Blogs of the LA Area Chamber

With 38 million people and the eighth largest economy in the world, California has the resources to achieve great things for its citizens. But we don't always use those collective resources to our advantage. Besides the obvious political differences between Republicans and Democrats in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., we allow long standing geographic differences to undermine the development of plans to maximize the vast and diverse human and physical resources of our great State. These regional divisions go unchallenged, in part because we do not take the time to understand the resources and aspirations of the rest of the State and how we can all benefit by working together rather than rallying the troops to compete with each other.

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Last week, a group of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) students tried their hand at solving our nation’s budget deficit. At the West Coast launch of Budget Hero 2.0 — a web game sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Public Insight Network at American Public Media — teams of LMU students in economics and political science were tasked with eliminating $1.2 trillion of federal deficit. With free reign to make decisions on federal budget items, including defense, education, social security, Medicare and the Bush tax cuts, the teams deliberated on the real world impacts of cuts and expenditures. They all reached the same conclusion. Reducing the deficit is a daunting task, but it can be achieved with courage and compromise.

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Three weeks ago, Governor Jerry Brown laid out a fair and comprehensive plan to address California’s growing public employee pension liability crisis. The governor’s 12-point plan received widespread and positive news coverage from taxpayers, pension experts and media.

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Walk to End Homelessness on November 19 Each night 51,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles County. This population, which is the size of a small city, makes Los Angeles ...

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Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown released a forward-looking pension reform plan that will apply to current and future public employees, including state, local and school employees. His 12-point plan is aggressive and comprehensive, and deserves the support of the taxpayers and the state Legislature. It acknowledges the runaway and unsustainable costs of public employee pensions that have been staring the state in the face for far too long and can no longer be ignored.

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