Washington, D.C. is positioning itself on the climate policy fast track. The District of Columbia city council voted unanimously last week to approve an expansive climate bill requiring utility providers to generate 100 percent of their energy supply from renewable sources by 2032. If D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signs the legislation as expected, the provisions […]
The typical analysis of state and local government finances is that they are primarily a function of the economy. When the economy is growing well, and especially when it is growing faster than expected, local and state government finances prosper. When the economy grows, more people are employed and employees have larger paychecks. State income […]
Back in June we declared, “Basic income could work—if you do it Canada style.” We talked to the people on the ground getting the checks in Ontario’s 4,000-person test and saw how it was changing the community. Then, just two months later, it was announced that the program is ending in the new year rather […]
Proposition 13 is untouchable. That’s been the thinking for 40 years in California. Politicians have feared for their careers if they dared suggest changes to the measure that capped property taxes, took a scythe to government spending and spawned antitax initiatives across the country. However, that is beginning to change. With Republican influence in California […]
A measure of confidence among American households fell for a second consecutive month, weighed down by weaker expectations for economic growth and heightened market volatility. The Conference Board said Thursday that its index of U.S. consumer confidence dropped to 128.1 in December, down from 136.4 in November. The October index reading of 137.9 was the […]
For older Americans, the last few years of work can be a vital chance to patch up thin savings or pay down debt to ease their way into retirement. Many aren’t getting that opportunity. . . . Even though the official unemployment rate is just 3% for older workers, the actual jobs environment is surprisingly […]
Where are people thinking of moving to and from? An analysis of searches on real estate sites is the easiest way to find out. So that’s what Redfin did. The company recently examined searches of homes for sale by more than a million Redfin users in 90 metropolitan areas between July and September of 2018, […]
New York again lost the most domestic migrants, at 180,000, down from last year’s peak for the decade of 193,000. California’s net domestic out-migration continued to intensify, with a loss of 156,000, which has steadily risen from 41,000 in 2011. Illinois, where the housing is considerably more affordable than California, but lacks the economy of […]
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is leaning toward spending billions of dollars to rebuild three aging gas-fired power plants, even as California aims to eliminate fossil fuels, a goal endorsed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Consultants hired by the utility say the city should invest those ratepayer dollars in continuing to burn natural […]
Acounty plan that would allow housing developers to pay their way around restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions looks increasingly to be on shaky legal ground. The Sierra Club has challenged the plan in court as part of its longstanding fight with the agency over its so-called climate action plan. A superior court judge issued a tentative […]
In recent weeks, more than 7,000 migrants have gathered in Tijuana, hoping for asylum in the United States. Some will be deported. Others will be detained for long periods of time. Those who have made it into California are finding support mixed with hardship. Across the border, there’s a cadre of pro bono attorneys eager […]
The vast majority of Americans consider themselves “middle class.” No one can quite agree, though, on what that means. Richard Reeves, along with colleagues at the Brookings Institution, has cataloged no fewer than a dozen economic formulas that seek to define this elastic cohort largely by what people earn each year: household income between X […]
Jerry Brown steps down next month as California’s governor, and to much of the country, he is West Coast liberalism personified, having battled the Trump administration on climate change, immigration and other hot-button issues. But in the state capital of Sacramento, the liberal lion has made his mark in a different and perhaps surprising way: […]
In the past bust, it was the fast-growing exurbs, aspirational home of the middle and working classes, that imploded, driving millions of people into foreclosure. Aided by dicey lending practices from the private sector, devastation was most precipitous in states such as California where public policy helped drive to unsustainable levels. This time the biggest […]
BART service to both San Francisco and Oakland international airports is taking a multimillion-dollar shellacking from ride-hailing companies. Compared with the high-water mark in 2013, BART estimates it has seen about a 10 percent drop in rides to and from SFO in the past year, resulting in a $4 million loss in fares. Oakland airport […]