Based on those cities’ building permit processing history over the last three to five years and estimates from about 20 development companies, Reaser’s group concluded that regulation could represent up to 55.9 percent or $480,746 of the cost of a new $860,000 apartment or condo in Carlsbad.
American eighth-graders demonstrated virtually the same dismal grasp of U.S. history, civics and geography in test results released Wednesday than they did four years ago, when the National Report Card assessments were last administered.
Instead of pushing in a reform direction, the CTA’s backers are trying to make it tougher to deal with inadequate teachers. SB 499 and AB 575, co-sponsored by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, “would open teacher evaluations up to collective bargaining on not just the process, but the actual standards by which teachers are evaluated,” argued a coalition of education-reform groups opposing the bills. “Offering unions this power affords them the opportunity and incentive to water down teacher evaluations, including minimizing the percentage of their evaluations based on objective measures of student learning and academic growth.”
“. . . when Gov. Jerry Brown announced mandatory 25 percent water cuts early this month, he exempted both agricultural and environmental water use. That’s despite the fact that those sectors use a combined 90 percent of the state’s overall water in an average year, with the environment receiving the largest share, 50 percent.”
“Some years back, Soitec Solar arrived in San Diego with the promise of good jobs and the ability to deploy industry-leading solar technology at prospective local solar sites. Yet, these local solar projects – centered in the San Diego County community of Boulevard – were tied up with the county for roughly three years, just receiving approval from the Board of Supervisors this February. Untangling the causes for this outcome after the fact is difficult, but one major issue was the desire to avoid or appease the local planning group’s absolutist opposition. The result was an unnecessarily belabored process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). “
The legal issue isn’t solely about housing, but about whether cities have unlimited power to extract concessions from homebuilders for things that are not “impacts” from the project. In other words, it’s legitimate for government to require new developments to pay to mitigate the effect of the new residents on local infrastructure (roads, sewers, fire service), but is it OK for cities to require affordable housing just because officials want to see more of it built?
California’s new energy efficiency regulations, which started being enforced last summer, dramatically boost costs for owners of older homes when they need major maintenance on their systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. That’s because ducts must be “R-8” insulated and certified to be free of leaks, a standard that can force total replacement for many houses built before 2008. . . The Energy Commission has also mandated construction industry software with epic performance problems. This is devouring dollars across the industry, as well as reducing the efficiency of new homes and commercial buildings.
Harris in February granted “conditional approval” of the ownership change from the Daughters to Prime — provided Prime agrees to a 78-page agreement filled with costly conditions. For the next 10 years, Prime would agree to keep all the hospitals open. It must spend $150 million on capital improvements in three years, assure the full pension benefits of retirees and current employees, and invest $350 million in seismic retrofitting. . . This convoluted deal is easier to understand in the context of union politics. The powerful Service Employees International Union/United Healthcare Workers West has been harshly critical of the sale to Prime, which it accuses of profiteering. By contrast, one of its rival unions, the California Nurses Association, has backed the sale as a way to save the hospital system.
At issue are California’s rigid overtime rules, which require companies to pay hourly employees time-and-one-half not only for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week — but for time worked beyond eight hours each day. As the state’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement declares, “Eight hours of work constitutes a day’s work … .” But what works in the view of a Sacramento bureaucracy isn’t necessarily what works for others.
The other 49 states follow a more lenient federal law that permits some outsourcing as long as “virtually all” of the product is of U.S. origin, according to a Federal Trade Commission advisory.
The Board of Equalization released a proposal on Friday to reduce the per-gallon tax Californians pay on regular gas by 7.5 cents per gallon, a 21 percent cut from the current 36-cent excise tax. The new rate of 28.5 cents per gallon could be approved Feb. 24 and take effect July 1, the start of the 2015-16 fiscal year. Californians will still pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation, based on sales tax, federal taxes, and other fees.
Atkins’ colleagues from San Diego to Sacramento said last week they share her worry over how to pay for the state’s aging and overburdened roads, bridges and highways. But they also said her idea could be in for a long, difficult ride in the Legislature given the public’s disdain for new fees and the lack of a clear connection between state government and the potholes on local parkways.
In 2008, independent economists hired by the California Air Resources Board to review its plans to implement AB 32, the state’s landmark anti-global warming law, warned officials against presenting the measure as a broad boon to the state economy. Forcing California to use a higher percentage of cleaner but costlier fuels by 2020 was likely to hurt industries that competed with states and nations with lower energy costs, especially manufacturers. The most renowned of the economists, Harvard’s Robert Stavins, offered the sharpest critique and warned the air board that it risked discrediting itself if it didn’t acknowledge the law’s downside.
The state is arguing it has the right to impose a contract on a group of Fresno-area farm workers — but the workers have no right to even attend the hearings in which that contract is hammered out. This is one “Alice in Wonderland” scenario in a slow moving and bureaucratic labor battle that pits workers against a union.
At a Capitol hearing on Thursday, that nearly forgotten idea reared its head as the state’s government-reform agency, the Little Hoover Commission, examined why Californians don’t trust their government. TQM was on a list of one speaker’s management fads that, over the years, failed to improve services enough to restore the public’s confidence in its governments.