LOS ANGELES: Sun, Wind, Dust and Salaries Drive DWP Rate Hikes

Imagine you are dining in a restaurant with a dozen other people and the governor of California. While you are studying the menu, the governor starts ordering for the table.

Platters arrive, and glasses are filled … and more platters and more refills.

Then the check comes.

You know how the rest of the evening goes. Who ordered the market-price renewable energy? Who ordered the coal-free electricity? Who had the rainbow smelt? How much did you put in? We’re still short. Does that include the tip? Tax is HOW much?!

For customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the bill has just arrived. Over the next five years, ratepayers will have to shell out an additional $230 million for water and another $900 million for power. Three-quarters of the new money for power is needed to meet state mandates — including the Governor’s Special, a requirement to use 33 percent renewable energy by 2020.

Electricity rates will go up 3 percent per year for the “typical residential” user of 500 kilowatt hours per month. It’s worse for businesses: “Small commercial” users will see their power costs rise 3.8 percent per year, and rates for “high-use residential” customers who consume 900 kilowatt hours per month will shoot up 4.7 percent per year — plus taxes.

The DWP says 85 percent of the additional $230 million in water revenues — a 3.8 percent annual hike for “typical” users — will go toward “infrastructure repair and replacement” and “water quality.” But a big slice of that — 4 percent overall — will go to pay for the Owens Lake Dust Mitigation Project. That’s our DWP-negotiated penance for the construction of the 100-year-old Los Angeles Aqueduct. Since 2000, the DWP has been pouring 25 billion gallons per year of water — drinking water — on a dry lakebed to hold down dust, at a cost to L.A. ratepayers of $1.3 billion. In November, the DWP reached a settlement that allows the use of less water-intensive dust control methods, cutting the annual water use to 22 billion gallons in 2014 but doubling the annual cost to $217 million.

Via: California Political Review

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Will California Republicans Dance With Wolves?​

Jerry Brown, who as a candidate for governor in 2010 repeatedly pledged he wouldn’t raise taxes without a popular vote, has called for a special session of the Legislature for the purpose of raising taxes.  This despite the fact that general fund revenues have outstripped estimates by almost $6 billion.  So now we have the very real possibility of higher gas taxes, higher registration and vehicle license fees with proceeds promised for roads – all without a vote of the people.

That a politician would change his views on adding to the public’s tax burden is hardly a surprise.  Those of a certain age will clearly remember presidential candidate George H.W. Bush proclaiming, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” before his later, as president, breaking his pledge.

In his effort to increase the tax burden on motorists, Brown is receiving support from the usual suspects including Democrats in the Legislature who have become the party of the public employee unions favoring more revenue for higher pay, and radical environmentalists for whom the price of fossil fuels can never be high enough. Even some in the business community are signaling that they, too, could support higher levies on California drivers if the result is improved roads. (By now you would think that these otherwise astute political players would realize that Faustian bargains with the tax-hikers always end badly.)

The impediment to the grand scheme of those who want ever higher taxes is, of course, Proposition 13 which requires a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature. Deprived of their super majorities in the last election cycle, Democrats would need help from Republicans. So the big question is will the Democrats be able to pick off a handful of Republican votes.

We sure hope not. Not only would this be bad policy but the California Republican Party has, in recent years, made progress in establishing a reputation as the only party to represent average working folks against multi-billion dollar tax increases. And voting for tax hikes as a Republican is a surefire way to end a political career.

Moreover, to their credit, Republicans have proposed credible transportation plans of their own to provide needed funding for road construction and maintenance, but without raising taxes.

Nonetheless, we’re hearing rumors that a couple of Republicans might acquiesce to a tax increase. They should know better as California already ranks second in the nation in gas tax rates, even without counting the hidden carbon tax. The new tax would make the state an outright number one and would add to the already highest gasoline prices.

Expect Republican legislators to be wined and dined and invited to dance by those lobbing for higher taxes. These favor seekers will be wearing their most benign looking sheep costumes but legislative Republicans should be aware that these are actually wolves who, once they have gotten the votes they  want, will turn on them without provocation if it suits their interests.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — California’s largest grass-roots taxpayer organization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement of taxpayers’ rights.

Via: California Political Review

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Actor Jim Carrey: Gov. Jerry Brown is a 'Corporate Fascist'

Actor Jim Carrey called California Gov. Jerry Brown a “fascist” for signing into law a mandatory immunization bill, which eliminates personal and religious exemptions, according to MSNBC.

“California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped,” Carrey wrote in atweet on June 30. Carrey used to date actress Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son.

Carrey said while he is “not anti-vaccine,” he is “anti-thimerosal, anti-mercury.” The preservative ingredients found in some vaccines have not been taken out of all vaccines, Carrey warned.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, has not been used as a preservative in routine childhood vaccinations since 2001, except in some influenza vaccines.

Via: CNS News

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CA GOP Can Wield Power During Special Legislative Sessions

Jerry Brown made the Republican legislators relevant again. Brown’s call for special sessions for transportation and Medi-Cal funding invariably brings talk about possible tax increases. With a two-thirds vote needed to raise taxes, and the Democratic majority shy of the super two-thirds mark, Republicans must be part of the conversation.

Despite their best efforts offering innovative approaches to some of California’s difficult problems during the legislative session, the Democrats on major bills and the budget that needed simple majority approval mostly have sidelined Republicans. But that will not be the case when revenue solutions are sought and debated during the special sessions.

According to the governor, the special sessions are about permanent revenue sources to bolster transportation infrastructure and Medi-Cal. While Republicans put forward plans to use current revenues to satisfy funding concerns for the roads, much of the talk will focus on tax and fee increases. Republicans have said no to the need for new taxes since the state is awash in new money. Even post budget signing, the Legislative Analyst’s Office reported the state brought in a half-a-billion dollars more that the budget anticipated.

(As an aside, Republicans may have already supported a tax in their road funding proposal depending on how a court rules. One Republican suggestion is to use cap-and-trade funds recently put on gasoline production to fund transportation. The California Chamber of Commerce has gone to court claiming cap-and-trade amounts to a tax. If the Chamber suit is successful part of the Republican transportation package is a tax.)

Republicans position on taxes will also be tested in any Medi-Cal fix. One of the leading proposals to fund Medi-Cal is to increase the tobacco tax. If the governor is searching for a permanent revenue source to fund Medi-Cal, tobacco tax seems a poor choice. The tobacco tax is a diminishing resource as fewer people choose to smoke. Increasing the tax on smoking is supposed to discourage the practice thus limiting future revenues. Relying on the tobacco tax to rescue the Medi-Cal program would seem short sighted given the governor’s stated goal.

Given the need for Republican votes for tax plans, Republicans are in the middle of the debate and can offer savings ideas and plans re-directing current revenues that cannot easily be dismissed by the majority. If the GOP simply gave in to raising taxes then the issue of Democrats needing a supermajority is moot. Republicans will use their leverage to be deeply engaged in any solutions.

Via: California Political Review

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DONNELLY LAUNCHES REFERENDUM TO OVERTURN NEW VACCINE LAW

Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

by MICHELLE MOONS2 Jul 2015San Diego, CA6

Former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has launched a referendum against vaccine law SB277, pledging to work with every individual or group to collect the signatures needed to put the vaccine referendum on the 2016 ballot and let voters decide this issue.

“This is we, the people, exercising the people’s veto,” Donnelly told Breitbart News.

“This referendum is not about vaccinations; it is about defending the fundamental freedom of a parent to make an informed decision for their children without being unduly penalized by a government that believes it knows best.”

Many of SB277’s opponents indicated that they do vaccinate their children, but opposed the infringement on parental rights.

Hundreds of Californians from across the state fought a long battle against the bill in the legislature. On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB277 into law. As of Tuesday, tens of thousands had signed petitions calling for Brown to veto three pieces of legislation related to vaccine requirements, including SB277. As of Thursday, nearly 100,000 had signed the petitions, combined.

“Do you think the government or parents should have more control about what is injected into your child’s body?” Donnelly asked. “The government is intimidating parents by denying children the right to education.”

Prior to SB277, if a parent chose to opt a child out of even one vaccination such as Hepatitis B, but still vaccinate for all other diseases as required, that parent could sign a personal belief waiver. SB277 eliminates that waiver, making California one of strictest states in the nation. Parents that still wish to opt out of even one vaccination will not be allowed to enroll that child in private or public school.

“They are stamping out a parents’ right to make their own medical decisions for their kids,” Donnelly told Breitbart News.

According to Donnelly, California already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Centers for Disease Control statistics as of September 2014 show Californiavaccination rates in the young 19-35 month range within a reasonable range as compared to other states, he noted. CDC charts show California among the most vaccinated states for MMR, DTap and Hib.

Via: Breitbart

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THE VIRTUE OF MANDATORY VACCINATION: Celebrities are not medical experts, not even Jim Carrey Almighty.

On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that makes California the third state to eliminate “personal belief” exemptions from vaccine requirements for children to attend schools, either public or private.

Starting with the 2016 school year (and with one important exception noted below), all children except those with medical circumstances that would render vaccination unsafe must be vaccinated against ten specific illnesses in order to enroll in a California school. Those who insist on not vaccinating must home-school or find other “independent study” methods of education. The requirement applies to public and private schools, child day care centers (including homes that provide family day care services), and nursery schools. According to the Los Angeles Times, “the new law could affect more than 80,000 California students who annually claim personal belief exemptions.”

Actor/comedian Jim Carrey isn’t happy about the new law, about which more in a moment. Note to Jim: Jenny McCarthy is married; you’re not going to be able to sleep with her again (though I don’t blame you for thinking about it). So please, stop pandering to Jenny’s insanity by buying into her claim, which is not just ignorant but extremely harmful, that vaccinating children is dangerous. (McCarthy believes that a vaccine caused her son’s autism, from which he has largely recovered. Some have questioned whether he was ever autistic, a suggestion the former Playboy Playmate of the Year aggressively rejects.)

Despite trying to revise her own history, McCarthy has — in part thanks to being promoted by Oprah Winfrey — for nearly a decade been the face (and body?) of the anti-vaccine movement. In 2007, she told CNN that “moms and pregnant women” were asking her advice on vaccinating children. Her response: “I don’t know what to tell them, because I am surely not going to tell anyone to vaccinate. But if I had another child, there’s no way in hell.”

The number of unvaccinated children has been rising rapidly in recent years, particularly among upper-middle class white suburbanites. Although several conservative religious communities avoid vaccines, bastions of liberalism such as Boulder, Colorado (the nearest city to my home), have some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates. In fact, Colorado has the lowest kindergarten vaccine rate in the country (82 percent for MMR as compared to a 95 percent national average); Mississippi has the highest rate.

Via: The Spectator

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‘All about the money’: Motorists plagued by sky-high Calif. traffic ticket fines

Casey Campbell served two tours in Iraq, but the fight of his life is in California.

After driving without a seat belt and no front plate, he got a $25 traffic ticket that jumped to $300 with assessments and surcharges. Unable to pay in full, the ticket rose to $600, and then $819 when he missed a court date.

The state automatically took his driver's license and turned the ticket over to a collections agency. Police later impounded his car when he drove to work on a suspended license. Unable to make a living, Campbell ended up broke and homeless.

"It was $4,000 for two citations," Campbell said, standing on a street corner in West Los Angeles. "And once the ticket went to collections, the judge said there's nothing he could do. It just snowballed. At a certain point, there's just no way to get back on your feet."

Campbell isn't the only victim of California's effort to wring more money from traffic scofflaws. Residents owe state coffers $10 billion in unpaid tickets. Currently 4 million Californians -- 17 percent of the state's adult population -- have a suspended license for failure to appear or pay.

It’s gotten so bad that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing an amnesty program for those owing money.

Via: Fox News

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CALIFORNIA: Special Tax Sessions Announced by Gov. Brown

In announcing the budget deal with the Legislature, Governor Jerry Brown announced two special sessions to deal with transportation and Medi-Cal funding. Call them the Special Tax Sessions.

In the press release announcing the sessions, the governor stated that the sessions were to “find more adequate funding for our roads and health care programs.”

The governor asked for “permanent and sustainable funding to maintain and repair the state’s transportation and critical infrastructure.” He also wants “permanent and sustainable funding to provide at least $1.1 billion annually to stabilize the state’s General Fund costs for Medi-Cal,” some of which would be used to meet the demands of programs Democratic legislators sought funds for in the current budget such as In-Home Supportive Services.

At the governor’s press conference announcing the budget deal, reporters asked Brown about his first term (third term?) campaign pledge to only seek tax increases with approval of voters. Brown brushed aside the old pledge indicating the pledge only applied to his first term.

Add it all up and there will be a push for tax or fee increases to support the governor’s call for “permanent and sustainable funding.” Discussions will revolve around gas taxes and a higher car tax or maybe a mileage fee for transportation; perhaps an increased cigarette tax and other healthcare taxes for Medi-Cal.

Brown might hope for support from the business community for the transportation and infrastructure fix. Those issues have been of on-going concern to business.

Via: California Political Review

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California’s Political Earthquake On Its Way

California is facing an uncertain future – and it’s not an earthquake, despite a current blockbuster movie. There’s a water crisis, an education system declared woeful by a state judge and soaring costs on all levels – water, utilities, energy, housing and taxes. These could all be eclipsed by the huge elephant in the room – unfunded pensions and health care for state and local government employees that could be $1 trillion or more.

What are our public officials doing? As was recently reported, there are no fewer than a dozen proposals in the legislature to increase taxes AND spending, despite the massive underfunding of pensions and health care. The governor crows about a California ‘comeback’ but he almost completely ignores the trillion dollar bomb expected to hit over the next 20 years. This government employee pensions and healthcare bomb only gets worse, as life expectancies expand and investments underperform the rosy scenarios built into their projections.

Take heart, California, there is change coming and it’s not the San Andreas splitting apart. It will be a political earthquake and it’s called the Neighborhood Legislature (NL). It will replace the dysfunctional and practically corrupt (if not actually corrupt in some cases) California legislature. We just received Title and Summary and we have built a professional plus volunteer organization that will soon be circulating through the neighborhood precincts of California to collect signatures and build support for this groundbreaking proposal.

Why is this such a political earthquake? Because it holds real promise that it will return power to actual representatives of the people, citizen legislators, who will be able to explore and implement the important reforms unimpeded by the allure and/or sting from special interest money spent to protect the status quo. These citizen legislators will replace the professional fundraisers and special interest representatives we currently endure.

Via: California Political Review

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California’s Drought is a Communications and Policy Issue

Photo Credit: The International Rice Research InstituteIn the face of California’s crippling drought, public agencies will have to employ wide-ranging strategies and tactics to educate, motivate, enforce, and reinforce messages about drastic water cutbacks.

Their success or failure hinges on how they communicate to diverse audiences about managing water, a precious natural resource. In their dilemma, there are also communications lessons.

On Tuesday, California’s State Water Resources Board said residents used 13.5 percent less water against an April 2013 benchmark. This is a significant improvement over previous months, but it also shows a major gap in achieving the mandatory average 25 percent reduction in urban water use ordered by California Governor Jerry Brown. 

The drought has generated thousands of media stories and an unending stream of tweets and posts and sparked intense debate on what needs to be done. Water agencies, city managers, and other local elected officials will have to make major decisions, large and small, about how to urge residents to use much less, and conserve much more, water.

In this highly charged atmosphere, carefully developed communication strategies will be essential to get the public informed and accepting of the solutions required. Organizations will have to engage from the top down at the state level to coordinate messages and from the bottom up at the local level to make relevant, persuasive arguments.

Via: California Political Review

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COVERED CALIFORNIA MAY MERGE WITH BANKRUPT STATE OBAMACARE EXCHANGES

With major insurers in some states proposing up to 51 percent Obamacare insurance premium increases, liberal Democrats are scrambling to avoid a political and financial disaster. One proposal is to merge California’s financially troubled “Covered California” exchange with the even more insolvent state exchanges, like “Cover Oregon,” which was forced to shut down last year.

Obamacare provided $4.8 billion in federal funding for 13 states to set up their own independent healthcare exchanges. But after just 17 months of operations, spending has frittered away that money and most exchanges are experiencing serious cash-flow problems. The Covered California exchange is already running an $80 million deficit as of April, and the Cover Oregon was shut down in April 2014 and opted to transition to the federal system after blowing through $248 million in federal cash.

Governor Jerry Brown has an opportunity to demonstrate his national stature by offering to lead the merger of the California and Oregon exchanges. Conceivably, he could then propose rolling-up other financially struggling exchanges, like New York and Connecticut exchanges, which are just beginning preliminary joint-venture talks.

Oregon tried to publicly berate Oracle Corporation, the lead website developer for “Cover Oregon,” for the failure of the state exchange due to technology problems allegedly outside of bureaucrats’ control.

But in a lawsuit filed against “Cover Oregon,” Oracle claimed they are still owed $23 million under their contract. According to the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit noted that hundreds of thousands of Oregonians were enrolled in health insurance by back-office customer service representatives and health insurance agents using the software built by Oracle and a dozen other contractors. But state officials never terminated the temporary administrative workers and switched over so consumers could enroll on their own online.

Via: Breitbart

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CALIFORNIA: Revised Estimate for K-12 Spending: $6 Billion More Next Year

Spending for K-12 schools in the coming year will be $6 billion more than Gov. Jerry Brown proposed just five months ago, raising per-student spending $3,000 – 45 percent – from what it was four years ago, according to the revised state budget that the governor released on Thursday.

State revenues have surged this year, and K-12 schools and community colleges will haul in nearly every penny because of Proposition 98, the constitutional amendment that puts schools first in line for restoring funding when the economy rebounds after a recession.

The new level of Prop. 98 spending for K-12 schools and community colleges will be $68.4 billion in 2015-16. That is $7.5 billion more than the Legislature appropriated last June for the current year. Surging revenues, which are projected to continue into next year, will bring the total increase for schools next year to nearly $14 billion in Prop. 98 spending (see pages 13-22 of state budget summary).

MORE BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget includes money for special education reforms, adds funding for career technical education, and freezes UC tuition. See details.

But warning that “the reality is another recession is coming,” Brown is splitting the increase between ongoing spending, one-time expenditures and paying off debts.

Local Control Funding: The Local Control Funding Formula, which provides general spending to schools, will remain his top priority. It will get $6.1 billion more next year, or about $1,000 more per student on average, with districts with higher proportions of English language learners and low-income children receiving more.

Paying off mandates: About $3.5 billion ($2.4 billion more than in the January budget) will pay for unreimbursed mandated expenses. Districts and county offices of education can use this money however they want, although the governor is encouraging them to spend it on implementing the new Common Core and science standards.

Via: California Political Review

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Why California's anti-poverty agenda will fail

In January 1992, campaigning in recession-hammered New Hampshire, President George H.W. Bush glanced at his note cards and told an audience, “Message: I care.”

Three years after the Census Bureau began including cost of living in one of its measures of poverty, California’s politicians are finally responding to the bureau’s finding that the Golden State has by far the nation’s most impoverished population. Unfortunately, it’s with their own version of “Message: I care.”

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, wants to add funds to affordable housing programs that amount to a lottery in which a tiny fraction of poor families win the right to subsidized apartments and homes. Despite decades of evidence in California that this is not a serious approach to reducing the cost of housing – the prime driver of poverty in the Golden State – Atkins depicts her initiative as grand evidence of her commitment to helping the poor.

Now Gov. Jerry Brown is joining in the “Message: I care” push with his proposal for a California version of the federal earned-income tax credit, an idea economists like because it helps people make ends meet without providing disincentives for them to work. Brown’s plan would provide $380 million to the state’s poorest workers. But as with Atkins’ housing initiative, this will have a tiny, trivial effect on poverty.

If California’s most powerful politicians actually wanted to reduce the number of households that struggle to make ends meet, they would start with the basics.

To bring the cost of housing down, they would push to allow far more new construction. This is what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, perhaps the nation’s leading progressive, is doing.

Via: UT San Diego 

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Brown’s Arid California, Thanks Partly to His Father

LOS ANGELES — When Edmund G. Brown Sr. was governor of California, people were moving in at a pace of 1,000 a day. With a jubilant Mr. Brown officiating, California commemorated the moment it became the nation’s largest state, in 1962, with a church-bell-ringing, four-day celebration. He was the boom-boom governor for a boom-boom time: championing highways, universities and, most consequential, a sprawling water network to feed the explosion of agriculture and development in the dry reaches of central and Southern California.

Nearly 50 years later, it has fallen to Mr. Brown’s only son, Gov. Jerry Brown, to manage the modern-day California that his father helped to create. The state is prospering, with a population of more than double the 15.5 million it had when Mr. Brown, known as Pat, became governor in 1959. But California, the seventh-largest economy in the world, is confronting fundamental questions about its limits and growth, fed by the collision of the severe drought dominating Jerry Brown’s final years as governor and the water and energy demands — from homes, industries and farms, not to mention pools, gardens and golf courses — driven by the aggressive growth policies advocated by his father during his two terms in office.

The stark challenge that confronts this state is putting a spotlight on a father and son who, as much as any two people, define modern-day California. They are strikingly different symbols of different eras, with divergent styles and distinct views of government, growth and the nature of California itself.

Pat Brown, who died in 1996 at the age of 90, was the embodiment of the post-World War II explosion, when people flocked to this vast and beckoning state in search of a new life. “He loved that California was getting bigger when he was governor,” said Ethan Rarick, who wrote a biography of Pat Brown and directs the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley. “Pat saw an almost endless capacity for California growth.”

Via: New York Times

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BLUE STATE BLUES: CALIFORNIA DEMS SKIMP ON INFRASTRUCTURE TO PAY UNIONS, ILLEGALS

Fourth-term Governor Jerry Brown and his party are claiming credit for a massive budget surplus, and plotting ways to spend the loot. Yet Brown’s revised budget claims that there is not enough money to maintain the state’s highways.

Get that?

There is money for a high-speed rail system that no one will ride. There is money for tuition for illegal aliens at state universities. There is money for the public sector unions that control state politics.

But “current resources do not provide enough funding to support annual maintenance and repair needs” for the roads, even though “the repair, maintenance, and efficient operation of the state’s highway system is vital to California’s continued economic growth.”

To put it in Democrats’ favorite terms: how many people will die needlessly because Democrats in California refused to spend the money to make our roads safe?

That is how the left frames Republican opposition to Obamacare–a failing program that cut millions off from their health insurance, and whose insurance exchanges are alreadybeginning to implode. That is how the left frames the Amtrak disaster earlier this week, blaming Republicans for holding back funds.

Via: Breitbart

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$340 Billion in CA Debts

A high-profile new report showed California still faces massive liabilities extending far into the future. The study, released by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, tallied over $340 billion in debts, deferred payment and other budgetary burdens “that will affect the state’s financial health in the future.”

According to the report, “Addressing California’s Key Liabilities,” there was some good news mixed in with the bad. The LAO was relatively sanguine toward a substantial portion of California’s long-brewing public pensions crisis. The report’s Executive Summary lauded “recent actions taken by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) board … to address the unfunded liability for state employee pension benefits in about 30 years.”

Given the legal controversy surrounding CalPERS’ role in city bankruptcies, however, the LAO’s praise may not go far. Litigation concerning the bankruptcy of Stockton, for instance, has pulled CalPERS back into potential liability. “Even though the city decided not to try to cut its CalPERS payments,” the Sacramento Bee reported, “Judge Christopher Klein said he could rule that the pension fund could be treated like other creditors.”

That’s significant because a ruling along those lines would affect CalPERS statewide. CalPERS is locked in a closely watched mediation process with the city of San Bernardino, which hopes to avoid millions in back payments to CalPERS as a consequence of declaring bankruptcy.

CalPERS, however, isn’t the only pension system at the center of the LAO report. There’s also CalSTRS, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. There, the LAO fingers “$200 billion in liabilities” that “merit further legislative attention.”

In his revised May budget, Brown has a plan to address the shortfall. It’s already drawing criticism. He aims to make a down payment on CalSTRS’ $74 billion shortfall — followed by $5 billion in increased funds every year for 30 years, once it’s fully phased in after seven years of stepped-up payments. Notably, $3.7 billion a year will be expected to come from school districts themselves — not a popular policy at the local level.

Via: California Political Review

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Another Funding Twist for the CA Bullet Train

LETS JUST DUMP MONEY INTO A WHOLE!!!

There’s been another funding twist for the California bullet-train project. The Federal Railroad Administration has agreed to delay the due date for $180 million in state matching funds for the project from April 1 to July 1,  according to a press release from Rep. Jeff Denham’s office.

This gives Gov. Jerry Brown and the California High-Speed Rail Authority breathing room to work with the Legislature and try to convince lawmakers to allocate $250 million in state cap-and-trade auction revenues for the rail project.

Denham, a Turlock Republican, considers the move risky.  This is from his Feb. 21 press release:

“The Federal Railroad Administration [FRA] is protecting the Authority yet again and putting California taxpayers at greater risk. It has long been clear that the Authority would be unable to provide the funds required in their grant agreement. In December 2012, the FRA changed their agreement to allow for a tapered match rather than the standard concurrent match. Now they’ve changed the agreement again. With billions in federal taxpayer dollars on the line, what changes are next from the FRA? The American people – and Californian taxpayers – deserve to see their money used responsibly.”

But there are also additional important changes in the federal funding agreement outlined in the letter that rail authority CEO Jeff Morales released Feb. 20. The new funding contribution plan shifts a large amount of funding responsibility in coming years to the federal government, with a significant decrease in California’s contribution compared with the original plan, according to bullet-train financial expert William Warren. (Along with William Grindley, Warren has co-authored numerous briefing papers regarding rail-authority data.)

U.S. taxpayers at risk for single-state project

These changes leave the U.S. taxpayers in all 50 states with more exposure while pushing a troubled, legally questionable California state project forward.

Via: California Political Review

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