Will A Real Spending Cap Complete the Budget Deal?
Is there a budget deal?
Senate President Pro tem Don Perata says he has reached an accommodation with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the budget, although as of this writing there is no confirmation from the Governor’s office.
The key trade-off is reported to be a temporary sales tax increase for a rainy-day fund, spending cap and some spending cuts.
If there is a deal, Perata will bring the measure to a vote in the Senate, and the buzz around the Capitol is that he may have the votes in the Senate to pass the compromise, including the two Republican votes he needs.
If so, the budget end game will fall on the Assembly. Pressure will build to get the deal done. The Key — the spending cap. What exactly is it, and how tightly can the cap be screwed on?
Defining Public’s Interest
If you read this newsletter, you probably know what it means to take on a fiduciary responsibility. That’s the duty to handle other people’s money responsibly, to invest it in a way that maximizes return and to put the investors’ interests ahead of the fiduciary’s interests.
But apparently California’s big public pension funds aren’t too acquainted with that definition. Instead, Calpers, the California Public Employees Retirement System, and Calstrs, the California State Teachers Retirement System, have been pushing their so-called socially responsible investment plans.
Several years ago, they stopped investing in countries that didn’t have labor unions and a free press. They dumped stocks in tobacco companies and businesses they didn’t think were “socially responsible.” Instead, they boosted investments in businesses they did like and real estate, much of it in California.
The decision to make the giant funds become socially responsible was pushed by then-state Treasurer Philip Angelides, a Democrat, in the dawn of this decade. Funny how the definition of “socially responsible” favored the friends of Democrats, who got beneficial funding, but punished the friends of Republicans, who got screwed.
A Guide to Web 2.0 for Business
Amid the rapid growth of online social media over the past handful of years, many small businesses have been left out of a medium that has been used very effectively by big business to target and interact with a key youth demographic. For those of you still wondering how to get started with Web 2.0, the E-Commerce Times published a guide this morning — Where There’s a Web, There’s a Way: A Business Guide to Getting Social.
It’s not the most comprehensive reference on Web 2.0 out there by any means, but the guide does a good job of explaining on how many tools can be integrated from the prospective of a small business, and it should provide a great starting point for those looking to get their feet wet with the social media phenomenon.
Jerry Brown’s New Ballot Labels
Attorney General Jerry Brown successfully altered the title of Proposition 8 on the November ballot. Initially, Brown had labeled the initiative to declare marriage only between a man and a woman: Limit on Marriage. After the California Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriages Brown changed the label to: Eliminates Right of Same Sex Couples to Marry. He then beat back a court challenge by the initiative’s proponents and kept the new title in place.
Emboldened by this blessing from the Court, the AG considered looking at some of the other propositions so as to reveal a better understanding of these initiatives.
Here, reveled for the first time, is a list of the old ballot labels and the AG’s new improved ballot monikers.
Proposition 1. Safe, reliable, high-speed passenger train bond act for the 21st century
New Ballot Label: Safe? Reliable? High Speed passenger train bond act, hopefully to be finished in the 21st century