County Boards Are Home for Ex-Legislators
Few people were surprised when Hilda Solis announced earlier this month that she was leaving her post as Secretary of Labor. Hey, President Obama’s first term is done, there’s a lot of movement in the Cabinet and it’s not like the Labor Departments is D.C.’s most happening place. But there was probably plenty of head-scratching […]
Proposition 13 Faces Left Turn
With the Democrats now running the show in Sacramento, local business people are bracing for changes to Proposition 13. Some are concerned their property taxes will skyrocket. One of them is Richard Otterstrom, who owns six apartment buildings in Los Angeles. He fears that attempts by state lawmakers to change California’s landmark property tax law […]
State Senate Democrats Crack Down on Fracking
Despite the more than three-decade safety record of hydraulic fracturing in California, Democrats served notice last week that they will be cracking down on the energy-production method in the coming year. The frack fight was led by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, at the Jan. 9 Senate Rules Committee hearing. The committee was […]
Sunnyvale: Making Police and Fire Services Interchangeable
These are truly challenging times for local government. As cities are still adjusting to new a fiscal reality, not even sacred cows like police and fire departments are being spared from the budget knife. Police and fire protection oftentimes eat up the largest share of a city’s diminishing budget. By 2011, three years into the […]