Cooperation image by metamorworksMICHELI FILES: In talking with former staff from the Department of Finance (DOF) the past few weeks, the following are the key practical tips that were shared with me for those working with the staff members of the Governor’s Finance Department. While some of these recommendations may seem obvious, many of them bear repeating.
The balance between the environment and business, image by petrmalinakOPINION – Repeated efforts by developers to gut the California Environmental Quality Act sometimes seem like a hydra: cut off one head and two more grow in its place. Even when one anti-CEQA bill is defeated, profit-driven interests put forth more bills to weaken our state’s landmark environmental law and the critical protections it provides to our communities and ecosystems.
Via ShutterstockAll is unwell after the largest and longest strike of higher education academic workers in U.S. history, according to United Auto Workers Local 2865 President Rafael Jaime.
Joe Stephenshaw, left, the new director of the Department of Finance, takes the oath of office from Gov. Gavin Newsom.(Photo: H.D. Palmer, via Twitter.)As a budget analyst in the California Department of Finance in 2005-2008, Joe Stephenshaw never imagined that he would one day come back to lead the division. This month, Stephenshaw, 47, was sworn into the post, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.
A multi-unit housing complex under construction in Vista, San Diego County. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)OPINION: With one act next week, an obscure state panel could make nearly $2 billion available to finance and fund affordable housing projects around the state. Or it could choose to leave that money on the table and instead enable a Canadian corporation to issue tax-free bonds to finance a controversial, economically unjust, and environmentally damaging desalination plant in Orange County.
California 's state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Steven Frame, via Shutterstock)ANALYSIS: For someone who is interested in the activities of the California Legislature and tracks the budget closely, the last two legislative sessions have brought some interesting developments, as well as a recognition of the tremendous work that legislators, staff, and the governor’s administration put into crafting the state’s spending plan each year.
The crowded Venice Beach Boardwalk in Los Angeles. (Photo: PPIC)The Census Bureau released total population numbers for California, suggesting a significant slowdown in the state’s population growth. But these numbers do not include the last half of 2020, and they do not tell us why population growth has slowed. We won’t have official census counts of this information for many months. But we do have population estimates from the California Department of Finance through the first few months of the pandemic.
Recycle bins behind a supermarket in Scotts Valley, Calif. (Photo: Michael Barajas, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Every year during the end-of-session debates in the Legislature, bills that had previously stalled suddenly get new life. Sometimes, it’s the result of a grand bargain struck to advance long-held policy objectives. Other times, it’s the result of public pressure created by an emerging crisis.
A man watches the 2018 Woolsey fire in Los Angeles. (Photo: BrittanyNY, via Shutterstock)Strapped California, facing an unprecedented budget crisis as it battles COVID-19, is setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars to confront wildfires. Already, more than 1,300 fires — mostly small — have been reported as the hottest, driest months of the year approach.
Diana Dooley, newly named as the executive secretary of Gov. Brown's office, speaks at a 2017 health care conference
sponsored by Capitol Weekly. (Photo: Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly)Diana Dooley, California’s top health official since 2011, has been named executive secretary of Gov. Brown’s office, the top administrative post in state government and, effectively, the governor’s chief of staff with broad control over the bureaucracy.