Posts Tagged: money

News

High-stakes battle in the 3rd SD

Downtown Davis, population center of the 3rd Senate District. (Photo: Miles530, via Wikipedia)

In California’s 3rd Senate District, two colors stand out: blue and green. Blue for water, green for money. The water, because SD3’s southern portion includes a piece of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The money, because in addition to conventional campaign donations, large sums from outside independent expenditure committees are fueling the race.

News

Budget dispute over Tahoe funding

Lake Tahoe at sunset. (Photo: Dorothy Mills-Gregg

Deep in Gov. Brown’s 2016-17 budget was a big surprise for Lake Tahoe – the lake was cut out of its expected share of a $475 million environmental pie.

News

Dems battle one another in AD4

A Californian casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5 via Shutterstock)

Democrats are traversing the 4th Assembly District, seeking support in the sprawling district that stretches from the Bay Area to Sacramento and even further north into the Sacramento Valley and North Coast mountains. The big money from Sacramento hasn’t dropped in yet and might not, depending on whether special interests feel they have a candidate they really want.

Opinion

Experts Expound: Can Trump be stopped?

Illustration by Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly

OPINION: For the experts, take your pick: “Can Donald Trump be stopped? Should he? What’s your look ahead to the general election? Are we looking at a brokered GOP convention? And what’s the outlook for Hillary?”

News

Plastic bag vote looms, but locals proceed anyway

A shopper totes his plastic bag across an intersection. (Photo: Connel, via Shutterstock)

California’s statewide law banning plastic bags may have been suspended pending the voters’ decision in the November referendum, but cities and counties are moving ahead with their own local bans. The local laws would be exempt from the proposed statewide repeal. A “no” vote means the ban will be thrown out, a “yes” vote means the law will be left in place.

Opinion

Repairing California’s bumpy roads

Downtown Los Angeles, as traffic zips along. (Photo: Sean Pavone)

Six months after Gov. Jerry Brown called for a special session of the Legislature to fix the state’s crumbling roads, the potholes are just as deep, the motorists are just as irritated and the multibillion-dollar price tag is just as high. The goal is to offer a package to improve the worst of the state’s 50,000 miles of state-run roads and 13,000 bridges, and provide new capacity in freight-clogged zones and provide a regular source of funding over time.

News

Follow the money: Shining a light on political nonprofits

A blind-folded Ben Franklin on the $100 bill. (Photo: Ricardo Reitmeyer, Shutterstock)

Spawned by a midnight burglary, California’s campaign ethics law propelled a young politician to the governorship and tapped into voters’ desire to rid political campaigns of secret cash. That voter-approved law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, has been largely untouchable for more than 40 years. But now it may get a rewrite.

News

Prescription for health care system — money, flexibility

State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, discusses health care issues. (Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)

Experts in California health care agree: The present system is unsustainable. It needs more money and flexibility. But that’s where agreement ends. There are conflicting ideas about where the money should come from and where it should go.

News

The high-stakes fight over Medi-Cal

A physician on the night shift examining a CT scan. (Photo: Beerkoff, via Shutterstock)

It’s all about coming up with a plan to hang onto the $1.1 billion in matching funds the feds ship to California each year to help finance MediCal, the immense program that provides health care to about 12.5 million of California’s poorest patients. MediCal is larger than ever now because of the Affordable Care Act, which added more than four million Californians to the millions already receiving MediCal coverage

News

CalPERS eyes long-term rate hike

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

CalPERS is considering small increases in employer and employee rates over decades to reduce the risk of big investment losses, a policy that also would lower an earnings forecast critics say is too optimistic. The proposal is a response to the “maturing” of a CalPERS system that soon will have more retirees than active workers. From two active workers for each retiree in 2002, the ratio fell to 1.45 to one by 2012 and is expected to be 0.8 to 0.6 to one in the next decades.

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