An Environmental Irony – No Oil Drilling, Fewer Parks
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wielded his veto pen to find $489 million more in cuts before signing the budget. The governor argued that he needed to create a half-billion dollar reserve, small by any standards for an $84 billion budget. The legislature had presented him with a negative reserve when it passed the budget.
Among the vetoed cuts was an additional $6.2 million to the state park system. On top of earlier reductions to the parks budget, approximately 100 of the state’s 279 parks will close after Labor Day.
It is possible some parks will not be shuttered if sponsors or partners step forward from local governments or the private sector. But corporate sponsors might force the park system and environmentalists to swallow hard in accepting such a deal. Bearing signs such as Calaveras Big Trees State Park brought to you by Blank Corporation (fill in the blank with your favorite example) may be hard for some to take. However, under such circumstances, the park would remain open.
Signed Budget Doesn’t End the Fighting
The budget revision may be signed, but the fighting goes on.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be anxious to talk about something – make that anything – else, but when he decided to whack another $489 million from a spending agreement that took two months of strife to complete, he guaranteed that it will again be all budget, all the time when the Legislature gets back from its summer recess next month.
Speaking at the budget signing Tuesday, the governor said he had no other choice if he wanted to have a none-too-generous $500 million reserve fund in the 2009-10 budget. But Schwarzenegger stuck his thumb in the eye of the Legislature’s Democrats when he blue-penciled millions from health and welfare programs they had fought desperately to save.
And since he already had proposed most of the cuts in his original May revise, Schwarzenegger in essence told the Democrats “Thanks for your efforts, but I’ll take it from here.’’
Victory for Commuter Safety
The Southern California region won an important victory for commuter safety last week. Through the work of the L.A. Area Chamber, Mobility 21 and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), Congress is moving closer to providing greater funding for train anti-collision technology. That’s good news for passengers throughout our region.
All of us remember the deadly 2008 Metrolink train crash, which cost 25 lives and brought the issue of rail safety to the forefront for many Americans. Many experts believe that this crash could have been averted had the rail system been equipped with state-of-the-art safety technology known as Positive Train Control (PTC). That technology helps prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments and other accidents that can result due to human error.
There was an immediate uproar to secure more PTC funding after the crash, but political focus has shifted largely to matters of economic stimulus and recovery in recent months. The L.A. Area Chamber applauds Roybal-Allard and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), who refuse to give up on rail safety and have paved the way for PTC in our region.
Good and Bad News on US Home Sales
Monday saw both good and bad news
on US home sales – which would you like first, the good news or the bad news?
The good news is that, in June, US
home sales were on the dramatic upswing – the single largest monthly increase
in some eight years – an 11 percent increase as reported Monday by the Commerce
Dept., significantly higher than the 3 percent which had been forecast. So far, so good.
The bad news is that prices are in
‘Do the Limbo’ territory – how low can you go? Median prices took a nosedive to
$206,200, as compared to $232,100, just a year ago – a drop of some 12 percent. And far too many ‘for-sale’ houses
remaining on the market meant that new home sales took a real dive and were
down some 21.3 percent as compared to June 2008, one year ago. Worst hit of the regional markets for
new home sales were the whopping numbers for the South, down more than 33
percent; the Northeast was down 11 percent; the West down 10 percent, and; only
the Midwest showed positive numbers with new home sales up 6 percent.