The DREAM Act – A Brighter Future For Many Students
In the coming days, the U.S. Senate will debate the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a bi-partisan piece of legislation that will make it possible for many young adults who are undocumented immigrants to start on the path to legalization.
The DREAM Act will provide a pathway to legal status for young people who are willing to work for a college degree or serve in our armed forces. For many of these young people, America is the only home they know, and English is their first language. They are young men and young women who are successful in school and committed to the kind of work ethic that has made America great.
The DREAM Act will enable undocumented students to apply for federal student loans, which must be paid back, and federal work-study programs, in which they must work for any benefit they receive. The students would not be eligible for federal grants, such as Pell Grants. DREAM-eligible youths would also not be eligible for health care subsidies, including Medicaid, or other federal means-tested benefits like food stamps.
Declare a Jobs Emergency in California
Yesterday, State Senate and Assembly members were sworn into office including 29 freshman members of the Legislature. Governor-elect Jerry Brown and the new Legislature are immediately faced with a 12.4 percent unemployment rate and a $26 billion budget deficit. How lawmakers will meet the challenge of making additional cuts to key programs while finding acceptable ways to generating new revenue without hurting private sector job creation is the question that they and all Californians are asking.
The road to California’s economic and budget recovery is littered with roadblocks, including a partisan chasm between legislators in Sacramento. Despite their political leanings, politicians must contend with a public that chooses spending cuts over tax hikes, and at the same time opposes most of the specific cuts that could close the gap.
The Fairness Factor in L.A. City Pension Reform
Last Spring, City of Los Angeles Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Miguel Santana painted a vivid picture of the severe financial crisis facing the City as the cost of pensions and health care for retirees soar higher and higher each year. He pointed out that the growing annual contributions by the City, combined with the multi-billion dollar unfunded liability threatened to disrupt or dismantle every municipal service for years to come. The recently-released plan to create a new benefit tier for future City employees, presented by the CAO, Mayor Villaraigosa and a subcommittee of the City Council, shows promise to reduce pension obligations in the future. However, the new retirement age of 62 falls well short of real reform and what is fair and common practice in the private sector.
Under the current system, most L.A. City civilian employees can retire as early as 55 years old with up to 100 percent of their final year’s salary for life. This is not only unsustainable from a financial perspective, but also unfair to the millions of L.A. residents who are working much longer under Social Security and are watching basic City services be cut to the bone in order to pay the cost of pensions and lifetime health benefits to retirees. The promises made to current employees under this system are vested contracts that cannot be modified without the permission of the employees themselves – which leaves the City with the limited option of changing the pension plan for future hires and cutting basic city services.
Ending Homelessness in Los Angeles for Good
Every night more than 48,000 people in Los Angeles County sleep on the streets because they do not have a place to call home. Los Angeles has the unfortunate distinction of being the epicenter of the nation’s homelessness crisis. That’s why the Chamber partnered with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and last week launched Home For Good – a five-year strategic plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness in Los Angeles.
Home For Good is aimed at the 12,000 chronically homeless Angelenos who have been homeless for more than a year and have serious mental or physical health problems. This includes approximately 1,400 veterans – an increasing number of whom are soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. By implementing a new strategy, we can provide life-saving opportunities for the chronically homeless and at the same time free up resources for those in need of transitional services.
A Second Chance for Governor Brown and California
During the last six months, Governor-Elect and former Governor Jerry Brown pledged to voters and taxpayers throughout California that he had both the experience and the courage to lead California out of its economic malaise and financial doldrums. The voters endorsed his candidacy because they believe that California’s economy and budget deficit are fixable. His combination of experience and courage gave them hope. Now is the time for Governor-Elect Brown to build on that support and take immediate action.
The phrase “it’s the economy stupid” has been used by many elected officials, candidates and pundits over the years, but it has never had a greater ring of truth than today. Last Tuesday’s elections and exit interviews emphasized that Americans are frustrated by the lack of jobs and economic growth and they want their elected officials to respond. California voters also indicated support for efforts to improve their environment and opposition to tax increases.
Given this backdrop, a future of economic growth, new jobs, larger tax revenues and a cleaner environment will depend entirely on the ability and willingness of businesses to invest in California.
Basic City Services Versus Pensions – L.A. Has A Choice To Make
The fundamental question facing Los Angeles City Hall today is whether L.A.’s residents should continue current funding for city employee pension and health care costs at the expense of basic city services. Last Friday, members of the City Council began to answer that question. While Friday’s motion was a beginning, the Council has much larger reforms to consider if they are to address the primary cause for the budget deficit, which is the cost of pensions and health care for retirees that is growing between $200 and $300 million per year. The Chamber was encouraged that the City Council discussed additional reforms at its meeting today. The reality is that every additional dollar the City lays out for pensions and retiree health care means a dollar less for libraries, parks, police, fire and other basic city services.
Vote Yes on Prop 22 to Stop the State from Taking Local Funds
Robbing Peter to pay Paul has become budget politics-as-usual in
California. When state government faces major deficits, Sacramento
finds a way to siphon billions of dollars from local governments,
transit agencies and redevelopment funds in order to balance the state
budget. Prop. 22 would end the pirate raids and force Sacramento to
meet its own budget obligations rather than looting the locals.
Prop. 22 must seem like déjà vu to many Californians. In years past,
voters overwhelmingly approved initiatives that were meant to prevent
these raids. Unfortunately, those initiatives contained tiny loopholes
through which state lawmakers have managed to drive a Mack truck of
budget transfers.
Recent examples include Sacramento taking $85 million in funding
earmarked for L.A.’s Community Redevelopment Agency and more than $1
billion in transportation funding meant for MTA projects. Taking this
money away from local projects and using it to fill a perpetual state
budget deficit means a loss of jobs locally as infrastructure
improvements and commercial projects sit idle in the planning stages.
Stuck in the Weed – No on Prop. 19
Many Californians agree that the decades-long "war on drugs" has been a
failure. We’ve spent billions of dollars to incarcerate thousands of
inmates for drug offenses. And public opinion about marijuana use is
shifting. Wouldn’t California be better served by regulating and taxing
marijuana? No, not if Proposition 19 is the answer because it creates many more serious problems than it portends to solve.
Prop 19. is titled the "Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act of 2010,"
yet the initiative fails to do any of those three things. Prop. 19 does
not set forth a statewide regulatory framework for legalization.
Instead, it leaves it up to the local governments to set their own
standards. The result will be a patchwork of conflicting laws that will
create a whole new set of legal nightmares for law enforcement
officials and our courts.
Among the many other concerns about Prop. 19 are:
Vote Yes on 20 – No on 27
Beware of Proposition 27 – the most cynical, anti-voter initiative on
this November’s ballot. This power grab by the State’s politicians
would be a quantum leap backwards at a time when Californians are
hungry for true political reform. Don’t be fooled.
Gerrymandered legislative districts are one of the roots of political
dysfunctions in California, Washington, D.C. and in other states across
our nation. Following each decade’s census, states are charged with
redrawing their legislative boundaries to account for changing
demographics and population shifts. Problems arise when elected
officials are the ones in charge of drawing the new district
boundaries. They relish this opportunity to choose their voters rather
than the other way around.
In 2001 when the districts were redrawn by the California Legislature,
the result was oddly-shaped districts that protected incumbents and
killed any possibility for electoral competition or pragmatic
bipartisanship. Flash forward 10 years and we can see how that played
out in Sacramento.
Help Approve U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement
Ambassador
Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative, was in Los Angeles last week to
discuss the status and importance of the U.S. – Republic of Korea Trade
Promotion Agreement. Ambassador Kirk stressed the importance of this
Free Trade Agreement to achieving President Barack Obama’s goal of
doubling U.S. exports in five years.
President Obama has directed Ambassador Kirk and his negotiating team
to engage with South Korea to resolve outstanding issues by the next
G-20 meeting in November in Korea. Two of the key industry sectors
still being discussed are autos and beef.
Ambassador Kirk stressed that 95 percent of the customers for American
products and services live outside the United States. and that the
capacity for these customers to purchase U.S. products and services is
growing faster than consumer demand in the United States.