Making a Deal on California’s Cap and Trade: It’s All About the Cap
California politicians are deep into negotiations over how to extend the backbone of the state’s climate policies, the cap-and-trade program. The Governor’s office and legislative leadership are nearing a compromise that can lock in the 2/3 vote that would provide the strongest legal foundation for a future cap-and-trade program and accelerate the state’s progress to […]
Cap and Trade – Corporate Shell Games and Environmentalist Chest-Beating
In 2006 on virtually a party line vote, the Democrat controlled Legislature passed Assembly Bill 32, the pompous sounding “California Global Warming Solutions Act.” Then-Governor Schwarzenegger, who often commuted daily in a private jet from Los Angeles to Sacramento, signed AB 32, hypocritically stating it was “a bold new era of environmental protection.” To implement AB […]
Lobbyists Checking the Personal Info Boxes is Wrong
The Bee’s Taryn Luna reports that the heads of six legislative caucuses to ask for the race and sexual orientation of lobbyists.This is wrong. Can I say it again? It is wrong even if “voluntary.” For those of us in the Capitol community, we know of many people who have different sexual orientations and that changes […]
The Single Payer Health Care Fraud
Thankfully, the Assembly Speaker has put the brakes on the version of single payer health care that passed the California Senate, but the controversy over single payer is far a from over. The fact is that “single payer health care” is a fraud; it does not exist in a single industrialized nation. Perhaps a few […]
Faulconer Out of Gov. Race; Would Issa Come In?
Pure political “Chaos Theory” conjecture here, but could San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s decision not to pursue the governor’s job open the door for Congressman Darrell Issa to make a bid? What prompted this thinking was an interesting article in the San Diego Union Tribune by Michael Smolens that Faulconer’s decision not to pursue the […]
A High Desert Bridge to Connect California
What’s the fastest way to change California? Unless you have the power to set off a major earthquake, your best bet would be to connect Palmdale and Victorville. These two working-class desert cities aren’t often associated with economic and political power. But building world-class infrastructure to bridge the 50 miles between them might be the […]
The Great California Classroom Robbery
Despite historic revenue gains, California’s public schools are in financial trouble. While California’s public schools often suffer financial distress during recessions, their current plight is alarmingly taking place during an economic recovery and after a large tax increase. The principal cause is exploding spending on pension and retiree health care obligations. State funding for schools […]
Officials gamble with the public’s money, and sometimes lose big
Voice of San Diego, a journalistic website that covers local politics, published a remarkable article late last month about financial shenanigans in the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning and transportation agency. Twelve years ago, the article said, SANDAG, as it’s known, decided to invest – or wager – millions of dollars from […]
Despite Budget Action, Much Work Remains to Solve State’s Pension Crisis
Anyone worried about an earthquake plunging California into the sea should be more concerned about what is really sinking the state: the cost of public-employee pensions. In the just-enacted 2017-18 state budget, about $8 billion of the state government’s $183 billion spending package will go to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS, and […]