Posts Tagged ‘Bell’

Texas vs. California Update for July 16, 2014

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014

Some other stuff bubbling up, so here’s a Texas vs. California update to tide you over for a while:

  • Former Calpers CEO Pleads Guilty to Corruption Conspiracy.
  • As part of his plea, Fred Buenrostro also agreed to testify to testify against his friend and former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos. Sing, canary, sing!
  • How CalPERs corrupts California politics.
  • Jobs are leaving California and coming to Texas.
  • Texas’ low-tax, low-regulation approach favors job creation.
  • How Texas compares to both California and New York.
  • Why California’s high speed rail boondoggle is still doomed.
  • Stockton’s bankruptcy judge may declare that CalPERS is just another creditor.
  • Bell City Councilman sentenced.
  • Texas vs. California Update for April 15, 2014

    Tuesday, April 15th, 2014

    Today sucks if you still have to finish your taxes. It sucks more in California than Texas, since you have to pay state income taxes as well. That includes a marginal tax rate of 9.3% for all those millionaires making more than $49,774 a year. As opposed to Texas’ marginal rate of 0.0% for all…

  • Rich Californians don’t seem to mind that their green fantasies are screwing the poor.
  • California Democrats are trying to write racial quotas into the state Constitution. Oddly enough, Asian Americans are actually objecting to their children getting screwed out of college admissions. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • “A combination of unfriendly tax policies, military budget cuts and cutthroat competition is wreaking havoc on California’s storied aerospace industry, a new study cautions.” ​​More here, which notes that:

    Texas and Washington offer low corporate income tax and no personal income tax, while providing a stable business climate and skilled work force. Many high-profile corporations have relocated their operations to new states. Recent examples include Northrop Grumman, which moved its headquarters to Northern Virginia; Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, which moved its headquarters to McKinney, Texas; and Boeing, which moved two aircraft modernization programs, for the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft and the B-1 bomber, from Long Beach to Oklahoma City.

  • CalPERS latest report proves conclusively that the fund spontaneously generates unicorns, rainbows and jobs. The Wall Street Journal examines the claims, wipes the vaguely yellow liquid off their legs and concludes “This political report offers one more reason why taxpayers and public workers shouldn’t trust Calpers with their money and would be better served by defined-contribution retirement plans that employees own and control.”
  • The California State Teachers’ Retirement System announced it faces $73.7 billion in long-term liabilities. “CalSTRS has a $71 billion unfunded pension liability.”
  • Both CalPERS and CalSTARS are desperately in need of reform.

    The state teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, needs an extra $4.5 billion each year for 30 years to pay off its unfunded liabilities. CalPERS’ local government members will see costs increase by 50 percent during the next six years. And the state needs to contribute $1 billion more per year for retiree health care benefits.

    These obligations for benefits already earned must be paid, and over the next decade, they will continue to drain funding from essential services such as education, public safety, transportation and health care.

    Yet, powerful interests remain all too eager to kick the can down the road and push our pension problems onto future generations.

  • Why California has an affordable housing crisis.
  • Is there a way out of Taxifornia? As such a solution would require liberals to stop acting like liberals, the answer is: probably not.
  • Bell’s corrupt officials agree to plea bargain deal. Bonus: Robert “Ratso” Rizzo gets 33 months on federal tax evasion charges. (Hat tip: Dwight, who has been all over the Bell story.)
  • At least 60 companies have relocated from California to Texas. But Elk Grove, California is striking back, trying to lure Texas companies to California. “The slogan: ‘Don’t wait for high taxes and stifling regulation to come to you, end the suspense and move to California’ just doesn’t seem too appealing to me.”
  • Continuing troubles with California’s high speed rail boondoggle.
  • Sports equipment maker MonkeySports is relocating from Corona, California to Allen, Texas, adding up to some 225 Texas jobs over two years.
  • A closer look at relocations to the Austin area.
  • Texas vs. California Roundup for November 11, 2013

    Monday, November 11th, 2013

    Time for another roundup of Texas vs. California:

  • California’s high tax, high regulation government, and its resultant high cost of living, has given the state the nation’s worst poverty rate. How’s that blue State model working out for you?
  • Fresno is completely broke. “Now the city doesn’t even have a day’s worth of cash in its general fund.”
  • Given the tough economy, CalPERS cuts back on staff bonuses. Ha, just kidding! They doubled them.
  • Desert Hot Springs is the next California city eyeing bankruptcy.
  • Stockton’s Lavish pensions contributed to it’s bankruptcy. But guess who doesn’t have to take a haircut?
  • The message Stockton’s bankruptcy has for other California cities is obvious: Just screw taxpayers.
  • Bankrupt San Bernardino throws the bums out. And the new team looks like they’re willing to take on CalPERS. A case of mixed messages.
  • Covered California, California’s ObamaCare agency, is hair plugs and fat camp.
  • There’s a magazine called Time that says that Texas is the nation’s future. (There’s a longter story, but I don’t feel compelled to obtain a login to read it.) I’m sure Texas has a much brighter future than Time
  • Your tears, Lakers fans! Let me taste them! (Missing from that piece: Dwight Howard will no longer give 10.3% of his income to the state of California, and Texas has no state income tax.)
  • The Ten California Cities Most Likely To Declare Bankruptcy

    Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

    Who’s next on the California bankrupt city hit list? Well, USA Today has been kind enough to take a stab at it, and offers up the following likely candidates, listed alphabetically:

  • Atwater
  • Asuza
  • Compton
  • Fresno
  • Hercules
  • Mammoth Lakes
  • Monrovia
  • Oakland
  • San Jose
  • Vernon
  • Wait, Vernon? Vernon hasn’t already declared bankruptcy? The city that would probably win “Most Corrupt City in California” if not for stiff competition from Bell?

    If I had to wager, I’d pick Vernon, though Compton and Mammoth Lake are also good candidates…

    LinkSwarm for Wednesday, March 9, 2011

    Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

    It’s a busy week for me, so here are a few links to tide you over:

  • Wonder what a serious attempt at reducing the deficit looks like? It looks like this.
  • Thomas Sowell on Unions: “The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions.”
  • The city of Bell, California, goes to the polls. Dwight has been all over the Bell corruption story.
  • ObamaCare’s vital signs start to fade.
  • “If NPR weren’t substantially left-leaning, Democrats wouldn’t be such huge fans of federal funding.”
  • California’s High Speed rail is a train wreck waiting to happen.
  • While you weren’t looking, the Utah legislature tried to sneak an illegal alien amnesty into law in the dead of night.