Posts Tagged: investments

Opinion

Memo to lawmakers: Our future demands good water infrastructure

A cement pipe near the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant. (Photo: Sundry Photography)

OPINION: California’s investor-owned water providers remain focused on delivering safe, reliable, and affordable water service to 7 million people; essential to sustaining communities, the economy, and our food supply. All this is at risk as California experiences the third straight year of severe drought, the driest period in 1,200 year

Opinion

Governor’s higher-ed plan offers a major breakthrough

Students at graduation ceremonies, Santa Monica City College. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Gov. Newsom proposed one of the most consequential higher education policies this year: a 70 percent college attainment goal by 2030 and multi-year investment compacts with the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) to collectively grow enrollment over the next five years by 21,000 new seats while closing racial equity gaps in enrollment and completion.

Opinion

Master Plan for Aging: An age- and disability-friendly California

An active older couple hikes to an outlook over a California forest. (Photo: Ulza, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the Romans laid bricks every hour. The same might be said about California’s Master Plan for Aging, which has laid the groundwork for this precise moment in time.

Opinion

Lessons learned from failure of medical ‘right to repair’ bill

A hospital's Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI. machine. (Photo: KaliAntye, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As an organization committed to prioritizing patient access, affordability, and safety, we watched with alarm as state Legislatures across the country became the target of a coordinated campaign to weaken and roll back quality and safety framework.

Opinion

E-receipt mandate cold prove costly — and harmful

A man pays digitally at a restaurant using a smart phone. (Photo: Brain2Hands, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The demand for clean, cost-effective alternative fuel vehicles, trucks and buses continues to rise. The installation of thousands of alternative fuel pumps and charging stations up and down the state, supported by state grants and dedicated funding, has helped to make this possible. However, a bill making its way through the State Legislature threatens to unravel these advancements and slow the adoption of clean vehicle fleets.

Opinion

Protect customers should be PUC’s top priority

Lines delivering energy and communications along a rural stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. (Photo: Lux Blue, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: California is a national leader in clean energy. Contrary to the perspective of advocates for Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), the question before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Sept. 27 is not whether our state will continue to lead the nation in renewable energy, but whether all customers will contribute equitably to the costs of those investments and to system-wide electric reliability.

News

Term limits for CalPERS board leaders?

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

A tentative CalPERS proposal would limit the board president and committee chairs to four consecutive one-year terms, a policy that could end the long-running presidency of Rob Feckner in 2017. He has presided over times good and bad at the nation’s largest state public pension system.

Opinion

Making kids a top budget priority

Elementary school students in a California classroom. ((Photo: Monkey Business Images)

A new analysis of the state budget from the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office identifies about $1.1 billion in new money available in the budget for discretionary spending. Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders have an opportunity to make spending decisions that will prioritize children, many of whom took the brunt of budget cuts over the last decade.

News

Does SCOTUS ruling ease cuts to public retirees’ health care?

Two senior women exercising at a health club. (Photo: Karel Hoppe)

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January weakens the “vested rights” protection of retiree health care based on a labor contract, potentially making it easier for government employers to cut a growing cost. The high court overturned an influential federal appeals court ruling that said retiree health care authorized by a short-term labor contract is presumed to be a lifetime benefit, unless the contract has clear language to the contrary.

News

Missing pieces in Brown’s pension reform plan

A bill that started out as Gov. Brown’s proposal to restructure the CalPERS board emerged from the Legislature last week as a more modest change: a requirement that CalPERS board members receive 24 hours of education in pension fund operations.

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