Author: Katy Grimes

It’s “gut and amend” season in the California Legislature. More like shuck and jive and obfuscate.

Last week, I received information that another bill had been gutted of its original intent, and new language added to greatly benefit labor unions. By the end of the day, two additional bills were uncovered that had also been grossly amended on behalf of labor unions.

Sure enough, three bills are all about union Project Labor Agreements: SB 922, originally authored by Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino. AB 436 by Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana. And SB 790 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, are

Why should we care?

Because PLAs inflate the cost of construction significantly, and cost taxpayers more money on public projects. Critics say that the extra funds help beef up the coffers of the highly politicized labor unions in the state.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, today presented independent research he says proves the California Assembly has manipulated budget numbers and spending patterns to mislead the public.

The battle between Democratic leadership and Portantino heated up last week over Portantino’s accusations of secretive bookkeeping practices by the Assembly. Thursday, Portantino introduced AB 1129 to force the Assembly to comply with the California Public Records Act, making access to Assembly financial and administrative records much easier.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

Offering up what appeared to be a campaign speech, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the Sacramento Press Club today, repeatedly blasting the Tea Party and Republicans, and even went after California’s Proposition 13 with a vengeance.

What was interesting is that Villaraigosa spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the state’s minority party, and the grass roots Tea Party movement.

“I know some love to talk about media bias. The big irony lies in this: If there’s a single bias, it’s the ever-increasing tilt favoring heat and light over actual news reporting. And unfortunately this hothouse ecology seems uniquely adapted to brewing Tea Party members!” Villaraigosa said.

Calling on the media to help wage his fight, Villaraigosa said that the Tea Party is trying to kill 630,000 jobs by opposing the federal gas tax.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

Never has it been more evident that California is in a downward spiral on the verge of economic, social and political collapse — San Francisco is now pushing to make convicted criminals a protected class so that prospective employers cannot inquire about criminal records.

An already precarious business climate in the state is about to get worse.

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission voted unanimously this week to join the Reentry Council of San Francisco and send a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee “urging them to develop and enact legislation to prohibit discrimination in San Francisco against people with prior arrest and/or convictions.”

Another ridiculous bill is traveling through the Legislature which would kill more small businesses in California because Big Brother wants you to lose weight.

AB 727 authored by Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, would require 50 percent of the food sold in vending machines in state buildings to meet federal nutritional standards, and by 2016, 100 percent.

California is crumbling under the weight of an ever expanding government, irresponsible and condescending legislators, and not because of the waistlines of state employees and school children.

Mitchell’s website states “As part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Initiative…California plans to help lead the effort in creating healthier environments by adopting a similar food procurement strategy for its cafeterias, office buildings, and vending machines.”

California is leading the effort in whacky laws and infringements on individual rights and liberties.

The current requirement for healthy food in vending machines in the state is already a whopping 35 percent.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

California’s agriculture workers can expect to be unionized very soon. A bill that would allow labor unions to organize farm workers passed the Assembly Monday.

SB 104 is authored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and is sponsored by the United Farm Workers union. It has been sold as a bill that would “allow” farm workers to decide on unionization, and as an option to the secret ballot, the current system of determining whether a workplace is unionized.

Steinberg is a Sacramento Democrat and a former union lawyer for the California State Employees Association. SB 104 is his third attempt at legalizing card-check elections for agriculture workers.

I recently described how card check works:

In card check elections, workers can be intimidated and coerced into signing a card saying that they want union representation. The election is not held using the secret ballot — workers must sign the cards publicly. After a majority of the cards are signed and the employee’s vote has been made known to the union, if more than 50 percent of the cards are signed, employees are then required to join the union.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

With another poll out today saying that voters want to vote on Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax extension increases, the media are mum about the many other tax bills slithering through the Legislature which would greatly increase every taxpayer’s total tax bill.

Highlights of the new Times/USC Dornsife poll include:

• * 70 percent of respondents said they supported a cap on pensions for current and future public employees.
• * 68 percent approved of raising the amount of money government workers should be required to contribute to their retirement. Increasing the age at which government employees may collect pensions was favored by 52 percent.
• * Among Democratic respondents, 71 percent supported increasing retirement contributions for future hires.
• * 66 percent backed a pension cap for both current and future workers.
• * However, fewer than half of the Democrats surveyed favored cutting benefits and raising the retirement age for current employees.
• * 60 percent of those surveyed, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, said they backed such an election.
• * 71 percent want reforms included on the ballot.

“Cuts to the California dream” are coming, California Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson warned the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee on Thursday. If an all-cuts budget is adopted by the Legislature, also coming are pink slips for teachers and school closures, he said.

“We are here because there are no options. Smoke and mirrors have been used,” said Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, as he described the dire condition of the state’s education system.

But Republican Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar provided a different take on California’s education system and where spending increases have brought us. “Since 1970 through 2010, the number of students in California has increased by 9 percent, while school employees have increased by 98 percent,” he said. “The cost per student is up 275 percent, but test scores — there has been zero increase in test scores.”

The hearing appeared at times to be a staged exchange between Torlakson, himself a former state Senator and Assemblyman, and his fellow Democrats on the committee. Torlakson said that 19,000 teachers have already received pink slips, with more to come, and 110 school districts are facing insolvency.

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

The owners of the “Dive Bar,” also known as the Mermaid Bar in Sacramento, are apparently feeling a little testy about all of the criticism they are receiving because of the several million bucks in redevelopment subsidies they used to build the bar on the K Street Mall.

The big splash being made coincides with Governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies in the state — just as the 7,500 gallon fish tank bar was being completed, and mermaids were auditioning.

In Wednesday’s Sacramento Bee, a half-page paid advertisement appears along with a cartoon that ran last week, depicting the mermaid bar and pizza joint receiving $6.8 million in subsidies.

Appearing to be paid for by the owner of the Mermaid Bar, the ad states that the bar and restaurant did not receive $6.8 million in subsidies as the cartoon depicts, but only received $3.1 million “derived from the sale of the Sheraton” and “invested $2.8 million of our own money.”

The bar’s owner is San Francisco nightclub owner George Karpaty, who has owned and operated several dance clubs and bars in and around the San Francisco Bay area.