The principal job of states in our federalist system is to provide domestic services such as education, health and public safety. California executes some services well (e.g., Covered California) but generally residents are served poorly, students are treated more like captives than customers, insufficient value for money is obtained from healthcare providers, and public safety employees … Continue reading Service, Please?
Category: Calls to Action – Citizens
Ballot Measures, Recalls and Permanent PACs
Often we're asked by GFCers whether they should help finance a statewide ballot measure. Our response is two-fold: Success of any ballot measure is greatly influenced by the “Title & Summary” that describes the measure to voters and is written by the Attorney General, which is a partisan position. Eg, in deference to public employee … Continue reading Ballot Measures, Recalls and Permanent PACs
Punching Their Weight
Recently I spoke to an organization that operates in fear of a Sacramento special interest. My response won't surprise you: "Stop whining. Punch your weight. If your opponent runs their political affairs like a business, so must you." Examples of well-run political operations in Sacramento include California Association of Realtors, dialysis company DaVita, Consumer Attorneys of California, SEIU (service employees), … Continue reading Punching Their Weight
Supplemental Pension Payments
In 1999, California's Legislature and Governor enacted SB 400, a retroactive pension increase pushed by government employee unions. At that time, the state pension fund (CalPERS) based pension contributions from employees and employers upon an expected annual return of 8.25 percent. (The higher the expected return, the lower the required upfront contributions.) Advocates for the … Continue reading Supplemental Pension Payments
Today Is Day 1
I left the private sector 18 years ago and every day miss this feature: Failure matters. Just imagine the consequences for private enterprises from Amazon to Zoom had they not delivered during the pandemic. They'd be out of business. But not the State of California. It provided lousy services during — and before and after — the … Continue reading Today Is Day 1
Collective Bargaining For CA Public Employees
In 1968, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act endowing police and other local personnel with the power to bargain collectively with the governments that employ them, setting cities and counties on a path to fiscal disaster and turning local and county public employees into political powerhouses. The next decade, Governor Jerry Brown signed the … Continue reading Collective Bargaining For CA Public Employees
Open For Business!
Sacramento is back in full swing and that means our office in the historic Senator Hotel across the street from the Capitol is open and getting ready to host lots of events with lawmakers and GFC'ers. Our war to take back Sacramento from special interests is a permanent one in which we must engage in … Continue reading Open For Business!
California’s Budget Deal
In case you hadn't noticed, we gave you a lengthy respite from our missives while the Legislature and Governor negotiated the budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. Through June 10 we had supplied legislators, you and reporters with several notes describing the need to dramatically boost budget reserves. 27 Democratic legislators got it, … Continue reading California’s Budget Deal
Attention Spans
Among conventional reasons offered for poor governance is that today's media does a poorer job of holding officials accountable. While I think that's too rosy of a view of the past (how well did 1999 media cover the CA Legislature's vote to issue more than $100 billion of retroactive pension increases?), even if it's true, most stories … Continue reading Attention Spans
Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Dear GFC Supporters, It's been nearly 20 years since I left business for state government.Though my time zone didn't change, the pace of change sure did. While the state takes weeks to process unemployment insurance claims, a new technology developed by a California company (Snowflake) formed less than a decade ago enables low-cost processing of … Continue reading Can’t Get No Satisfaction