Posts Tagged: governments
News
Once again, Californians are being asked to decide on the merits of a ballot measure that roiled the political scene when many of them were in grammar school — or not even born yet. The ballot measure under challenge is Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment written by anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis and approved nearly 2-to-1 by voters in 1978.
Opinion
OPINION: Under California’s police powers, Gov. Newsom’s gently named “Stay at Home” mandates the closure of all non-essential travel, activities and businesses. Small businesses have been inevitably forced to shutter their doors. Similarly, non-profits which account for 10% of the U.S. GDP and employ 12 million workers, are no doubt also affected.
News
Animal-rights activists are heralding 2020 as a groundbreaking year because of a new, unprecedented state law that cracks down on cosmetics testing on animals. It takes effect Jan. 1, and will outlaw the importation for profit or sale most of the cosmetics tested on animals in California.
Opinion
OPINION: With the Mendocino Complex fire burning through three counties in Northern California, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Tribe could only watch and pray as flames consumed massive amounts of our homelands, forcing the closing of our small casino and all governmental buildings as well as the evacuation of Tribal members and our neighbors.
Opinion
OPINION: Flashing Amber Alerts, public safety messages and directional traffic alerts – for decades, Californians have agreed this type of information is what belongs on the changeable outdoor message signs along our highways’ public spaces. Common sense and public policy says it is in the best interest of the public to keep this public right-of-way space limited to such content and free of blight.
News
If you don’t give city employees a pension, what happens? San Diegans voted five years ago this month to switch all new city hires, except police, from pensions to 401(k)-style individual investment plans, becoming one of the first big cities to take the plunge.
Opinion
OPINION: Back in 2012, then Treasurer Bill Lockyer called for an early warning system that would give state officials time to proactively address local government fiscal emergencies before they wound up in bankruptcy court. We are now five years closer to the next recession and its attendant set of local government financial crises, but the state has made little progress toward implementing Lockyer’s proposed system.
News
Calpensions: A key committee yesterday approved a drop in the often-criticized CalPERS investment earnings forecast, gradually raising record rates already being paid by state and local governments, if approved as expected by the full board today.
News
Merced County pensions may have the lowest funding level of any public pension system in California, a shortfall officials attribute to a big retroactive pension increase for all county employees a decade ago and faulty actuarial work. In the latest annual public pension report from the state controller’s office, Merced County stands out with the lowest level of funding in the last reported year, 54.7 percent in 2010-11.
News
State lawmakers and voters agreed on one thing: transparency in government. Local government, that is. State government remains exempt. Did voters know that when they approved Proposition 42 on June 3?
An aerial view of a neighborhood in Fremont, California. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)
