Carl DeMaio of Reform California unpacks his assertion that our State already fleeces taxpayers for every penny (highest income, sales, gas, and property taxes in America, anyone?) and accordingly shouldn't lower the required supermajority for tax hikes via ACA 1. Meanwhile, SJ's City Council voted this year to undermine Prop 13 protections via ACA 1—likely against constituents' wishes.
Read MoreAre guaranteed basic income programs really effective if recipients don't pursue financial independence through better job opportunities? But that's what a 2019 study found: Labor market effects were almost nonexistent, as sprinkling moolah didn't lead to more active workplace participation (and really, besides Ellenberg/Cortese, who's surprised?). From San Diego's Bull Oak Capital.
Read MoreElizabeth Brierly—Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association board member and lifelong SCC resident—criticizes Sen. Cortese's proposal to increase the sales tax rate by 33% from its current cap of 2%. SB 335 proponents say the extra cash would fund “vital” core services; but aren't those already covered in our regular budget? Brierly calls for gov't prudence and prioritization (a much-needed “financial diet”) in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreAs SF builds more subsidized housing, its sector of homeless residents only gets larger and harder to manage. In WSJ, Manhattan Institute research director Judge Glock elucidates the disconnect: Almost 1/3 of SF's homeless residents moved there after losing their housing, many allured by the easy access to (and hands-off prosecuting approach to) illicit substances.
Read MoreTo address high living costs, SJ insists on archaic market controls that artificially—and dangerously—cap tenants' rents. As Loyola University's Victoria Perrie and Walter Block explain in Political Dialogues, rent control interferes with housing providers' capacity to maintain and profit from their units, which keeps investors out of the market, restricts housing stock, and dampens competitive rent pricing.
Read MoreAt the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention, Bari Weiss (Free Press founder and editor) explains how many universities avert constitutional mandates and discriminate against certain students' ideas: via disproportionate “fees,” logistical hurdles, and shaming/pressure. Weiss recalls Stanford speaker Judge Kyle Duncan, whose hecklers were defended by then-DEI dean Steinbach (who, oddly, went on to praise free speech in a WSJ op-ed).
Read MoreThe San Jose City Council voted this year to support ACA 1, which proposes California reduce its two-thirds voter approval requirement to 55% for “infrastructure” projects (read: most tax increases). The Sacramento Business Journal's Ken Monroe points out that small mom-and-pop businesses will be burdened the most if ACA 1 passes, as many can't afford legal teams to parse (more) tax hikes and onerous regulations.
Read MoreSupe Ellenberg and Sen Cortese are teaming up to pilot a guaranteed income program for 50 homeless SCC students. Local media lauds this purported win for equity, but others like Forbes' Marco Annunziata observe the project's crucial flaw: It enables an imbalanced job market, in which needed but less universally enjoyed jobs (plumber, janitor, welder, etc.) are sidelined—exacerbating skill shortages.
Read MoreEarlier this year at the SJ City Council, Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association (SVTA) board member Elizabeth Brierly advocated for the Taxpayer Protection and Gov't Accountability Act, which would protect Prop 13 against loopholes. For pro-Prop 13 voters like SCC's, Brierly asserts that the Act would empower them to keep gov't in their lane (and, phew, budget).
Read MoreLocal political watchers have a warning for SCC residents: All those nice-sounding words in ballot initiatives could be camouflaging their real intent. Why the subterfuge? Maybe pols “think we're too stupid to understand what's good for us... like how you give a dog a pill and cover it in peanut butter,” says Manhattan Institute's Tim Rosenberger, Jr. Or perhaps they're simple money/power grabs, according to taxpayer advocate Jon Coupal and SCC Libertarian officeholder Brian Holtz. Below, more insights in this exclusive Opp Now series.
Read MoreIn 2014, California voters (perhaps bamboozled by its now-ironic title “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”) voted “yes” to prosecuting property crimes under $950 as misdemeanors rather than felonies via Prop 47. Almost a decade later, city leaders, police chiefs, and residents are condemning the law's consequences on widespread and largely unpunished crime. Palo Alto's mayor Lydia Kou joins the conversation, pointing out that everyone—“even the addicts it purported to help”—is hurting from Prop 47.
Read MoreThe Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that the Bumb family has filed to remove the office space portion of their Flea Market development (leaving only residential/retail space), via the '80s-established “builder's remedy” provision. The Bumbs' consultant cites SJ's struggling office market. While CM Cohen thinks the Bumbs did the “right thing,” Mayor Mahan calls this emergent downsizing/downzoning pattern a “perversion of state law.”
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