If you are worried about California’s future, there’s no shortage of disturbing statistics to keep you up at night. California’s unemployment rate was 9.8 percent in November – and, with a host of new regulatory mandates added when the New Year began, our state is becoming even more unattractive for businesses. California’s three largest pension funds have promised $500 billion …
Top Twenty Worst Bills Worthy of the Governor’s Veto
This op-ed, co-authored with Senator Bob Dutton, originally appeared in the Flashreport As of today, the Governor has yet to act on any of these bills. When he is done, we will grade Governor Brown on his performance. The Governor’s “letter grade” will be computed using the following scale… If he vetoes 90% or more, the Governor got an “A”, 80% – …
Gov Brown vetoes a paltry 0.14% of state budget – pathetic
A whopping 0.14% of the bloated state general fund budget vetoed by Brown. Sadly, this paltry line item veto amount continues the California governor bipartisan tradition of vetoing almost none of the spending. The traditional amount is about 0.25% — one quarter of one percent. Jerry couldn’t reach even this low benchmark. http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/06/gov-jerry-brown-vetoes-195-million-from-final-ca-budget.html
Gov. Jerry Brown: State budget deficit now $16 billion — up slightly from his $9.2B deficit revision in January
Gov. Jerry Brown: State budget deficit now $16 billion Gov. Jerry Brown said in a video release today that California’s budget deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly twice as high as the $9.2 billion he estimated in January. Gosh, what a stunning revelation! Who’d a thunk it? http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/05/gov-jerry-brown-state-budget-deficit-now-16-billion.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy But the good news is that it’s not Assemblyman’s Nathan Fletcher’s …
City Still Swimming In Red Ink
Gimmicks aside, the annual budget deficit remains $50 million, with $318 million needed to restore service to 2003 levels City Councilmember Carl DeMaio today released a fiscal assessment of the Mayor’s proposed FY 2013 budget which reveals that instead of a truly balanced budget, the city will run an operating deficit of at least $50 million. When accounting for lost …
Are we really going to save money if we close some of our State Parks?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-parks-california-closing-20120317,0,4470243.story I’m a lover of our Parks and it’s not because I’ve been a National and County Park Ranger, but because of how I grew up. My parents, teachers, friends and scout leaders helped in nurturing that love of Parks in me. I will also say that some Parks were created because of political pressure and really shouldn’t be in …
Mayor Sanders’ Budget Announcement Grabs the Media’s Attention
Politics & Media Mashup: your weekend news aggregator leads off with big budget news from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Also included: Links to some of the week’s best stories about local, state and national politics as well as social and traditional media. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders dominated the news cycle late this week with his announcement that he had finally …
Next year’s CA budget deficit put at $13 billion by LAO. So?
CA Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projects the 2012-13 state budget deficit at $13 billion. Ho hum. http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/11/legislative-analyst-2-billion-of-mid-year-cuts.html#MTRecentEntries
Full Transparency Needed in City’s Five-Year Financial Outlook
Yesterday, the City’s Five-Year financial outlook was presented to the Budget and Financial committee meeting and I was very disappointed to see that the true infrastructure deficit was excluded from the City’s financial forecasts. If the full infrastructure deficit is not included I fear that our roads and infrastructure will continue to fall into further disrepair since the City Council …
CA misses revenue mark by 10% in July
To avoid making the painful cuts in CA state spending that are so badly needed, the Democrat budget passers and the Governor blithely assumed big-time revenue increases this fiscal year. To no one’s surprise, it’s not working out as projected. Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/08/california-revenues-miss-mark-10-percent-july-2011.html#ixzz1UZNRl6eJ CAPITOL ALERT: The latest on California politics and government Posted by Kevin Yamamura August 9, 2011 1:01 …
The State Budget: Why doesn’t Sacramento get it, or, why do we continue to elect these people???
Wouldn’t it be nice if for once, no matter how hard it might be for them, that a real budget would be approved by Sacramento politicians without any gimmicks and not based on optimistic revenue projections? How about learning to live within your means? I scream whenever I hear the term “optimistic revenue projections” used anytime regarding the budget, because …
Wow! A state budget passed on time! Wow! But what kind of “wow” is it?
Once again we’re left with a “smoke and mirrors” budget that doesn’t solve the problem and just passes the deficit to the next year. SO far Governor Brown has stood behind his campaign pledge and vetoed this budget because of the usual “Smoke and Mirrors,” but how long will he do so? What we need are politicians that instead of …
New Report Shows Fire Department Compensation 137% to 325% Higher than Private Sector Benchmarks
Councilmembers DeMaio and Zapf Call for Critical Review of Fire Department Labor Costs Councilmembers Carl DeMaio and Lorie Zapf today released a troubling report showing extreme differences between Fire Department employees and similarly qualified employees of private sector ambulance companies. The analysis showed the Fire Department is paying salaries that are 137% to 325% higher for comparable work in the …
Councilman pitches bright idea for street lights
From 760KFMB: Posted: Apr 21, 2011 1:45 PM PDT SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The City of San Diego could save taxpayer money by installing solar panels on as many as 33,000 street lights due to be replaced, a councilman said Thursday. The panels would provide enough electricity to run the lights, and any excess could be sold to San Diego …
Odds of saving libraries and rec centers better than Lions making playoffs
Stories about budget cuts are easy to tell and reaction is fierce, but the coverage is often misleading Just about every media outlet has recently and repeatedly told San Diegans the news isn’t good – massive cuts to your libraries and rec centers are coming. It’s a great story for the overworked journalist. Easy to report. Easy to write. Readers, …
Faulconer: ‘Now it’s the Council’s turn’
Good and bad news in Mayor’s budget Faulconer commits to protecting core services, furthering reform San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer issued the following statement today in response to Mayor Jerry Sanders’ budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins July 1: There’s clearly some good news in the Mayor’s budget proposal, and there’s clearly some bad …
DeMaio Urges Rejection of “Meat Cleaver” Cuts to City Services
Millions in Wasteful Spending Should be Reformed Before Services are Cut Councilmember DeMaio today urged his Council colleagues to reject large elements of the Mayor’s budget plan citing negative impacts on local neighborhoods and the failure to finish the job of implementing budget reforms. “After years of severe cuts and wasteful spending San Diegans deserve a budget plan that will …
Key DeMaio CCDC Proposal Wins Council Approval
$228 million of debt transferred from General Fund to Redevelopment By a vote of 7 to 1, a proposal by Councilmember Carl DeMaio was approved today to transfer 30 years of debt service on the Convention Center from the General Fund to the Redevelopment Agency. The action saves taxpayers $228 Million over 30 years. “In these difficult times when we …
DeMaio Unveils “Roadmap to Recovery” Plan that Balances City’s Budget and Reforms Pension System
Five Year Plan Generates Over $1 Billion in Cost Savings and Adopts New Approaches to Providing City Services City Councilmember Carl DeMaio today unveiled a comprehensive five-year financial recovery plan that balances the city’s budget and restructures long-term city finances to eliminate the city’s structural budget deficit. “To fix the city’s financial problems and safeguard our neighborhood services, we must …
Emerald and Lightner may turn against unions?
It’s not time YET, but as the city of San Diego runs out of options, and Carl DeMaio keeps hammering on real solutions, look for cracks in the Dem CC members’ heretofore unflinching loyalty to their bosses — the public employee labor unions The one Dem who has for years sometimes failed the union loyalty tests has been iconoclast Donna …
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