Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 – 08:00 a.m.
San Bernardino County, Calif. – San Bernardino County’s budget woes are likely to worsen in the coming fiscal year as employee pension fund returns fail to not only deliver relief, but instead bring more pain.
The San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) has, to date, only generated a 0.6% return for its 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Administrator’s Note: This front-page article was published in last week’s Wall Street Journal.
THE A-HED
Updated May 2, 2012, 12:44 p.m. ET
Locals Call In Baseball’s Tommy Lasorda to Rally for Ontario; Hearing Birds Chirp
By TAMARA AUDI
ONTARIO, Calif.—The Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of Los Angeles, offers nonstop flights to just 15 cities. Daily departures have plummeted to 62, less than half the number five years ago.
Baseball legend Tommy Lasorda has pitched for the Dodgers and for Rolaids and Slim Fast. Now he’s doing commercials for a struggling regional airport trying to win independence from Los Angeles.
BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com
Published: 07 May 2012 10:03 PM
The San Bernardino City Council is looking at leasing more city property for cellphone towers to help solve its budget troubles, but has tabled for now a proposal to bring parking meters downtown.
The proposals were brought to the council Monday night, May 7, after it rejected a plan last month that would have relied on across-the-board cuts and holding some positions vacant.
BY DAYNA STRAEHLEY
STAFF WRITER
dstraehley@pe.com
Published: 07 May 2012 10:39 PM
The Riverside Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 late Monday to send final layoff notices to 84 teachers for the 2012-13 school year, said Tim Martin, president of the Riverside City Teachers Association.
Kelly Puente, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/07/2012 03:07:22 PM PDT
LONG BEACH – The California State University Board of Trustees today will again consider freezing CSU presidents’ salaries in an attempt to curb public outcry over recent pay hikes.
But critics aren’t satisfied.
Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/07/2012 05:31:41 PM PDT
A marketing plan that was supposed to address the steep decline in passenger traffic at LA/Ontario International Airport was criticized by Los Angeles World Airports’ governing body Monday.
Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, a seven-member civilian board that governs LAWA airports – such as ONT – and staff, including a longtime airline industry expert, discussed marketing strategies that could turn things around at the struggling airport.
By Dan Walters
Published: Tuesday, May. 8, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
California is struggling to emerge from the worst recession since the Great Depression and has more than 2 million unemployed workers, plus countless others who have given up seeking work out of frustration and/or have fled to other states.
Clearly the state needs many billions of dollars in job-creating investment. But its attractiveness to that investment is, to say the least, problematic, given its relatively high tax burden, its dense regulatory structure, its deficiencies in education, transportation and water supply, and its tangled government finances.
In Session
By Ben Pershing
Published: May 7, 2012
Rep. Mary Bono Mack is all over the map.
In Washington, the longtime Republican lawmaker from California is an increasingly prominent player on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, while also trying to be a voice for two constituencies — moderates and women — that she believes don’t always receive the requisite attention within the House Republican Conference.