Jon’s Weekend Reading Recommendations for the week ending 8/8! Articles, Charts, Videos, Podcasts & More…
I am perusing the web all week, and I write about some of the things I find. But I there is so much great stuff that I do not write about, but I collect for this Saturday column. Enjoy.
This Saturday feature, which is a labor of love for me, is packed with amazing content. It’s very popular. For those of you who subscribe ($70/year, $7/month), this column is a thank you for your support of my independent work. There are a couple of items above the paywall worth reading/watching. But that is the tip of the iceberg. SO MUCH more under the paywall.
THANK YOU for being part of this project and for putting a spotlight on California politics!
First - A Saturday Mini Column -
Clearly Public Employee Unions OWN The Entire Legislature
Dan Walters has been covering California long enough to remember when Sacramento first made this mistake. That is what makes his warning about Assembly Bill 1383 worth reading.
Police officers and firefighters do difficult, dangerous work, and they deserve to be well compensated. But that does not mean every increase in pension benefits is fiscally responsible.
California learned that lesson after then-Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature dramatically sweetened public employee pensions around the turn of the century. At the time, booming investment returns made the increases look affordable. Then the markets changed, pension costs exploded, and local governments were stuck with the bill.
Eventually, lawmakers responded with the 2012 pension reforms, which reduced benefits for future employees and were supposed to gradually bring these obligations under control. AB 1383 would begin moving California back in the other direction, increasing public-safety pension costs by an estimated $4.8 billion. And, as Walters points out in the first piece linked below, once lawmakers reopen the door for one politically powerful group of government employees, every other union will understandably want the same treatment.
This is precisely the wrong direction for public-sector retirement policy. California should be moving away from guaranteed defined-benefit pensions and toward defined-contribution retirement plans. Government workers and their employers would contribute throughout their careers, workers could retire when they have accumulated enough to do so, and their retirement would no longer leave taxpayers with an open-ended financial obligation decades after their public service has ended.
AB 1383 is just a concession to powerful public employee special interests at the expense of taxpayers.
Reading/Watching/Listening Recommendations!
TWO FREE CURATED LINKS…
PENSION BOOSTS FOR CALIFORNIA POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS WOULD BURDEN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
In CalMatters, veteran journalist Dan Walters writes that Assembly Bill 1383 would weaken California’s 2012 pension reforms and burden local governments. Although lawmakers amended the proposal to reduce its projected cost, it would still lower the retirement age for police and firefighters, raise pensionable income caps, and loosen cost-sharing safeguards. The authors warn that cities already struggling with underfunded pensions could face higher contributions, reduced public services, and deeper debt if legislators approve additional benefits statewide.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS GO FULL SOCIALIST IN ENDORSING BILLIONAIRE TAX
In The California Post, Hoover Institution policy fellow Jon Hartley criticizes the California Democratic Party’s endorsement of Proposition 40, a proposed billionaire wealth tax. Hartley argues that the measure could drive more entrepreneurs and investors out of California, eroding the state’s long-term tax base and potentially costing more revenue than it raises. Noting opposition from Governor Gavin Newsom, unions, and other Democrats, he says the debate reveals a widening party divide over taxation, economic incentives, and California’s future competitiveness and prosperity.
KFI’s John Kobylt does a segment on my column Thursday on Gavin Newsom endorsing and rushing off to Michigan to campaign for Democrats, including DSA-alignedAbdul El-Sayed, who says that Israel shouldn’t even have the right to exist as a Jewish State…
You can listen to it right here (I’m at the 23:22 mark or so.)
Want More?
OK, this column is like an iceberg. You can see 10% of it above the waterline. Below the paywall is SO MUCH MORE. I curate a BUNCH of articles, a great chart, a great video, a great long-form story, and much more. And what famous moment in California political history happened on this day in 1968?
There’s a free trial - try it out and read all kinds of stuff, curated as a special thank you to our hundreds of paid subscribers!
