Maybe the Legislature will have better luck
State Senate Democrats have introduced legislation ordering every state agency to:
(a) Review all regulations adopted by or applying to
the agency,
(b) Identify any regulations that are duplicative,
overlapping, inconsistent, or out of date, and
(c) Amend or repeal regulations to eliminate
duplication or inconsistencies.
About time, right?
Given the depth of California’s economic slump and
urgency to improve our competitiveness, we can hope that this effort might lead
to a serious overhaul of existing regulations. But based on past experience, it
will take much more than passing a bill to accomplish this objective.
Low Voter Turnouts Mar Elections to Fill Vacant Seats
At the request of Governor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Jane
Harman has postponed her resignation from the House of Representatives for two
weeks to allow the governor to consolidate the election for her replacement with
the statewide special election Brown hopes to call. The move makes sense given
the low turnouts in special elections.
On Tuesday, two special elections occurred in the state with
Republican Sharon Runner winning the 17th State Senate seat and Democrat
Ted Lieu capturing the 28th State Senate seat. But the turnout in
both elections was miserable.
Quick calculations based on the reported vote counts (so
far) and the number of registered voters in each district shows about an
11-percent turnout in the Lieu race to fill the seat of the late Senator Jenny
Oropeza; and close to a 13-percent turnout in the Runner election in which she
took over the seat previously held by her husband, George, who moved on to the
State Board of Equalization.
Stop Blaming the Republicans
The emerging media and political narrative around the Brown
budget plan puts the blame on legislative Republicans. Why won’t they play
ball? Why won’t they fall in line? Why don’t they support tax hikes – or at
least putting tax extensions on the ballot?
The answer
is: they don’t have any reason to do so.
Republicans, in opposing taxes in
any form, are doing what they were elected to do.
Yes,
Republicans represent regions with broad interests. But the people who show up,
vote and determine the results of legislative elections in Republican districts
abhor taxes above all else. These people may be irresponsible or even insane.
They may be relatively small in number. But they are well represented by
Republican lawmakers.
A Message to the City of Los Angeles: Pension and Health Benefit Reform Now or Bust
Last week, the City of Los Angeles received $50 million in bad news. No bidders are interested in leasing and operating nine city-owned parking garages. That lost revenue is in addition to an already $350-plus million dollar deficit in next year’s budget. Despite two years of budget wrangling (with good progress in some areas) the fiscal elephant in the room remains — the unsustainable pension and health care benefits for municipal workers.
Most residents and business taxpayers are surprised to find out that the City of Los Angeles offers 100 percent paid basic health care premiums for nearly all municipal workers, dependents, retirees and spouses or partners. For retirees alone, the cost to provide free, lifetime health insurance is $292 million a year and rising.
The issue is about employee benefits versus basic municipal services. It’s also about fairness. Many city residents struggle to fund their own retirements and pay their own family’s health care costs, yet they are providing city employees and retirees with a nearly 100 percent paid health insurance package. These benefits are fiscally unsustainable and blatantly unfair to millions of Angelenos.