum is moving its headquarters to Houston and spinning off its California operations as a separate company.
Rick Perry raids again.
Telecom company Channell Commercial is relocating from Temecula, California to Rockwell, Texas. “Blaming California for an oppressive business climate for manufacturing growth, Channell said the costs to do business here have made expansion in this state no longer feasible.”
And I missed this story from last year on Chevron building a 50 story office building in Houston. That could mean the days of their California headquarters are numbered…
Tags:California, Channell Commercial, Chevron, environmentalism, fraud, Jerry Brown, Occidental Petroleum, Rick Perry, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Regulation, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014
Meant to put this up at lunch, but Stuff. And Things.
How California overprotects public employee union contracts. If the paper from Volokh the Younger is too heavy-sledding for non-lawyers, here’s a nice summary.
CalPERS is demographically doomed.
The people of San Bernardino vote all the bums out. “After Tuesday night, six of seven council members are now on record as saying they want to explore reducing San Bernardino’s pensions, along with [Carey] Davis, the new mayor, and a new city attorney, Gary Saenz.”
Another California city, Placentia, drifts toward bakruptcy. “Placentia has been papering over a structural $1.5 million deficit in its $30 million budget for at least five years, plugging the hole with lucky money (more soberly called ‘one-time revenues’).”
Stockton: Hey, we’re in bankruptcy! I guess that means we can just kill our shelter animals willy nilly. Federal judge: Not so fast.
Los Angeles firefighter compensation averages $218,000 an employee. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.).
Are even California’s Democratic legislators waking up to the problem?
California university workers plan a strike. See, no matter how broke you are, unions still want wage hikes…
Unions want to ensure that Bob Filner’s closest ally is elected Mayor of San Diego to keep their gravy train coming…
Union membership in California is down to 16.4% of the workforce.
Jerry Brown: Hey, Supreme Court, reverse that high speed rail decision! High Speed Rail Contractor: Thanks, Jer! Here’s $27,000.
Websense is relocating from San Diego to Austin. Dropbox is also moving additional jobs to Austin.
Charles Schuab is relocating jobs from San Francisco to Texas.
California industrial brush company relocates to Utah.
The Texas labor force keeps growing.
Tags:Austin, Bob Filner, California, fraud, Jerry Brown, Los Angeles, Placentia, San Bernardino, San Diego, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Austin, Regulation, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
Time for another look at the respective fortunes of the nation’s two biggest states:
Between 1992 and 2010, California lost $45.27 billion in income while Texas gained $24.94B. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
That’s one of the many reasons Texas has a $2.6 billion budget surplus.
California’s Attorney General imposes some strange language choices on a proposed pension reform initiative.
California Governor Jerry Brown to shift money from a green “cap and trade” fund to the high speed rail boondoggle. “Brown, et al., apparently believe that diverting cap-and-trade fees into the bullet train may buy enough time to move some dirt and lay some track, with the hope that once construction begins, it will create a moral/political commitment to complete the project. But the proposed diversion is more likely to be dumping more money into a bottomless rathole.”
Remember: Spending money on green boondoggles means less is available for paying for luxuries like heating classrooms in winter.
Desert Hot Springs inches closer to bankruptcy. They’ve already eliminated their fire department, owe $4 million from last year, and are expected to run out of money in April.
How the California city of Pacific Grove broke the law and ignored voter wishes to accumulate massive pension debts. “Pacific Grove now has a new unfunded pension deficit of about $45 million, in addition to the $20 million in pension bonds. The deficit grows at 7.5% per year (about $3.2 million compounding).” A neat trick for a city whose entire budget is around $12 million a year. The first in what promises to be a 7 part series.
Orange County employees enjoy a whole bunch of plush benefits.
There’s a movement afoot in California to replace seniority with performance for determining teacher layoffs. Another group wants to make it easier to fire sex offenders. Naturally teacher’s unions are opposing both. (Hat tip: TPPF.)
California declares war on hot sauce maker Sriracha.
Is California’s 10 day gun waiting period unconstitutional? (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
Restaurant chain Mimi’s Cafe relocates their headquarters from California to Texas.
There’s a lot of talk (not yet confirmed) that Vista Equity Partners is planning to move Active Network, Websense, and Omnitracs to Texas.
Evidently Los Angeles can no longer support a WNBA team. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Allied Van Lines confirmed that Texas remained the number one destination for relocation in 2013.
14 things non-Texans don’t understand.
Tags:Budget, California, Democrats, Desert Hot Springs, Jerry Brown, Pacific Grove, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Enough gun news popped up this weekend to justify a roundup:
California Governor Jerry Brown vetoes an assault weapons ban. “We’re through the looking glass here, people!”
But before you celebrate this unexpected outbreak of common sense on Brown’s part, consider that he signed a bunch of other gun control bills, including a lead ammo ban.
Gun Owners 1, Groupon 0.
Police officers three times more likely to commit murder than concealed carry holders? (Hat tip (last two): Ace of Spades.)
Gun control has becomes so toxic that Colorado’s Democratic governor John Hickenlooper is asking gun control groups to stay out of the latest recall election against Democratic state Sen. Evie Hudak.
ATF tried to tries to block Fast and Furious whistle-blower’s book. (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.
Did an ATF agent get the IRS to target a Texas pastor? (Hat tip: Sipsey Street.)
As a member of the Ft. Worth City Council, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis tried to imposed background checks on gun shows, presumably in violation of state preemption law first passed in 1987, and even after Houston got it’s ass handed to them in court for trying something similar. (Hat tip: Cahnman’s Musings.)
Meanwhile, various gun grabber petitions slouch toward the ballot in Washington State. (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
Tags:BATFE, California, Colorado, Colorado Recall, Elections, Evie Hudak, Fast and Furious, gun control, Guns, IRS, Jerry Brown, John Hickenlooper, Washington, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Guns, Obama Scandals | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
Another quick roundup of Texas’ economic strength, and California’s blue state decline:
California isn’t just running out of money, it’s running out of children.
Thanks to more honest accounting rules, six more California counties are now officially bankrupt.
Despite which, pension funds are still in denial.
If Jerry Brown is skeptical about making government bigger he has a funny way of showing it.
Namely, he continues to kick the can down the road.
And he’s still handing out outsized benefits to public employee unions.
Texas is adding jobs across all income groups, and has more jobs than when The Great recession began. California hasn’t broken even.
The Texas economy is outpacing other U.S. states because “it has the financial strength of Germany and the cost competitiveness of China.”
Tags:Budget, California, Jerry Brown, pension crisis, Texas, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Republicans, Texas, unions, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 28th, 2012
I’ve got another Texas vs. California piece coming around on the guitar, but I thought there was enough here to warrant a separate post.
Hold on to your hats, but it seems that California voters might, just might, be catching on that the Democrats who run California’s state government are wasting their money.
I will now wait for the indignant shouts of incredulous outrage to die down.
Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Well, I did say “might.”
The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.
If voters aren’t willing to stop spending for a $100 billion train to nowhere that everyone know will never be completed, and which would lose even more money every year if it was, when will they?
Brown’s measure would temporarily raise income tax rates on high earners for seven years and boost the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in a bid to avoid steep cuts in funds for schools and other programs.
Note that word: “temporary.”
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the way politics actually works knows that there’s no such thing as a “temporary” tax hike. The only thing that prevents Democrats (and establishment Republicans) from spending every cent of every tax collected and more is booting them out of office. Raising taxes simply ensures that they’ll spend all the new revenue and additional money they don’t have on top of that. And with the fiscal tsunami California is facing from bloated government, spiraling debt, and gold-plated public employee union pensions that will bankrupt the state, those “temporary” taxes will never be repealed. Ever.
And two or four years down the line, the next Democratic governor will be asking the voters to approve another “temporary” tax hike…
Tags:2012 Election, Budget, California, Democrats, Elections, Jerry Brown, Taxes, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Elections, unions, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
The challenge with covering the respective fortunes of Texas and California is where to cut off the news roundup. Here’s news of how California is sucking, and Texas isn’t, from the last month or so:
Texas is ranked number one for business. California? Dead last.
Why so many people are moving from California to Texas. “California may be dreaming, but Texas is working.”
The madness of California:
Things will only get worse in the coming years as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his green cadre implement their “smart growth” plans to cram the proletariat into high-density housing. “What I find reprehensible beyond belief is that the people pushing [high-density housing] themselves live in single-family homes and often drive very fancy cars, but want everyone else to live like my grandmother did in Brownsville in Brooklyn in the 1920s,” Mr. Kotkin declares.
Also this:
Middle-class workers—those who earn more than $48,000—pay a top rate of 9.3%, which is higher than what millionaires pay in 47 states.
California Governor Jerry Brown (his aura smiles and never frowns) is hiking state income taxes that were already the highest in the nation. (Hat tip: Prairie Pundit.)
The California budget process is still broken.
A California-to-Texas translation guide.
Destroying the California dream.
California not only has the five most polluted cities in the country, it has the top five most polluted cities in all three categories of air pollution (ozone, short term particle pollution, and year-round particle pollution).
That nugget above came from Will Franklin’s WILLisms, who also brings word that Texas created 32% of all jobs in the last decade, and 35% of all private sector jobs, with his usual skillfully executed charts:
Tags:Budget, California, Jerry Brown, jobs, Taxes, Texas
Posted in Budget, Texas, Welfare State | 1 Comment »