California’s political leadership is setting up 2015 to be the year for taking the already aggressive state climate goals and imposing new, far reaching requirements.
Despite a history of success, 2014 will pose a number of challenges for public ports throughout California. It is no overstatement to say that California’s
The negative impacts of sequestration on the international trade community are looming for California’s public ports, and what happens here will ripple through the national
With Veteran’s Day coming up, I started thinking about Carl Seiberlich, a retired Admiral who always told me to take the day off. Years ago,
Alan Lowenthal started his legislative career in Sacramento about the same time I started in my current position. Over the years I opposed a number
While the Legislature will adopt a resolution announcing April as Autism Awareness Month, as the parent of a young adult with autism, it will just
We all have done our share of griping about the gridlock and myopia that can grip Sacramento, including myself; so, when the Legislature is actually
For the past several years, Sacramento
has been focused almost exclusively on the state budget crisis. Ignored
for the most part has been how to deal with California’s unemployment rate,
currently second highest in the nation. Except in isolated instances,
policymakers have failed to address the issue of job creation and
expansion. That’s what makes Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom’s recently issued
"Economic Growth and Competitiveness Agenda for California" a sober assessment of the challenges facing
California and worthy of discussion.
From an international trade
perspective, imports and exports through our ports generate hundreds of
thousands of trade related jobs in California. International trade is a
critical component of the overall economic health of California. However, because of California’s inability to build major
infrastructure projects, California’s role as a gateway for trade is
threatened as alternative gateways are being developed throughout North
America.
The Lt. Governor was right when he
stated "Onerous and inconsistent regulations, slow bureaucracies, and
misaligned policies at the federal, state and local levels present real
barriers to the speed and agility needed to compete in the global economy…
California must also bring its cumbersome licensing and regulatory processes
into the 21st century."
The San Francisco Bar Pilots
know how to lobby Sacramento, witness AB 907. As a result this
homogenized monopoly of 55 men and one woman hold exclusive state licenses
which allow them to drive ships in, out and around the San Francisco Bay, and
this license comes with some great benefits.
They have a great pension. As the only non-public
employees with a publicly mandated defined benefit pension system in California,
they don’t have to contribute a penny towards their own retirement. This
small perk costs somewhere between $250 million and $650 million, depending on
who you ask. Either way, pilots are receiving annual retirements of over
$260,000.
They have great work
schedules. In 2010 each
pilot actually piloted about 140 times, that’s a job on average once every 2
and a half days. And many of those jobs, like the ships moving from sea
to the Port of Oakland are completed in 3 or 4 hours.