Last week, yet another high-profile scandal involving mismanagement rocked the California Department of Transportation – Caldrons, and yesterday I  introduced Senate Bill 1141, which would launch a pilot program shifting road funds and maintenance duties from Caltrans to county governments. Caltrans is one of the worst managed, most inefficient government agencies in the nation.  Just look […]

County deficits balloon by BILLIONS after accounting for unfunded pension liabilities The financial carnage continues as more local governments report their Fiscal Year 2015 balance sheets under the new rules, which requires them to account for defined benefit public employee pension “unfunded actuarial acrued liabilities” (UAALs). Last week, we reported that Los Angeles County’s debt increased by over $8 billion when […]

Get ready California. Without very much fanfare, the proverbial one-ton Government Accounting Standards Board gorilla has entered the room. As the result of years of discussions over how best to account for the growing unfunded liabilities owed by government pensions systems, municipalities for the first time ever must include the unfunded actuarial accrued liability of […]

As the initial Chair of the Orange County Commission to End Homelessness, I have a concern about this critical topic.  Remember, I was sworn into the California State Senate last March at the Orange County Rescue Mission. As the Chair of the Orange County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee for most of my eight years as […]

The Bay Bridge debacle is the most serious sign that Caltrans is a broken agency.  There needs to be an immediate top-to-bottom review of its management and structure, followed by house cleaning and reorganization.  It’s a tragedy that Californians pay the highest transportation taxes and have the worst roads to show for it. This Week’s […]

1. CA’s gas taxes are the 4thhighest in the nation. According to the American Petroleum Institute, California’s 61-cent-per-gallon gas taxes are the 4th highest in the nation, behind only Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii. This does not include the recent addition of extra cap-and-trade taxes resulting from bringing fossil fuels under California’s AB 32 law. 2. CA’s gas prices are the nation’s highest. According to AAA, […]