Articles by Greg Lucas

Sacramento News & Review, October 17 – A growing body of 21st-century philsophical thought recognizes that the 98 episodes of Gilligan’s Island ask and answer all the Big Questions. So, amid this recent flurry of mouth-frothing and hand-wringing over debt, it should be no surprise The Skipper and Mary Ann slice straight to the bottom line. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Do not forget: Stay out of debt!” sings The Skipper’s Polonius to Mary Ann’s gender-bending Laertes in the castaways’ m...

The lynchpin of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget is persuading voters this June to keep paying $9.2 billion of "temporary" taxes for five more years.  If they agree to do so, more than one-third of the $26 billion budget gap will be filled. If voters don't approve the tax extensions in June, the cuts to replace the lost revenue will be "extremely difficult", Brown warned when unveiling his spending plan January 10. Brown might even have trouble placing the tax proposal on the ballot. It requi...

An open primary system like California's has been upheld by a Washington federal judge, bolstering the odds that similar challenges to the Golden State's new election law will also fail. Although the two systems differ slightly, California's system, approved by voters in June 2010 as Proposition 14, is modeled after the Washington law which has been in effect since 2008. California's law does not take effect until 2012. "We're pleased to see that the federal courts have rejected yet another ef...

One of the most ambitious -- and risky -- features of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $119.6 billion spending plan is eliminating California's 425 redevelopment agencies. The Democratic governor contends the agencies, first authorized in 1945, are ineffectual and siphon off more than $5 billion in property taxes annually that could be given to cities, counties and schools to pay for other services. Redevelopment agencies see the issue differently. "This budget proposal to eliminate redevelopment i...

"What we're looking at today is much worse than it's ever been before and our opportunities to fix it are very limited."  So said Gov. Jerry Brown at one of his December "budget conferences" around the state. A major reason the opportunities to fix what is estimated to be at least a $25.4 billion budget hole if the Democratic governor and the Legislature do nothing over the next 18 months is more than 30 years of voter-approved initiatives that both dictated spending and reshaped the relationsh...

Of the more than 700 new laws that go into effect in 2011, two of them are going to significantly alter the lives of an estimated 9 million Californians — but not for three years. California became the first state after the passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to establish health care exchanges, a central part of the federal plan that creates an online smorgasbord where consumers and small businesses can shop for various types of coverage from bare bones to "platinu...

Although "reform" is in the eye of the beholder, two ballot measures approved this year by Californians will change the state's political landscape -- creating an open primary and an independent body to draw new legislative district lines, the process known as redistricting. Both have been touted by outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other supporters as major transformers of how business is done in the Capitol. By making it easier to elect more centrist candidates, it is claimed that the c...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has worked tirelessly to create a legacy proving that a strong economy and cleaner environment are not mutually exclusive.  Has he done it? The economy hasn't cooperated -- more than 2.3 million Californians are unemployed  -- but the GOP governor, whose party calls him a Republican in name only (RINO), has launched California on an ambitious path toward cleaner air and a greater commitment to sustainable practices both in the public and the private sector. "I think ...

California is poised to sell 11 state office buildings to a consortium of private investors for $2.3 billion who, in turn, will charge the state rent for at least 20 years to occupy the taxpayer-financed structures. The unprecedented transfer of state property to private investors is set to close on December 15. However, that closing could be blocked by a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the deal. A hearing seeking a preliminary injunction is scheduled for December 10. ...