Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Covered California Opens Online Enrollment for Small Businesses
Small business owners in California who are looking for more affordable insurance options received some good news this week. California’s new health insurance marketplace—Covered California—announced Monday that the online enrollment portal for small businesses is now open. Online enrollment previously experienced delays, but small business owners can now enroll online for an insurance plan through the state’s Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). This is a critical step forward to ensuring small business owners have a convenient option for finding an affordable and comprehensive insurance plan that fits their needs and budget.
Health insurance marketplaces are the most important component of the Affordable Care Act for small businesses. For the first time ever, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are able to band together when buying coverage—giving them the kind of purchasing clout large businesses enjoy. SHOP also offers businesses more competitive choices, which can help lower premium costs, thus improving their bottom line. With online enrollment now available, Covered California serves as a one-stop shop where entrepreneurs can more easily find the right plan for their employees and themselves. To view options and select a plan, small employers should visit the site to create an account, fill out and submit some basic information about themselves and their businesses, and then shop for a plan that best meets their needs.
Los Angeles: Will the City of the Future Make it There?
When I arrived in Los Angeles almost 40 years ago, there was a palpable sense that here, for better or worse, lay the future of America, and even the world. Los Angeles dominated so many areas — film, international trade, fashion, manufacturing, aerospace — that its ascendency seemed assured. Even in terms of the urban form, L.A.’s car-dominated, multipolar configuration was being imitated almost everywhere; it was becoming, as one writer noted, “the original in the Xerox” machine.
Yet today the nation’s second-largest city seems to have fallen off the map of ascendant urban areas. Today’s dynamic cities in terms of job and population growth are the “new Los Angeleses,” such as Houston, Dallas, Phoenix or Charlotte; at the same time L.A. lags many more traditional “legacy” cities in job creation and growth, notably New York, Boston and Seattle. Worst of all, L.A. has lost its status as the dominant city on the West Coast; that title, in terms of both economic and political power, has shifted to the tech-heavy Bay Area.
A Major Setback for California’s High Speed Train
The future of the California High Speed Rail project hangs in a precarious balance as a result of two rulings handed down by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny on November 25. “The Judge’s ruling will prevent the [California High-Speed Rail] Authority from spending bond measure funds for construction until the funding plan is brought into compliance,” said Michael Brady co- lead attorney on the case. But because that would require finding at least $25 billion in extra funds, Brady believes compliance seems “virtually impossible.” They need to step back and rethink their whole approach,” added co-lead attorney Stuart Flashman.
The Authority’s Chairman, Dan Richard, tried to cast the Court decision in a more positive light. “The judge did not invalidate the bonds as approved by the voters,” he said. “Like all transformative projects, we understand that there will be many challenges that will be addressed as we go forward in building the nation’s first high-speed rail system.”
Another Smokescreen from CalSTRS’s CEO
There’s a memorable scene in the movie Airport in which Dean Martin, playing an aircraft captain, is asked by a passenger why it looks from the stars that the plane has turned around. Not wanting the passengers to learn the truth (the plane had indeed changed direction), Martin responds with complex obfuscation designed to confuse the questioner. Mystified, the questioner is silenced, exactly as Martin wants.
If his recent blog post about why CalSTRS needs a cash infusion is any indication, it looks like CalSTRS CEO Jack Ehnes has adopted Martin’s strategy.
Last month, Ehnes wrote that the funding shortfall for which CalSTRS is seeking a 30-year, $240 billion cash infusion from California taxpayers “stems largely” from the 2008-9 economic downturn. In response, I wrote that the facts appeared to conflict with that assertion. Subsequently, Ehnes wrote a blog post that meanders down a puzzling path and ends with this:
California Finances Riding the Roller Coaster, Again
California’s government finances are riding the roller coaster again.
Buoyed by a soaring stock market and rising home prices, personal income tax receipts are flowing into the state treasury at a rate exceeding all expectations.
The result: a surplus of $6 billion or more is likely if Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature simply stay the course on spending and taxes for the next 18 months. And that’s after taking into account billions of dollars in higher spending on the schools that the state Constitution will require if tax revenues grow as now projected by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s office.
My Kingdom for a Clean Tobacco Tax Hike
This state needs to raise tobacco taxes. For a state as properly focused on health as California, the fact that we have unusually low such taxes is downright weird. We should be well above the national average in our level of taxation.
So why not? Part of the trouble is the massive opposition from tobacco companies to such taxes. But another part of the problem involves the tactics of advocates for this tax increase. They just can’t seem to help themselves.
Instead of sending such money to the general fund, they keep writing ballot initiatives that reserve tax money for a few cherished programs – that are backed by the people who back the measure. This is ballot-box budgeting, with a whiff of pay-to-play. Back an initiative to raise taxes, and get money for your programs.