Watkins: California’s budget surplus thanks to stock market, not Brown
California is adding jobs faster than the national average, and the state has a budget surplus for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. That’s led to some glowing national press for Gov. Jerry Brown, including a Rolling Stone article that called his budget turnaround a “miracle.”
Crazy proposals in other states leave California as the saner option
While jobs, minimum-wage hikes and the future of work are making headlines, something else is happening on the ground in the Tri-Counties.
Op/ed: Ventura County pension proposal is about retirement plan fairness
The big fact that public employee unions don’t mention when they tout the safety of pensions is that when the pension fund loses money, you — the taxpayers — have to make up the difference.
Op/ed: Ventura County pension proposal is costly and unnecessary
An initiative currently being circulated in Ventura County for the November ballot seeking to close the pension system to newly hired county employees as a way of saving money is both simplistic and wrong.
The case for a defined contribution pension system in California
Grass-roots efforts underway in Ventura County and a few other places may lead California to start junking its expensive and debt-ridden pension system in favor of a 401(k)-like substitute.
