You'll never guess this one: it's actually way more lucrative for City-funded nonprofits when homeless people stay homeless, points out formerly unhoused San Franciscan JConr Ortega. Below, Ortega's analysis of the Homeless Industrial Complex—the gov't/nonprofit entities that profit from homelessness, so long as it remains a serious (unsolved) problem—and how it affects Bay Areans.

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$3.073B in grant funds to CA HSR is sure a big hunk of cash—remarks Cato Institute's Marc Joffe—but let's be real: it'll barely dent HSR's back-breaking budget. In a thoughtful LA Daily News article, Joffe wonders if the federal gov't should continue using taxpayer money to prop up long-delayed, fiscally dubious projects, and he contrasts California's with Florida's (more successful) High-Speed Rail.

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On Twitter, Stanford finance prof and Hoover Institution fellow Joshua Rauh examines recent research on CA's wealthy population downtick. As taxes spike up, and particularly during Covid, many high-earning taxpayers vamoose to low-/no-income tax states like Florida, Texas, and Nevada. And CA's budget (not to mention remaining residents) is feeling the burn.

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The CA Legislative Analyst's Office has just admitted that, thanks to persistent substantial unemployment rates, the Golden State is entering a recession. Looking on, the Washington Examiner remarks that CA—with the highest income inequality, homelessness, and poverty rates in the nation—isn't the emulable powerhouse it used to be; that today, being “like California” (once a hallmark of innovation, success, problem-solving) is more insult than aspiration.

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In a punchy conversation with California Insider's Siyamak Khorrami, JConr Ortega—San Francisco homeless advocate who was previously unhoused for 20 years—unpacks the City's failing homeless approach. By incentivizing drug abuse through no-strings-attached paychecks and “safe” injection sites, cities like SF cripple individuals wanting to get clean and resume working life. A selection of Ortega's comments follows.

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Jon Coupal, prez of CA's largest taxpayer rights organization, pulls the curtain back on ongoing ACA 1 & 13 v. TPA kerfuffles. Since the Taxpayer Protection Act would fortify Prop 13 protections against loopholes, Coupal believes opposition from elected officials (as from SJ's City Council) means they'd prefer to maintain the status quo of manipulating taxpayers for tax hikes. Is this “radical” or just plain autocratic? From the OC Register.

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Citing a lack of outreach and concerns regarding negative economic impact on local businesses, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Northern California is asking SJ City Council to hold off on a vote to a Proposed Construction Ordinance, which they believe would be damaging to all developers. Additionally, ABC notes that unions have carved themselves out of this policy by allowing occupancy permits if the builder is using a PLA or CWA (Union Labor). ABC's letter to the Council, below.

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Bay Area Rapid Transit board directors Debora Allen and Liz Ames spoke with the Epoch Times on Tuesday to break down BART's latest controversial decision: purchasing a $26M Oakland building (which needs near $100M in renovations) for its police headquarters, while the agency's deficit is a whopping $264M/yr from 2028 on. Allen (finance expert) and Ames (civil engineer) had advised BART instead upgrade its existing infrastructure, but the others voted to demolish it.

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At SJ's latest Council meeting, CM David Cohen claimed—without evidence—that ACA 1 and 13 (two "devious" initiatives that aim to gut Prop 13) would “give cities more control over their financial futures and allow cities to be able to raise the funds that they need.” Jon Coupal—Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association's president since 2001—forcefully rebuts Cohen's logic and conclusions, noting that these bills would replace our longstanding financial rights with unpopular, out-of-control government taxation.

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