So now the new eastern section of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge may not open on time because it is not safe. Even Gov. Jerry Brown finally admits there is a safety problem; guess he does not want the bridge falling into the bay on his watch. The Federal Highway Administration has opened a probe into cracked bolts, and now it turns out thousands of steel rods were left uncovered during construction and may be corroded.

The Bay Bridge fiasco – 24 years since the need to replace the span became apparent in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and at $6.4 billion in costs, some $5 billion over budget – seems a perfect example of the inability of California to do anything right.

Anybody who reads Fox & Hounds regularly knows about the organization Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.  Their focus is self-explanatory.  A similar organization should be created: Citizens Against Legislative Abuse.  The mission would be to identify and expose bills that have no real policy objective but are used as political vehicles by special interest groups.  These bills are unnecessary and oftentimes have real consequences.  For one thing, they distract lawmakers from focusing on the issues of greatest importance.  Moreover, if enacted, they hurt Californians.

The poster child for Citizens Against Legislative Abuse is Assembly Bill 975.  It is sponsored by the California Nurses Association. There is no real public policy objective behind AB 975.  It proposes a solution for which no problem exists.  The real goal is to attack nonprofit hospitals.  By doing so, they try to gain a competitive advantage to organize or bargain. 

As the Governor and legislators wrestle with the size of greater than anticipated state revenues and what to do with additional funds, there is one priority where Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals and moderates should be able to come together—public higher education.

The state legislative analyst’s office has projected revenues that are $3.2 billion higher than those included by Gov. Jerry Brown in his May Revision budget proposal.  We’re seeing the outlines of a debate about what to do with the surplus, and where our priorities should be, as we emerge from the most severe fiscal crisis to hit the state in nearly a century.

To the distinguished California Public High School Class of 2013.

I’m sorry James Franco canceled at the last minute. I’m even sorrier that you wound up getting me as your substitute commencement speaker, but I was offered gas money plus a free lunch.

I believe Franco planned to talk about your potential—to say that you are the future, that your prospects are limited only by your imagination, that you should follow your passions and be true to yourself. Society has invested its hopes and resources in you because children, schools, and a better tomorrow are today’s top priority.

What if the fuel for California’s next great Gold Rush lay buried within its governmental bureaucracy?  Not through some policy or program mind you but in the revolutionary power of technology to transform what constitutes government.

That augurs some nontrivial potential for the human condition.  In his most recent inaugural address, Governor Brown reflected on the endemic nature of the issues California faces:

“Many of these issues have confronted California one way or another for decades, certainly since the time of Governor Earl Warren. It is sobering and enlightening to read through the inaugural addresses of past governors. They each start on a high note of grandeur and then focus on virtually the same recurring issues—education, crime, budgets, water. 

Last week’s Los Angeles Times article by Patrick McGreevey titled, Lawmakers Test Brown’s No-Tax Resolve with Calls to Hike Levies, should focus the business community’s attention on considering a proposal I have suggested on this site before – an initiative constitutional amendment to allow for referendums on tax measures.

The Times article reported that 20 tax and fee measures were working their way through the legislature. True, Governor Jerry Brown has indicated he is not interested in signing any tax increases, but Brown won’t be governor forever. (Although it may seem otherwise to any Rip Van Winkle who’s been sleeping since the early 80s!)

When political consultant and pollster Steve Kinney passed away last week, the world of politics lost a well-known public opinion researcher and strategist and I lost a mentor and a friend.

If you walked into his old office at the Redondo Beach Pier, his walls were lined with pictures of dignitaries, presidents and world leaders. His clients were a who’s who of California politics, including Governor George Deukmejian, Governor Pete Wilson, State Treasurer Matt Fong, and many others.  I was 24 when I first visited his office, still naïve and idealistic, and to me, Steve Kinney was a rock star. Only rock stars could meet that many leaders, much less shake hands with them.

Apple Inc. is the world’s most profitable and admired company. It’s also the world’s biggest tax dodger. Reported the Wall Street Journal of a U.S. Senate grilling of CEO Tim Cook, “The Senate panel, in a report released Monday, said that Apple used technicalities in Irish and U.S. law to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion over the past four years.”

Good for Apple. No reason to get robbed more than necessary. This also explains how Apple thrives in California’s notoriously high-tax environment: they dodge paying much of the extortion.

And who has most benefited your life in recent years? Apple, with its great inventions? Or the government, with its confiscations and abuses?

Sunshine peeks through the clouds, the cynics with all their money and power vanish to their private enclaves, double-dipping Dennis Zine roars off on his Harley to his posh desert hideaway never to be seen again — the costliest, most tediously painful, anti-climactic city election is finally over.

Happy days are here again in this wonderland called L.A.

Enjoy it while you can because come July 1 order will have been restored, Garcetti will be BFF with everyone from Bill Clinton to Brian D’Arcy, Galperin will have his marching orders from labor and the party, and Feuer will posture and preen to the same political pretenses without even being told.

California Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Chamber of Commerce shared some of the same views during their addresses to the 88th annual Sacramento Host Breakfast Wednesday.

Frederick “Fritz” Hitchcock, chairman of the board of directors of CalChamber, called for the state to reform the California Environmental Quality Act and to not spend one-time or surplus money on ongoing programs.

Brown also wants to see regulatory reform but said it will be difficult to achieve, given that it would involve revamping existing laws. “It’s a heavy lift,” he said.