California

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra apparently doesn't think that $858 million is nearly enough taxpayer money to fight the Trump administration.  That is precisely the amount that California's state budget proposal, laid out by Governor Jerry Brown in January, allocated to Becerra's Justice Department but in testimony before the Senate Budget committee yesterday Becerra said he needs even more to attract and keep qualified lawyers to defend the state.  Per The Hill:

Last August we questioned whether California farmland was overvalued by $70 billion (see our aptly named post: "Is California Farmland Overvalued By $70 Billion?").  Our reasoning was fairly simple, as we argued such a draconian outcome was the inevitable result of large institutional buyers scooping up 1,000s of acres of Cali farmland and massively overplanting almonds because, at least at the time, it was the hottest crop earning the highest returns...and that's what NYC hot money likes. 

For decades now the California bullet train has been the thorn in the sides of what few conservatives actually live in the liberal bastion of the West.  And with cost estimates starting at $65 billion, and ranging to well over $100 billion, or about $7,800 per California household, it's no wonder that fiscally responsible folks would be a bit reluctant to spend so much money on a service few will ever use and could threaten the solvency of their state as a whole.

The California Policy Center (CPC) has just updated it's annual study on pension contributions required from local California municipalities and, to our complete 'shock', the conclusions are brutal for Cali taxpayers.  Among other things, the study found that California taxpayers will be forced to double their contributions to CalPERS over just the next 5 years alone from $5.3 billion in 2017/2018 tax year to $9.8 billion in 2022/2023.

Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

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