Los Angeles has spent soaring amounts in recent years to end legal disputes over dangerous roads, police misconduct and other alleged wrongdoing, depriving the city of money that could fund other pressing needs. Last budget year, the city paid out more than $200 million in legal settlements and court judgments — a record amount that […]
California businesses buy credits under the state’s program, which allows them to release carbon emissions. Sixty percent of the money the state collects from those businesses gets spent automatically. The high-speed rail project receives a quarter of the dollars. Lawmakers must decide how to allocate the other 40 percent. This year, they’re directing more money […]
From the end of the Second World War until a few years ago, when it cooled off, productivity surged across the U.S. economy, giving rise to what’s often called the “productivity miracle.” From manufacturing to agriculture to retail, industry after industry became cheaper, faster, more mechanized, and more efficient. But the same can’t be said […]
On weekdays, bus driver Adan Miranda hauls people across Silicon Valley. But his own roughly 100-mile commute home to a Sacramento suburb nearly killed him, so 15 years ago he decided to start sleeping in a San Jose parking lot four nights a week. It’s a choice that’s becoming more common for people who want […]
The Clippers are asking the Legislature for special treatment on environmental regulations so they can build a new basketball arena faster. They’ll get it. And they probably should. Why not? Special regulatory deals for major league sports teams are being handed out in Sacramento like free bobbleheads. The Oakland A’s also are seeking legislation to […]
Today, over 1 billion people worldwide have no electricity. Almost 40 percent of humanity – nearly 3 billion people – still use biomass, animal dung or other fuels that are dangerous for indoor cooking and heating, no different than was done hundreds of years ago. Living in energy poverty is not simply an inconvenience; it’s […]
For more than a decade, California has won high praise from environmentalists for its stringent greenhouse gas restrictions. But a new report shows that despite the enormous costs of this effort, the state is doing a worse job at cutting CO2 emissions than the rest of the country, while badly hurting its working families. . […]
If the rate increases are approved, a typical SDG&E customer’s bill would go up nearly $14 per month. For businesses, that could be much higher. “We’re over half a million dollars a year in electric power,” said Todd Roberts who is president of Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista. He said his business employs […]
Inside these restaurants, it’s evident that the forces making this one of the most expensive cities in America are subtly altering the economics of everything. Commercial rents have gone up. Labor costs have soared. And restaurant workers, many of them priced out by the expense of housing, have been moving away. Restaurateurs who say they […]
Property taxes represent a major source of revenue for states and localities. In fiscal year 2015, the latest year of data available, 31.1 percent of total U.S. state and local tax collections came from property taxes, more than any other source of tax revenue. In the same year, 25 states and the District of Columbia […]
As detailed in this space a few days ago, the Legislature is using a budget “trailer bill” to deprive voters of vital information about local government and school bond issues. The legislation, drafted without public hearings or other input, would suspend for two years a new law, which took effect on January 1, requiring proposed […]
•Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are proposed with the promise to improve public health outcomes, but they come with equity concerns because of their regressive nature. •We use Nielsen consumption data to explore the relationship between household income and measures of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by expenditures and fluid ounces. •If a nationwide tax were levied on […]
Utility rates in Palo Alto are set to go up by 6 percent in July, an increase that utilities officials attribute largely to growing transmission costs and new renewable energy projects coming online. The rate change was part of a wider package of adjustments that the Palo Alto City Council approved on Monday night. As […]
California and eight other states rolled out a plan pressuring car companies and others to meet ambitious goals for sales of electric vehicles and other environmentally friendly automobiles—part of an effort to maintain tough local regulations while the Trump administration moves to relax nationwide standards for tailpipe emissions. The plan among the nine states, covering […]
Mr. Hansen’s testimony described three possible scenarios for the future of carbon dioxide emissions. He called Scenario A “business as usual,” as it maintained the accelerating emissions growth typical of the 1970s and ’80s. This scenario predicted the earth would warm 1 degree Celsius by 2018. Scenario B set emissions lower, rising at the same […]