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Budget disaster is pressuring Democrats and Republicans to ax $$$'s for their best friends Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures. Scott Hallabrin took retirement as the top attorney for the state's ethics agency on June 29, 2009. The next day, he went back to the same post, as he prepared to watch his pension checks roll in on top of a salary. Los Angeles school administrator Norman Isaacs got a 35% raise in 2006, the year before he filed for his public pension. The increase sharply boosted his retirement benefits. Robles, Hallabrin and Isaacs acted within their rights under California's pension rules, which the Legislature's independent budget analyst recently described as "among the most generous in the country." That generosity comes with a price: The main pension system for public employees is expected to cost taxpayers $2.3 billion this year and has long-term obligations that it is $85 billion short of being able to fund. |
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Election 2012
As the hapless GOP looks on, Democrats about to take 2/3rds majority in the State Legislature: California State Senate 25 Democrats 15 Republicans Dem's magic number is 27 California State Assembly 52 Democrats 28 Republicans Dem's magic number 54 "Can you say 'Higher Taxes'?"
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 Greedy corporation vs. greedy city...a spectacle to beholdEl Segundo, Chevron at odds over oil company's taxes By Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times Doug Willmore wasn't on the job long as El Segundo's city manager before discovering just how deep the town's loyalty runs to the oil giant that put it on the map. After the city began discussing a big tax increase for the Chevron oil refinery a few months ago, he walked out of City Hall to find a note on the windshield of his car. "This is a Chevron town and we owe our existence to them and should be grateful. Get that through your head," it read. The note ended: "Beat it!!!!!!!" After decades of mostly prosperous times for the city and the oil company, El Segundo is having a falling-out with its longtime benefactor. A majority of the City Council thinks Chevron should pay an additional $10 million a year in taxes — about three times what it pays now. But the tax push has stirred strong emotions in the town, which was formed a century ago when Chevron built its second refinery there. El Segundo ("The Second One" in Spanish) gets its name from the refinery that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and stretches more than a mile inland. Many residents remain loyal to Chevron and feel the proposed tax hike is unfair.  Regulators fine PG&E $16.8 million for failing to check leaky pipesBy Steve Johnson, San Jose Mercury News Exercising new powers to penalize utility companies after the deadly 2010 San Bruno disaster, state regulators Friday fined PG&E nearly $16.8 million for failing to check for leaks in several miles of East Bay natural gas pipelines. Some of the pipelines have since been found to be leaking. The penalty was issued by the staff of the California Public Utilities Commission under new rules that let its employees for the first time fine companies without having to get approval from the agency's five appointed CPUC fines PG&E millions for safety breaches By Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s failure to conduct required gas leak surveys on nearly 14 miles of its distribution system in eastern Contra Costa County - including one  Danville
neighborhood ignored for two decades - prompted state regulators on
Friday to levy $16.8 million in fines against the utility. Last month,
the company discovered more than a dozen gaps in its maps, which meant
that entire neighborhoods were never checked for leaks. Federal law
requires distribution lines to be inspected once every five years.
Emergency checks of the uninspected portions of the system revealed one
dangerous leak and 21 other, less-serious leaks. The California Public
Utilities Commission's safety staff, under new rules that call for
citing utilities immediately for violations of federal and state gas
safety laws, issued $20,000 individual fines for more than 800 separate
violations of the federal leak survey requirement. The new, immediate
citation powers were created to counter criticism about lax oversight
by the commission following the September 2010 San Bruno gas line
explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. In a staff
report documenting the violations, the CPUC said, "The cause of the
violation appears to be a lack of clarity in PG&E's standards
coupled with a lack of quality control."In the Legislature: A Sanctuary State...? California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano  (D-San
Francisco) said he is finalizing amendments to a bill that would be the
first statewide measure to counter the Secure Communities enforcement
program, which requires law enforcement agencies to forward to
immigration authorities the fingerprints of all arrestees booked into
local jails. If those authorities identify a candidate for deportation,
they can issue a detainer, which asks the agency to hold them beyond
the time when they would normally be released so immigration agents can
take custody. The program has come under fire because many of those
ensnared have never been convicted of crimes or are low-level
offenders. "States have their own ways of fighting back," Ammiano said.
"We can't stand by and let innocent people, food vendors, etc., be
caught up in sweeps, assume they're guilty of some violent offense and
then deport them and separate them from their families."CSU tries to avoid $400K presidents By Teri Sforza, Orange County Register It was a scandal last year when the California State University trustees hired a new president at an annual salary of $400,000 a year – at the very same meeting they hiked student tuition by 12 percent. It didn’t help that the old exec at San Diego State University’s pay — after an entire career there — was $300,000. That makes his successor’s raise 33 percent. This sort of pay hike was necessary to attract and keep top talent, officials said at the time. But crusading Sen. Leland Yee sprung into action with legislation to prohibit pay raises for top university administrators during bad budget years, or when student fees are increased. Yee’s bill also required that incoming executives could only receive five percent more than their predecessors. But the CSU board short-circuited Yee a bit this week, when it did something of an about-face: It adopted a new policy capping the amount of state dollars campuses can spend on new presidents at 10 percent more than their predecessors received. Campaign and election news:  California GOP failures mount...High court backs panel's new state Senate districts By Maura Dolan and Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house. In a ruling written by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the court said the election districts drawn by the nonpartisan commission, established after a 2008 ballot initiative, were legal and better than alternatives proposed by Republican opponents. The court, six of whose seven members were appointed by Republicans, called the commission's maps "a product of what generally appears to have been an open, transparent and nonpartisan redistricting process." Even if a proposal to scrap the new districts qualifies for the November ballot, "the commission's certified map is clearly the most appropriate map to be used in the 2012 state Senate elections," Cantil-Sakauye wrote. Republican leaders denounced the ruling, accusing the court of undermining the referendum process. The ballot measure is edging toward qualification, although a complete count is not expected until Feb. 24. State Supreme Court spurns Republican request to keep old maps By Steven Harmon and Lisa Vorderbrueggen, San Jose Mercury News The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that Senate districts drawn by California's new citizens' commission must be used this year, even if the Republican Party's referendum to Law and the courts: Judge refuses to halt demise of California redevelopment agencies By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee A Sacramento Superior Court judge Friday refused to stave off the elimination of more than 400 local California redevelopment agencies, rejecting arguments that the Legislature violated the state constitution by cutting off their funding. Judge Lloyd G. Connelly's ruling on two lawsuits by 12 cities means the agencies stand to be dissolved by Wednesday. His refusal to grant a stay in the cases handed another victory to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has counted on the elimination of redevelopment agencies to deliver more money for schools and public safety. The California Supreme Court on Dec. 29 ruled that lawmakers last June acted legally to dissolve redevelopment agencies that subsidize construction in blighted areas. Around the state: Herb Wesson engineers another shake-up at L.A. City Hall By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Newly installed Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson engineered another shake-up at City Hall on Friday, stripping rival lawmakers Bernard C. Parks and Jan Perry of key committee chairmanships that had major influence over the city budget crisis and utility rates. The move is expected to widen the bitter divide between Wesson and the council's only other African American members, who are at odds with the council president over proposed new political district boundaries.  Parks, a fiscal hawk who led the powerful Budget and Finance Committee for eight years, was removed entirely from the five-member panel. Neither Parks nor Perry showed up for the November vote when Wesson was chosen as council's first black president. Parks' spokesman attributed the absence to illness, and Perry said she was excused from that day's meeting. Wesson said afterward that both should have been there. Perry was removed Friday as chairwoman of the Energy and Environment Committee, which reviews proposals for electricity and water rate increases at the Department of Water and Power. The changes, part of a broader Wesson reorganization of lawmaker assignments, could make it easier for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a close Wesson ally, to get some of his spending proposals passed. Parks, an influential voice on the city budget, stalled or killed key Villaraigosa proposals in his committee, including one to balance the budget by borrowing $43 million over five years to pay for an early retirement program for city employees. Open up your wallets wider... California air board tightens vehicle emissions standards for 2025 By Rick Daysog, Sacramento Bee California has approved the nation's most advanced clean-car regulations, solidifying its position as a leader in the electric vehicle industry while slashing greenhouse gas emissions. On Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted 9-0 in favor of new rules mandating that one in every seven cars sold in the state in 2025 be an ultra-low- or zero-emission vehicle. The regulations also bring California in line with President Barack Obama's goal of doubling the nation's auto fuel economy standards over the next 13 years from the current 27.3 miles per gallon to 54.5 mpg. "This really is a historic new chapter in California's history with the automobile," said Mary Nichols, the air board's chairwoman. The new rules, which begin to take effect in 2017, set a target of about 1.4 million ultra-clean cars to be sold in California by the year 2025. The regulations also aim to reduce carbon emissions by 52 million tons each year, the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the state roads. School board members to vote on each other's legal fees Some say the Sweetwater schools situation presents a conflict By Ashly McGlone, San Diego Union-Tribune Should Sweetwater board members vote to approve each other's legal fees? The Sweetwater school board will decide Monday whether taxpayers should foot the bill for up to $900,000 in legal fees — for three of its five members. In each case, the board member who has incurred legal fees in the District Attorney’s Office probe of contracting practices plans to leave the room. The four remaining board members will consider the request for legal fees. Under state law, that may not be enough to avoid a conflict of interest. |
GOP keeps having bad days in court By the Sacramento Bee The California Republican Party keeps making matters worse as it struggles against what seems inevitable. On Friday, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided to leave in place state Senate district maps drawn by the voter-created California Redistricting Commission. This was the second time the GOP turned to the court for help, and the second time it was slapped down. The Republicans spent – and probably wasted – $2 million on its drive to qualify a referendum challenging the maps. It's not certain that the measure will qualify for the November ballot. Republicans pushed for the initiative that created the redistricting commission. Instead of blaming, suing and wasting its donors' money, the GOP should recruit candidates who can win. Overdue salary cap for CSU presidents By the San Francisco Chronicle The trustees of the California State University system finally got the message. A new campus president can be paid a maximum of 10 percent more than his or her predecessor, the trustees decided. It's a cap on eye-popping salary jumps in hard times - and much-needed damage control for previous tone-deaf behavior. Americans need courage, not banalities, from leaders By STEVEN GREENHUT, Orange County Register Criminologists have remarked on "the banality of crime," the reality that most criminals are not dark geniuses, but ordinary dolts driven by the basest motives. The State of the Union is the ultimate example for the banality of American politics, of the reality that the people who want to reform us haven't the slightest clue about anything. They are predictable and bland, traders in base ideas and driven mainly by ego and the desire to help those groups that assure their re-elections. Soaring rhetoric and promised bailouts won't fix what's wrong in California or in the United States. It's time for a little reality and some tough choices. It's time for leaders with less banal rhetoric and more courage. |
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Sacramento Update Washington
D.C. Update
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