[Source: Sacramento Bee] California is great at making pension promises, but a dismal failure at properly funding them. The most recent annual report released by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System shows that, as of June 2016, CalPERS was more than $138 billion in debt. The teachers’ retirement system (CalSTRS) is nearly as bad, with Read More…
Month: January 2018
Expect environmental battles to be ‘even more significant’ in 2018
[Source: The New York Times] If 2017 was the Trump administration’s year of grand pronouncements declaring an end to environmental regulations, 2018 will be the year of trying to finish what it started. Despite President Trump’s proclamation in the Rose Garden that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the United States Read More…
Will 2018 bring more employment mandates on California’s business community?
[Source: Fox & Hounds] As the 2018 California Legislative Session commences on January 3, the business community must remain vigilant about those bills that could present new, burdensome changes in state labor and employment laws. The 2017 Session saw a large number of significant labor and employment laws get enacted that impose significant burdens upon Read More…
Californians, economics and environmental protection
[Source: Capitol Weekly] Something that isn’t too surprising for legislators or Gov. Brown as California continues to be on the forefront of environmental policies: A major survey shows strong majority (62 percent) of Californians believe air pollution is a problem in their part of California. Two-thirds (66 percent) believe the effects of global warming have Read More…
Three resignations have cost Democrats their supermajority
[Source: Los Angeles Times] Both houses of the California Legislature will convene Wednesday afternoon for the formal beginning of an eight-month session to craft a state budget and consider hundreds of proposed laws. And they will do so with three fewer lawmakers, two having resigned after being accused of sexual harassment. The national conversation over Read More…
A year-end look at Scott Pruitt’s EPA
[Source: The Washington Post] Given the pace at which the Environmental Protection Agency chief has rolled back his predecessors’ work (or at least attempted to), Scott Pruitt secured his place as a one of the most consequential Cabinet-level officials within the Trump administration with an aggressive first year at the helm. The Post’s Brady Dennis Read More…