Herb Morgan – California Globe

California’s Unclaimed Property Regime Turns Private Assets into a State Revenue Stream

August 13, 2026 10:00 amAugust 13, 2026 10:02 am

California State Controller Malia Cohen oversees more than $15 billion in unclaimed property. The program is described as a consumer-protection effort whose purpose is to safeguard private assets until they can be returned to their owners. California law imposes an...

California Needs a Controller Who Puts Classrooms and Cops Before Bureaucracy

July 15, 2026 6:00 amJuly 15, 2026 6:01 am

California’s budget is broken. We spend more, yet too often fail to deliver the results taxpayers expect. Classrooms struggle, public safety remains under pressure, and bureaucracy continues to grow. After nearly forty years in finance, managing billions of dollars and...

Asymmetric Pension Smoothing: A Prudent Reform to Strengthen CalPERS and CalSTRS Funded Ratios

June 26, 2026 8:00 amJune 26, 2026 8:01 am

Public pension systems in California, particularly CalPERS and CalSTRS, face persistent challenges in achieving full funding despite periodic strong investment returns. With CalPERS’ funded ratio recently improving to approximately 79% following solid market performance, meaningful structural reforms are essential to...

Free IDs for All: A Modest Investment in Election Integrity That Billionaires and Sacramento Can Afford

June 9, 2026 9:00 amJune 9, 2026 9:44 pm

California’s election system relies on self-attestation of citizenship under penalty of perjury. Proponents of the status quo, including organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice, assert that non-citizen voting is exceedingly rare. Yet when simple, verifiable proof of citizenship or...

Strengthening Fiscal Oversight of California’s Cannabis Tax Revenue

May 28, 2026 6:00 amMay 28, 2026 6:01 am

California has collected more than $7.87 billion in cannabis-related tax revenue since recreational sales began in January 2018. As a candidate for State Controller, I view this figure not through the lens of policy debates on legalization, but through the...

California High-Speed Rail: A Textbook Case of Fiscal Failure Under Controller Malia Cohen

May 21, 2026 6:00 amMay 21, 2026 6:01 am

California’s long-troubled High-Speed Rail project stands as one of the most expensive and least accountable boondoggles in state history. What began as a 2008 voter-approved promise of an 800-mile network for roughly $33 billion has shrunk to a 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield...

Classrooms First: California Must Stop Feeding Bureaucracy and Start Funding Teachers and Students

April 8, 2026 9:00 amApril 8, 2026 9:01 am

California pours enormous resources into public education from Transitional Kindergarten through community college, the TK-14 system. Proposition 98 guarantees roughly $125.5 billion in recent years for TK-12 and community colleges, with total TK-12 spending (all sources) approaching $149 billion annually....