Posts Tagged: funds

Opinion

Small businesses offer key fiscal support for government

Downtown Placerville, Calif. (Photo: Laurens Hoddenbagh, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The recent flurry of stories about small business woes often miss an important part of the picture: Small businesses’ role in helping fund government’s important responsibilities. Consider the City of Placerville. Located in El Dorado County with the original colorful Gold Rush era monikers, the sometimes controversial Hangtown and the more staid Dry Diggings, the city is a tourist draw housing a number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Opinion

Spending cap-and-trade funds: Give priority to most vulnerable

Pollution over Long Beach on a clear day. (Photo: Katharine Moore)

OPINION: Now that it’s reconvened, the state Legislature faces critical decisions about where and how to spend over $1 billion raised by the state’s cap-and-trade program to fight climate change. Those decisions will affect the lives, health and jobs of millions of Californians, and will have an outsized impact on those facing pollution and poverty.

News

State librarian hunts dollars in DC

State Librarian Greg Lucas. (Photo: California State Library)

Prying funds out of the Trump administration may not be easy, but California State Librarian Greg Lucas is giving it a shot. And not just for California. Amid heavy snows and the unveiling of President Trump’s first budget, Lucas went to Washington this week to urge Congress to double the funding for the nation’s public libraries to $300 million, including the more than 1,100 libraries in California.

News

Tensions mount at state Capitol

State Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Shuttesrstock)

The prospect of ACA repeal has triggered a mixture of speculation, caution and dread among California policymakers. One way or another, California intends to take care of those among its people dependent on government for their health care, but how the state will pick up the pieces if Obamacare disappears is the question.

News

Villaraigosa to announce political plans

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the 2009 opening of Madame Tussauds Hollywood. (Photo: Jaguar PS, via Shutterstock)

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, long viewed in the Capitol as a potential Democratic candidate for governor in 2018, said Tuesday that he will announce his political plans “within a few days” of the Nov. 8 election. He stopped short of making a formal announcement, but left little doubt about his plans. “I think everybody knows where it’s headed,” he said.

Analysis

Brokered GOP convention? No way. Yes, way…

The Republican national convention in Cleveland's Public Auditorium in 1924. This year's GOP convention is in Cleveland, too. (Photo: Everett Historical, via Shutterstock)

ANALYSIS: The conventional wisdom says fuggedaboutit. Pundits, campaign managers, and the politicians themselves express doubt about the possibility. Not as much as previously, but still doubt. It might happen. And California could be in the middle of it all. We’re talking about a “brokered” convention.

Analysis

Brown’s transportation budget celebrates the car

A traffic jam in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo: Prayitno, Wikimedia)

Weeks after returning from the Paris summit on climate change where he was hailed as a leader in the movement to limit greenhouse gases, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a new transportation budget that celebrates the car. In 2016-17, Brown wants to spend $16 billion on transportation, and most of that would go toward making it easier for people to drive. The Democratic governor wants to build new roads and highways and repave old ones, and use more technology to speed traffic.

News

Stem cell agency’s key meetings going live on the Internet

A simulated view through a microscope of bacterias in the shape of California. (Illustration: Pat Bengtsson, via Shutterstock)

With no fanfare, California’s $3 billion stem cell agency is making a significant step forward in openness and transparency regarding the dealings of its governing board, which operates outside of the control of the governor and Legislature. Tuesday’s meeting of the directors’ Science Subcommittee will be available live for the first time — for all practical purposes — on the Internet and as an audiocast, including access to presentations that are used at the meeting.

Opinion

Big Oil should read the fine print

As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)

OPINION: The oil company partisans and their legislative allies apparently failed to read past the first five pages of the bill. Buried in the back pages of SB 350 is a full codification of the 2030 and 2050 climate targets that the industry thought it defeated, along with a powerful new set of directives to state energy agencies to meet those targets.

News

CalPERS moves on coal divestment

Capensions: The CalSTRS board told its staff and consultants last week to evaluate the risk of investments in thermal coal companies, jumping ahead of pending legislation that would require CalSTRS and CalPERS to divest thermal coal holdings.

Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: