Category Archives: Uncategorized
Email And Mugs
Don’t forget to sign up to receive daily email updates from EZ Policy Blog. And I still have a few mugs left.
Ahh Taxes
From The Sacramento Bee: When the fruit trees blossom, the color of green returns two ways to the Sacramento landscape: with spring and the arrival of $60 billion in California tax returns.
Get A Limited Edition EZ Policy Blog Mug
I just have a few more of these great, stainless steel EZ Policy Blog travel mugs left. I’d like to give them away to people who can give me a good reason why they would like one. If you are interested, click this link and fill out the form. At the end of the form, [...]
Oh Brother
The front page of this morning’s Los Angeles Times (Tuesday, Feb. 27) has an extraordinary photograph of some audacious criminal “tagging” a bus window. The photographer managed to take the picture of the perpetrator from the inside of the bus. Why was the photojournalist on the bus? On Monday, Brewer, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa [...]
Now Receive EZ Policy Blog In Your Email
I’ve installed a new feature on EZ Policy Blog to enable readers to receive updates as email. I know there are a lot of readers out there who just don’t get the chance to check for new posts as often as they should; I’d hate for anyone to miss anything, so be sure to sign [...]
Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone
There has been a major brouhaha in Los Angeles over a so-called “living wage” increase for hotel employees near LAX. A compromise has apparently been reached that will avoid a ballot measure on the problem. I noticed the item because the Los Angeles Daily News reported that part of the compromise would include the creation [...]
California Jobs Have Shifted Inland
The California Budget Project has an interesting new report contending that job growth is much stronger within California’s inland counties versus the coastal counties: While California has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent decades, manufacturing has expanded in inland counties. Between 1990 and 2005, the number of manufacturing jobs in inland counties [...]
Minimum Wage Increase Blocked?
I heard some radio news bites that Senate Republicans blocked the increase in the federal minimum wage. But looking into it, there is no news here. What Republicans blocked was passage of the House bill as it originally passed the House, but this was never going to happen. As I reported earlier, the Democratic chairman [...]
CAEZ Board Meeting
The next CAEZ quarterly board meeting will be January 31, 2007, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Sacramento. If you would like any further details, email me at max@ezpolicyblog.com.
Los Angeles County Jobless Rate At 30 Year Low
From the Los Angeles Business Journal: Buoyed by seasonal hiring in the retail sector, L.A. Countys jobless rate in November fell to its lowest level in at least 30 years while wage and salary employment in the county edged closer to an all-time high, state figures released Friday show.
The ‘Jock Tax’
From the Sacramento Bee: When the New York Knicks step onto the court at Arco Arena next month, Sacramento Kings fans may be booing. Across town, at the California Franchise Tax Board, the visit from the NBA’s highest-paid team is reason to celebrate. The Knicks’ three-day swing through California, including stops in Sacramento and Los [...]
Larry Kudlow Doesn’t Like Tax Credits
The zillions of tax credits legislated by Congress down throughout the years have caused the taxable income base to shrink significantly, causing higher tax rates for everyone. These narrow-minded special interest tax favors should be abolished as part of broad based tax reform in order to slash marginal tax rates. Kudlow references this blog post [...]
San Diego to Ban Wal-Mart Supercenters
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The City Council here voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s potential to expand in the nation’s eighth-largest city. But… Mayor Jerry Sanders will veto the ban if the Council reaffirms it on a second vote, which will likely happen in January, [...]
Unemployment At Record Low
Via Daniel Weintraub’s California Insider Blog at the Sacramento Bee we learn that the EDD is reporting that California’s unemployment rate has fallen to 4.5%. That is down from 5.2% a year ago, and the lowest rate since the state started keeping track in 1976.
Celebrate: California Is Not The Worst
Inc. Magazine is reporting that the 11th annual “Small Business Survival Index” (PDF here) published by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (www.sbsc.org) does not rank California dead last in the nation for small business friendliness. Phew. The purpose of the survival index, according to Keating, is to compare each state’s tax, spending, regulatory, and [...]
