Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
By Carol Matlack
May 22, 2013
Apple (AAPL) has a deal with Ireland granting it an effective 2 percent tax rate on tens of billions of dollars in profit at the company’s Irish affiliates, according to a U.S. Senate report released on May 20.
May 21, 2013; 06:14 PM
When Ontario International Airport opened its two modern terminals in September 1998, many of Inland Southern California’s top business executives lauded the event as a great way to make a first impression on would-be customers and investors from out of town.
To read story by Jack Katzanek in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Staff Reports
Posted: 05/22/2013 12:41:55 PM PDT
Updated: 05/22/2013 01:32:27 PM PDT
CHINO – City officials will discuss their 2013-14 proposed budget during a workshop today.
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/20/2013 08:50:18 PM PDT
Updated: 05/20/2013 08:50:25 PM PDT
UPLAND – Members of the city’s Finance and Economic Development Committee were updated Monday on the city’s fiscal situation, which is still uncertain.
By Joe Garofoli
May 19, 2013
After Jim Araby’s union of grocery store workers donated millions of dollars and cranked out 7,500 three-hour volunteer shifts last fall to help elect a supermajority of Democrats to the state Legislature and win statewide ballot measures, they, like many California liberals, began to dream big.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 20, 2013
One of the first local ballot measures aimed at cutting public pension costs, a cap on Pacific Grove payments to CalPERS approved by voters three years ago, was ruled unconstitutional by a Monterey County superior court judge last week.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 19, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 19, 2013 – 8:10 am
Jerry Brown – who made “lower your expectations” a catchphrase of his first governorship – is back in that mode during his second stint, especially on spending.
Kevin Smith, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/17/2013 06:52:28 PM PDT
Updated: 05/17/2013 09:24:37 PM PDT
Related story: L.A. County’s jobless rate under 10% for first time in 4 years The Inland Empire’s unemployment rate fell to a 4 1/2-year low of 9.6 percent in April and the region added 900 jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 17, 2013
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor projected state revenues Friday that are $3.2 billion higher than those projected by Gov. Jerry Brown this week in his revised budget proposal.
By Alana Semuels
May 17, 2013, 11:04 a.m.
After a few robust months, the pace of hiring in California slowed in April as employers concerned about the economy cut back on adding new employees.
May 16, 2013; 12:41 PM
SACRAMENTO — A new state audit identifies $94.6 million worth of former Riverside redevelopment assets that it says have not been properly transferred to the agency in charge of settling the debts of the former program.
To read story by Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Lori Fowler
lori.fowler@ inlandnewspapers.com @IECourtsNow on Twitter
Posted: 05/16/2013 05:31:14 PM PDT
Updated: 05/16/2013 05:31:22 PM PDT
A group of local officials are spearheading an effort to re-staff courts and provide more funds to what they call a starving court system.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 17, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
When voters passed Proposition 30 last year, they unwittingly accelerated one of the most perilous trends in California governmental finance – an ever-increasing reliance on income taxes from rich people to finance schools and myriad other state and local services.
By Patrick McGreevy
May 16, 2013, 3:07 p.m.
The state certified Thursday that it has a sufficient reserve fund to allow pay raises for Gov. Jerry Brown, state lawmakers and other elected officials, but members of a panel that sets pay say they will probably maintain the status quo for another year.
By Karen Gullo
May 15, 2013 9:01 PM PT
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) must pay customers $203 million for manipulating debit-card transactions to boost overdraft fees, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled, reinstating a 2010 damage award.
Thursday, May 16, 2013 – 10:00 a.m.
Apparently only a few are learning any lessons from 2008.
A stock market that sees nothing wrong, and a real estate market, where the Southern California real estate median, not average, price has reportedly returned to pre-2008 levels, all at the same time can make one queasy.
Posted on | May 15, 2013
A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has bad news for Ontario International Airport.
To read column by Cassie MacDuff in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 16, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Thursday, May. 16, 2013 – 8:14 am
On Friday two state agencies will release the results of their probes into departments giving salaried managers secondary jobs that pay an hourly wage.
By Michael Gardner7:06 p.m.May 15, 2013
California’s counties are leery of Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget maneuver to immediately siphon money from local coffers, leaving behind an IOU that would be repaid through savings realized much later.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/14/2013 05:17:03 PM PDT
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux presented the first budget projections for the next fiscal year to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/14/2013 11:58:51 PM PDT
Updated: 05/14/2013 11:59:54 PM PDT
UPLAND — The Upland Unified School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday recieved a two-and-a-half page list of possible cuts suggested by employees.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 5:07 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 8:02 am
Gov. Jerry Brown, dismissive of a surge in state tax revenue that stirred optimism at the Capitol, moved Tuesday to blunt appeals for increased spending, downgrading his budget proposal from January.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 15, 2013 – 8:02 am
Twenty-five years ago, California voters approved – albeit very narrowly – the education community’s ballot measure that engraved a complex school finance structure into the state constitution.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/13/2013 05:15:52 PM PDT
Updated: 05/13/2013 05:15:59 PM PDT
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux will discuss proposed budget programs for the next fiscal year and the county’s financial condition during a study session of the Board of Supervisors today.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Tuesday, May. 14, 2013 – 7:58 am
With California income tax revenue running about $4.5 billion ahead of expectations through April, Gov. Jerry Brown finds himself today in an unusual position: Releasing a revised budget proposal highlighting better numbers, not worse.
Posted: Monday, May 13, 2013 1:28 pm | Updated: 7:15 pm, Mon May 13, 2013.
By NORBERTO SANTANA JR.
While Orange County finance managers Monday unveiled a largely status-quo, $5.4-billion budget for fiscal year 2013-14, they acknowledged that plans could change depending on the impact of a judge’s ruling against the county involving $73 million in property taxes.
LAURA OLSON, Associated Press
Updated 10:13 am, Saturday, May 11, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools are expecting a boost from the $900 million to be raised over the next year through the closure of a corporate tax loophole, but Gov. Jerry Brown is locked in a disagreement with state lawmakers over how to hand out that money.
By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times
May 13, 2013
Airline mergers, a deep recession and surging fuel prices have led to sharp cuts in airline service around the country. Hardest hit: medium-size airports.
Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, LA/Ontario International Airport and other mid-size airports lost an average of 26.2% of their flights from 2007 to 2012, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s International Center for Air Transportation.
By Billy House
Updated: May 13, 2013 | 3:37 a.m.
May 12, 2013 | 12:00 p.m.
With tensions over fiscal issues building, and the three-month suspension of the nation’s debt limit set to expire Sunday, lawmakers this week will be rehashing on the House floor their messaging war over repealing President Obama’s three-year-old health care law.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 12, 2013 – 7:33 am
There’s absolutely nothing wrong, per se, with incurring debt, whether it’s by families, businesses or governments. A functional credit market is absolutely vital to a modern economy.
Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 04:00 p.m.
Even though San Bernardino County is about to make a record annual payment of $172.5 million to its pension fund, there is a little bright light shining through.
Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 01:30 p.m.
It’s what you get when you rely on local economist John Husing as your cheerleader, not to mention area expert, in a fight to wrestle control of a regional airport from the city of Los Angeles.
By Brian Sumers Staff Writer
brian.sumers@dailybreeze.com @briansumers on Twitter
Posted: 05/09/2013 06:34:18 PM PDT
Medium-size airports like LA/Ontario International Airport have lost a significant number of flights in the past six years, while larger facilities have been less affected, according to a study released this week by researchers at MIT.
May 09, 2013; 05:46 PM
The California Transportation Commission has allocated nearly $70 million in funding to nine projects in Inland Southern California, including $12 million toward a four-lane grade separation on Riverside Avenue at the railroad tracks in Riverside.
To read story by Jan Sears in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Andrew Tangel
May 9, 2013, 1:30 p.m.
NEW YORK — California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris has accused JPMorgan Chase & Co. of using fraudulent and unlawful debt-collection practices against some 100,000 credit card holders in the state.
By Steve Milne
Thursday, May 09, 2013
(Sacramento, CA) A new report shows California home “foreclosure starts” – or the number of homes just entering the foreclosure process – were up for the third straight month in April.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 9, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 7B
CalPERS says the insolvent city of San Bernardino has enough money to pay its past-due bill to the giant pension fund.
By Nicole Santa Cruz
May 8, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Orange County may owe the state as much as $150 million after a judge tentatively ruled this week that it must pay back funds originally meant for local schools and community colleges.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 8, 2013 – 1:40 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 8, 2013 – 3:56 pm
Former CalPERS Chief Executive Fred Buenrostro pleaded innocent today to conspiracy charges in connection with the pension fund’s bribery scandal.
By Patrick McGreevy and Chris Megerian
May 8, 2013, 8:21 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — California legislative leaders and 10 public employee unions announced opposition Wednesday to any sale of the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers to a pair of wealthy brothers who fund conservative causes throughout the country.
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Published: May 8, 2013 104 Comments
LOS ANGELES — An effort by two conservative billionaires to take over The Los Angeles Times and seven other newspapers is setting off a firestorm of opposition here. Public employee unions, the leaders of the State Legislature and liberal advocacy groups are moving to block the sale, denouncing it as a threat to public workers and Democratic Party issues.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/07/2013 07:06:07 PM PDT
The city’s financial situation is clearer and many disagreements about what documents to share have been resolved, San Bernardino’s attorney and those objecting to its bankruptcy eligibility said Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside.
Again.
By Melody Gutierrez and David Siders
mgutierrez@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 8, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez is proposing a new state spending restriction that would set aside money from capital gains taxes in good years to help the state through economic downturns.
By Billy House
Updated: May 5, 2013 | 2:11 p.m.
May 5, 2013 | 12:00 p.m.
The brewing debt-ceiling showdown still looms weeks—if not months—away, but hostilities will begin flaring this week as House Republicans push action on a bill signaling no retreat from their demand for spending cuts as a condition to any ceiling hike.
Monday, May 6, 2013 – 11:45 a.m.
Last Friday’s release of the April employment report by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is somewhat curious.
The much followed official unemployment rate (U-3) fell from 7.6% to 7.5%.
By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, May. 6, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, May. 6, 2013 – 7:56 am
Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic lawmakers are on a collision course over restoring cuts to California’s safety net, marking a key test of vows to hold the line on state spending.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 6, 2013
Bankrupt San Bernardino’s new budget restarts CalPERS payments in July after skipping about $13 million in payments this fiscal year. But the next step in the city plan, getting CalPERS to refinance the unpaid bill, is a no-go at this point.
May 05, 2013; 11:51 AM
Riverside County’s economy is poised to bounce back from the Great Recession as home sales improve and more people find work, according to reports from two groups of economists.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Jason Felch and Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2013, 8:24 p.m.
In 2006, billionaire computer magnate Michael Dell, one of the world’s richest men, agreed to pay $200 million for the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, a beachfront landmark in Santa Monica that long has been a retreat for Hollywood starlets and U.S. presidents.
A few months later, Dell tore up the contract.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 5, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 5, 2013 – 7:19 am
Reader beware: We’re about to delve into numbers – big, abstract numbers, but immensely important numbers as well.
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/03/2013 07:38:31 PM PDT
Updated: 05/03/2013 11:34:47 PM PDT
UPLAND — The Upland Unified School District will need to identify $9 million in cuts for the 2013-14 fiscal year budget over the next two months or face insolvency.
By Nancy Cook
Updated: May 3, 2013 | 9:51 a.m.
May 3, 2013 | 9:26 a.m.
The federal government’s latest snapshot of the unemployment rate offered few bright spots Friday. The economy added 165,000 jobs in April—slightly better than March’s revised number of 138,000 jobs. Unemployment went down one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.5 percent; and health care, retail trade, and the food-services industry added positions.
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
May 2, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — California has been flooded with revenue this tax season and is on track to finish the fiscal year with a surplus of billions of dollars, according to officials.
By Peter Burrows – May 2, 2013 9:01 PM PT
Apple Inc. (AAPL) avoided as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by financing part of a $55 billion stock buyback with debt rather than offshore cash that would have been billed by the U.S. government, Moody’s Investment Services estimates.
By Ronald D. White
May 2, 2013, 10:40 a.m.
California gasoline prices have fallen by 77.4 cents a gallon from the record of $4.671 set in October.
But the state’s prices remain among the highest in the nation, and today is no exception. California is running fourth behind Hawaii, Alaska and Illinois with an average of $3.897 a gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
May 01, 2013; 06:35 PM
SACRAMENTO — A pair of influential Riverside County tribes with casinos are trying to scuttle a gaming compact between the state and a Central Valley tribe that could come up for an Assembly ratification vote as early as today.
To read story by Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/30/2013 06:15:26 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — The police union has put up a billboard at a busy intersection congratulating Mayor Pat Morris and four council members, but those elected officials don’t take it as a compliment – or the truth.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
By Dan Walters
April 30, 2013
California’s state and local governments are at least $648 billion in debt and the total could surpass $1.1 trillion — depending on how pension liabilities are calculated — according to a data compilation by a conservative think tank.
By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
April 30, 2013, 6:00 p.m.
Home prices are rising at levels not seen since the real estate boom, but American homeownership remains on the decline.
By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2013 – 11:05 am
Continuing a trend dating back to 2006, in-state consumption of gasoline declined in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to the California Board of Equalization.
By Kathleen Miles
Posted: 04/30/2013 7:03 am
At a Los Angeles Times in-house awards ceremony a week ago, columnist Steve Lopez addressed the elephant in the room.
Speaking to the entire staff, he said, “Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Austin Beutner’s group.” No one raised their hands.
April 29, 2013 8:40 PM
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Jim E. Winburn, Staff Writer
VICTORVILLE • The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a fraud complaint against the city of Victorville, a securities underwriting firm and others involved in a 2008 municipal bond offering.
Monday, April 29, 2013 – 12:30 p.m.
A shoe has finally dropped in the ongoing financial escapades of Victorville, California.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced in a press release Monday, that it has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against the city of Victorville and investment banking firm Kinsell, Newcomb and DeDios (KND).
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2013, 4:14 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded voters nine years ago that if they let him borrow money to cover the budget deficit, California’s financial woes would end for good. A key part of his plan was a new rainy-day fund to insulate the state from further crisis.
“It will be a whole new ball game,” Schwarzenegger said. “Trust me.”
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 29, 2013
With pensions presumably shored up by Gov. Brown’s reform and a CalPERS rate hike, will the problem-solving trend spread to what is, by some measures, an even bigger retirement debt: health care promised state workers?
By BEN WHITE and TARINI PARTI | 4/28/13 2:29 PM EDT
Call them the debt crisis dissenters.
The two parties are miles apart on how to cut the deficit and national debt: Republicans want to slash spending even more. Democrats want to raise revenue.
Point of View
San Bernardino is making progress against bankruptcy
Posted: 04/28/2013 08:00:12 AM PDT
For the past seven years, the City Attorney’s Office, along with the council members from the Seventh and Fifth wards, have been the most vocal critics and opponents of the direction in which San Bernardino was moving. On Aug. 23, 2010, our office predicted the city would go bankrupt if the pending budget was adopted. Those same two council members agreed.
Route 66 Rendezvous loss another fiscal crisis black eye
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/27/2013 06:22:32 PM PDT
The announcement that San Bernardino’s signature Route 66 Rendezvous – or at least the essentials that made it a local mainstay – was leaving for Ontario struck many San Bernardino residents as sad but almost inevitable.
It’s not that Ontario didn’t have the resources to do a good job, many said. Far from it.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 – 7:25 am
David Crane, a businessman who advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on financial matters – particularly long-term public pension deficits – recently wrote an I-told-you-so piece for the Bloomberg news service about the State Teachers Retirement System.
By Lori Montgomery
April 27, 2013
With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code.
April 26, 2013; 05:35 PM
Riverside County’s public employee pension costs are expected to rise more than $20 million next fiscal year, but the long-term pension fund outlook is positive, a new report states.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 26, 2013 – 6:21 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Apr. 26, 2013 – 11:45 pm
CalPERS is back – sort of.
Slowly, sometimes painfully, America’s largest public pension fund has erased the nearly $97 billion worth of investment losses it suffered in the market crash. Its portfolio swelled to a record $261.7 billion Friday, surpassing the pre-crash high in 2007.
By Danielle Douglas
Published: April 26, 2013
Megabanks made a bundle this earnings season, with the top five firms alone pulling in $19.5 billion in profits. But a closer look at the books shows they have been moving money out of rainy-day funds to boost earnings.
Posted by Ezra Klein
April 26, 2013 at 2:12 pm
The Democrats have lost on sequestration.
That’s the simple reality of Friday’s vote to ease the pain for the Federal Aviation Administration. By assenting to it, Democrats have agreed to sequestration for the foreseeable future.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Published: April 25, 2013
The next battle over the federal debt limit appears to be further away than many expect — and perhaps not until well into autumn.
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