Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 24, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
When Gov. Jerry Brown talks about reducing the state’s “wall of debt,” he carefully limits it to about $30 billion in budget deficits, mostly money owed to schools and community colleges.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
April 23, 2013
Despite relatively robust income tax returns and a projection that the state will finish April billions of dollars ahead of estimates, Gov. Jerry Brown today dismissed a reporter’s suggestion he must be “pretty happy,” suggesting any overage may be tied up by Proposition 98, California’s school-funding guarantee.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/22/2013 08:56:31 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — The city passed a “survival budget” Monday evening that continues to defer millions of dollars it owes, with frequent and substantial changes expected later.
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Flight delays piled up across the country Monday as thousands of air traffic controllers began taking unpaid days off because of federal budget cuts, providing the most visible impact yet of Congress and the White House’s failure to agree on a long-term deficit-reduction plan.
By Nathan Hurst
Roll Call Staff
April 22, 2013, 3:44 p.m.
“Why is President Obama unnecessarily delaying your flight?” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tweeted as part of GOP lawmakers’ social media offensive. “FAA can reprioritize.”
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press
Updated 10:12 am, Saturday, April 20, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A second round of bureaucratic bickering has begun over the dismantling of California’s community redevelopment agencies.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 22, 2013
The question of whether pensions are “sustainable” may get an answer as a CalPERS board action last week ratchets up annual state and local pension costs during the next seven years.
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Apr. 21, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 21, 2013 – 7:19 am
Despite the Brown administration’s edict last year to sweep out nearly all retirees from the state workforce, more than two dozen departments still use them to fill some of the highest-paying positions in government, according to state data reviewed by The Bee.
By Daniel Borenstein, staff columnist
Posted: 04/19/2013 09:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 04/21/2013 05:10:33 AM PDT
City officials try to have it both ways.
They blame their pension woes on the mighty California Public Employees’ Retirement System. But when CalPERS tries to do the right thing, as we just saw, cities drag their feet like petulant children.
PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
By Chris Megerian
April 19, 2013, 7:00 a.m.
SACRAMENTO — By now it’s a safe bet that California tax revenue will surpass expectations during the current fiscal year. But the question of what that means for the state’s bottom line is far from settled.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 19, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Jerry Brown spent the first two years of his second governorship dealing with a chronic budget crisis and finally persuaded voters to raise sales and income taxes to narrow the budget gap.
By Joe Nelson
joe.nelson@ inlandnewspapers.com @SBCountyNow on Twitter
Posted: 04/18/2013 07:35:56 PM PDT
The president of the union representing San Bernardino County’s prosecutors, deputy public defenders and child support attorneys has threatened a strike if the county continues imposing concessions he said are not on par with other counties.
April 18, 2013 9:07 PM
Jim E. Winburn, Staff Writer
VICTORVILLE • Troubled by what she sees as the city’s failure to respond to a grand jury’s financial recommendations, Councilwoman Angela Valles requested a public update on the issue but was rebuffed by the City Council.
By Ryan Hagen and Eric Bradley
Staff Writers
Posted: 04/17/2013 07:09:43 PM PDT
Updated: 04/17/2013 07:09:53 PM PDT
Many cities will be required to pay more to the state pension system for at least a few years because of changes the system’s board approved Wednesday, stretching its already-thin finances.
April 16, 2013; 07:12 PM
Legislation to restore millions of dollars in 2011 budget cuts to four Riverside County cities has been pulled from its first committee hearing.
To read story by Jim Miller in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Ed Mendel
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
A CalPERS committee yesterday approved raising employer rates roughly 50 percent over the next seven years, replacing actuarial methods that kept rates low during the recession with a new goal of full funding in 30 years.
By Chris Megerian
April 16, 2013, 2:51 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — California is primed for a strong month for tax revenue after the Legislature’s top budget advisor said Tuesday was among the biggest days for tax collection in state history.
The state raked in $2.7 billion in income taxes Tuesday, according to the latest figures from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
April 15, 2013; 06:12 PM
Riverside will repay $10 million to the city utility’s water fund to help settle a lawsuit that contended officials illegally transferred millions of dollars from that account into the general fund over 16 years.
To read story by Alicia Robinson in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/16/2013 12:01:15 AM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — There’s a lot more clarity, but still a scarcity of good news, the city’s financial consultant said Monday as he presented a proposed budget to the City Council.
April 15, 2013; 04:27 PM
Officials from three of Riverside County’s four newest cities will travel to Sacramento this week in a bid to reclaim state money they say they need to adequately serve their constituents.
To read story by Sandra Stokley in The Press Enterprise, click here.
Builder blames past issues on governments changing specs
By Christopher Cadelago5:20 p.m.April 15, 2013
SACRAMENTO — The lowest-bidding partnership for the first segment of California’s high-speed rail line includes a firm with a history of cost overruns and costly lawsuits.
By Michael B. Marois – Apr 15, 2013 9:00 PM PT
California taxpayers may see the municipal pension contributions they fund for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System rise as much as 50 percent under a plan to fill $87 billion in unfunded obligations.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
By Melody Gutierrez
April 15, 2013
Two Republican-backed measures to repeal a fire prevention fee levied on some rural California residents cleared an Assembly committee Monday.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/14/2013 05:23:00 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO — An 11-page framework for spending, which lawyers challenging the city’s bankruptcy eligibility have often said lacks critical details and explanations, has been replaced by a proposed 75-page line-item budget the City Council will study Monday.
Politics Blog
By Joe Garofoli
Monday, April 15, 2013
Sacramento – You can’t mention “Prop 13″ in a story about California politics without saying it’s the “third rail of…” OK, you can, but we didn’t. More important, the California Democratic Party just wrapped its labor-fed claw around PART OF the rail Sunday by endorsing a resolution that requires commercial property to be regularly reassessed.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 15, 2013
If not for pension and benefit increases as the stock market boomed more than a decade ago, CalSTRS would be one of the nation’s best-funded large retirement systems with 88 percent of the assets needed to pay promised pensions.
Sunday, April 14, 2013 – 11:45 a.m.
After a protracted negotiations period, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is set to impose a one-year contract on the union representing the positions of Deputy District Attorney, Deputy Public Defender and Child Support Attorney, effective immediately.
A contract that will deal a serious blow to take-home pay.
By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 12, 2013 – 3:39 pm
Sunny indeed – and not just the weather.
Spring is getting off to a good start in California’s state budget, too, with general fund revenue for March exceeding Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget forecast by $254 million, state finance officials announced Friday.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
April 10, 2013
Those worried that legislative Democrats will use their supermajority power to make changes to Proposition 13 can breathe a sigh of relief — for now, at least.
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