Other cost cutting includes “streamlining the engineering organization, reducing the number of offices and increasing the mix of resources in lower-cost regions,” the company said. The cost savings are expected to be spread out over the next year or so.
On governance and budget matters, Gov. Jerry Brown has earned a reputation for being reasonable and moderate. Even many Republicans describe him as the “last adult” in the Capitol, given his refusal to embrace far-reaching programs. Yet when it comes to global warming, the governor is anything but measured these days.
Most studies suggest these agreements hike constructions costs by as much as 25 percent because they reduce the number of contractors — and especially lower-cost nonunion contractors — who bid for these projects. As a result, trade unions have had a tough road in convincing districts to embrace them given the impact on costs, even though they tout them as a way to assure labor peace (i.e., no strikes).
A study released Wednesday by real-estate tracker Trulia says it would take 18 years for a San Diego household of college-educated young professionals earning the median income to afford a median-priced home in the county.
A report released Tuesday by the University of San Diego still points to gains in the job market, new residential construction and an overall improving national economy as factors behind the region’s expansion. However, local publicly traded companies did not fare well in May and consumer confidence dipped locally for the first time in 15 months.
“I first heard the term ‘1099 economy’ at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference, where it was uttered not as a pejorative, but as a way to praise the innovative labor practices of Silicon Valley startups,” wrote Kevin Roose, in New York magazine last year. Ironically, Gov. Jerry Brown has been boasting about California’s economic comeback, using Silicon Valley economy as the prime example. Meanwhile, his agency is clamping down (at least in this one case) on one of the business models causing that region to boom.
But the loophole is a problem with a relatively small number of properties. And the alleged fix would hammer tens of thousands of property owners who play by the rules and don’t game the system – and who employ millions of Californians.
Doctors and patients are telling these kinds of stories more often as state Medi-Cal rolls have increased by 4 million under an expansion program created by the Affordable Care Act. Today, more than 12 million Californians, nearly one-third of the state’s total population, are enrolled in the government’s health insurance plan for low-income, disabled and disadvantaged residents.
Marin officials echoed the approach of state officials, who quietly passed that landmark 1999 legislation without a full public airing. In his 2010 testimony before the state Senate regarding a proposed pension-reform measure, Crane said CalPERS claimed at the time that “no increase over current employer contributions is needed for these benefit improvements.” Yet CalPERS recently boosted costs to local and state agencies by around 50 percent — and few legislators were concerned enough about the impact to seriously revisit pension reform — or look at ways to more thoroughly account for the level of debt today.
The job reductions follow the closing of the sale last Thursday of the Union-Tribune to the parent company of the Los Angeles Times. The acquisition by the Tribune Publishing Co. will allow for the consolidation of the two newspapers’ printing operations, which will move from Mission Valley to Los Angeles, where the Times is printed daily, along with national publications delivered to San Diego County subscribers.
Recently approved environmental rules could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of desalination plants proposed along California’s coast. Industry officials say projects will continue to move forward — though it’s an open question about whether the technology will ever flourish in the Golden State.
California’s drought emergency woes have worsened, with a shortage on the Colorado River next year becoming increasingly likely. Odds of a shortage rose from 33 percent to 50 percent from April 1 to May 1, Metropolitan Water District, Southern California’s largest water wholesaler, said Monday.
“Pension reform also creates an alternative to tax increases,” DeMaio said in an interview. “And right now there are a lot of groups in California that are very concerned about the bevy of tax hikes that will be on the 2016 ballot.”
Agriculture, which uses 34 times more water per worker than the average business, is most at risk. Cuts could also pinch the thriving technology and life-sciences sectors, which employ nearly 124,000 workers — who use 45 percent more water than average.
While supporters view charters as an effective means to help kids circumvent some of the poorest-performing public schools, the teachers’ unions argue charters have unfair advantages. So the California Teachers Association has sponsored a package of bills designed to “level the playing field” or hobble charter schools with bureaucracy — depending on one’s perspective.