Political biz
Columnist: Rosario Marin
Nov, 2008 Issue
If you wanted to make everyone in California build energy-efficient buildings, how would you do it? Would you enact new standards, city-by-city and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction, creating a jumble of different regulations? Or would you enact a new set of building codes and enforce the same energy and other efficiency standards across the state?
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Author: Lloyd Chapman
Oct, 2008 Issue
After receiving significant campaign contributions from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and special interests representing the biotechnology industry, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has ramrodded legislation through the House of Representatives that will let billionaire venture capitalists hijack federal small business contracting programs. Thousands of legitimate small businesses across America could be forced to close their doors if the legislation becomes law.
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Author: George A. Cloutier
Mar, 2008 Issue
As the presidential campaign season gets busier and busier, candidates are talking about illegal immigration and the 11 million illegals in this country. But no one is talking about the issues that directly affect and concern the 23 million small business owners in the United States. Small businesses are being neglected and left out of the political process. My question to all the candidates is: Where’s the beef? Isn’t it about time we had some specific plans and proposals from our presidential candidates about how they’ll be trying to help out small business owners? I think it’s about time we heard some real solutions to the real problems small business owners face on a day-to-day basis.
With the results in for the first few primaries, one thing is clear: There’s going to be a contest on both sides of the aisle for the 2008 presidential nominee. This means more campaigning, more rhetoric and more speculating on whose base is being shored up. The focus on change and which candidate is truly apt to deliver is thinly veiled; talk of change is cheap. Now is the time to challenge both sides to spell it out.
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Author: Lex McCorvey
Aug, 2007 Issue
Many of California’s most fertile valleys are located far from Sacramento, but millions of farmland acres are nonetheless being threatened by an ongoing crisis in that city. For the first time in four years, California’s most important land conservation program is being threatened, as Governor Schwarzenegger tries to close a lingering structural budget deficit.
The California Land Conservation Act of 1965 is one of the most unique farmland protection laws in the country. While most states have some form of preferential assessment practice for agricultural land, California’s Williamson Act requires a 10- or 20-year commitment by landowners to maintain the land as agricultural or open space in return for lower property taxes based on the income-producing capability of the land. This commitment takes the form of a contract between the landowner and the local government.
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