Taking Advantage of the Current Business Climate
While operating a business in the United States can be a very lucrative, rewarding and an honorable way to make a living it can also be an expensive endeavor. A complicated tax code, onerous regulations and foreign competition can turn the American dream into a devastating nightmare. I recently reviewed a National Small Business Association […]
Unfair Solar Policy Needs Review
All across California’s African American communities, issues of equality and fairness should not only be thought of as civil rights issues, but also as economic issues. Every day, families and small businesses must bear the impact that poorly crafted policies or outright indifferences have had on their ability to economically thrive and succeed. For these […]
Effort to Raise Smoking Age Hurts Minority Communities
Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, recently reintroduced legislation California Senate Bill 27 (SBX2-7) during the second extraordinary session that will again aim to raise the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21 and limit access to tobacco products. The first attempt at this bill failed to make it out of a key policy committee earlier in […]
Minorities Have Big Stake in Oil Industry Success
Special interests pushing for oil extraction taxes seem to falsely think the oil and gas industry does not pay its fair share. Let’s set aside the reality that consumers will ultimately pay higher oil taxes and focus on the truth that in California alone, oil and gas companies paid more than $22 billion in […]
High Speed Rail Leaves African-Americans At The Station: Black Firms Awarded Only 3% Of Contracts Dollars
One of the selling points of the bullet train was that the California High Speed Rail Project would result in contracts and jobs desperately needed throughout the state. African-Americans praised the Project’s potential economic impact as their unemployment is twice the state average and in some cities almost triple. After officially filing a complaint with […]
“Community Revitalization Trust” Bill Needs Revitalizing
One of the frustrating aspects of politics is that the right
hand doesn’t always seem to know what the left hand is doing, often to the
detriment of the very citizens that lawmakers and public agencies are
attempting to serve. A classic example of this is SB 535 (DeLeon), a bill
currently working its way through the Legislature.
SB 535 proposes to allocate a portion of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emitter fees collected as part of the cap-and-trade program under AB 32,
the state’s global warming law, to a trust intended to offset the impacts of
climate change on disadvantaged communities.
On the surface this sounds like a good idea, and it would be but for the
fine print. SB 535 does nothing to
address the impact on small and minority-owned businesses and the communities
they serve of the significantly higher electricity and natural gas rates
associated with cap-and-trade. These
costs have recently been estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.