The Obama administration Monday is calling on cities and counties to rethink their zoning laws, saying that antiquated rules on construction, housing and land use are contributing to high rents and income inequality, and dragging down the U.S. economy as a whole.
The survey, commissioned by POLITICO and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that 51 percent of Americans expect the pace of growth to remain at about the current rate over the next 10 years. That’s a grim outlook at a time when year-over-year increases in gross domestic product have come in well below 2 percent in recent quarters.
“A November ballot measure, Proposition 55, would extend that dangerous dependency on the rich for another 12 years, and its strong lead in the polls is a testament to the cynical validity of Brown’s observation about voters’ willingness to approve taxes that they won’t be paying themselves. However, some go even further, seeking taxes on those who have absolutely no power to protest, even at the polls.”
More than 50 employees working inside Los Angeles County’s juvenile lockups received promotions despite a history of disciplinary problems or criminal arrests under a deal county leaders quietly cut earlier this year.
Governments, which often offer their workers DB pensions, have been far slower than the corporate sector in attempting to reduce the cost. In large part this is because of the way they account for pensions. In America they are allowed to assume a return of 7.5-8% on their investments, making deficits look a lot smaller. But generous accounting assumptions do not make the problem go away. The Centre for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College has looked at around 4,000 American state and local-government pension plans. Even using the accounting standards permitted, the plans were on average 72% funded at the end of 2015. On a more conservative 4% discount rate, this drops to 45%. On the former basis, the collective deficit is $1.2 trillion; on the latter $4.1 trillion.
Insolvency: America’s states, counties, cities and municipalities are in deep trouble, owing literally trillions in public employee pensions that they can’t pay off. Nowhere is that more apparent than in California, the nation’s poster boy for fiscal irresponsibility.
It’s a myth that public employees trade lower pay for pensions. Exploding salaries are driving pension costs upward. My book, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States,” compared salaries for state jobs. In 2014, Texas prison guards earned an average of $38,775; in California, $83,877. For police, Texas averaged $60,573; California $96,131. Texas judges averaged $158,500, while California judges averaged $212,040. California employees came off as a Gilded Age aristocracy compared with their public service peers.
Sometime in early 2018, the EV community in the U.S. will buzz about the specific clauses in the Internal Revenue Service section code IRC 30D, better known as the “Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit.” That’s the code that allows for up to $7,500 off on federal taxes for the purchase of a new electric vehicle. It’s one that has a “sunset” clause that is specific to each vehicle manufacturer’s success. Once each manufacturer (OEM) reaches 200,000 cumulative U.S. sales of all of its EVs (from 2010 onward) the phaseout process begins. So, the more EVs an OEM sells, the quicker the credit will sunset. That mean the OEM that wins, is first to lose, but has actually won (because of their success).
Another factor keeping emissions down was the economic recession that began in 2008, after California set its emissions target but before it began most of its policies under A.B. 32. Economists haven’t calculated the actual emissions drop linked to the recession, which officially ended in June 2009, but they say it is significant.
Altogether, the raises are expected to cost about $99.4 million a year, according to the state Finance Department.
Operations at the Phillips 66 refinery’s marine terminal in Rodeo have been shut down since Wednesday.
Highlights for policy makers: Unemployment Rate Eases to 5.5%; Total Employment Rises 57,300 Labor Force Participation Rate Improves to 62.2% State Employment Growth Rankings Nonfarm Jobs Increase 63,100 Five Industries Below 2007 Pre-Recession Job Levels Two-Tier Economy Persists Eight California MSAs in the 10 Worst Unemployment Rates Nationally Broader Unemployment Measures Ease but Remain Above Pre-Recession Levels Farm Output Drops 14.3% in 2015
New research supports the conclusion that anti-sprawl policy (urban containment policy) is incompatible with housing affordability. Build-zoom.com economist Issi Romem finds that: “Cities that have curbed their expansion have – with limited exception – failed to compensate with densification. As a result they have produced far less housing than they would otherwise, with severe national implications for housing affordability, geographic mobility and access to opportunity, all of which are keenly felt today as we approach the top of housing cycle.”
Since 2009, the hallmark of California water policy has been a commitment to the coequal goals of improving both water supply reliability and ecosystem health. While this commitment remains as vital today as it was in 2009, recent actions suggest we’re due for a refresher course on what it really means. . . Draft flow objectives for the San Joaquin released this month by the State Water Resources Control Board staff raise serious questions about their commitment to a state policy founded on the coequal goals. Requiring up to 50% of unimpaired flow to remain in the river for the purported benefit of fish species, as proposed by State Water Board staff, does not reflect a balanced approach. . . The State Water Board staff’s draft plan would deal a severe blow to many communities already struggling with drinking water quality and quantity challenges. It also would make it extremely difficult for local agencies to achieve state-mandated goals under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, both by compelling growers to pump more groundwater and by reducing the amount of surface water available to recharge groundwater basins.
But unlike California, whose cities have refocused on elite priorities at the expense of middle-class occupations, Texas offers a complete spectrum of economic activities in its metros. Another key difference is that Texas cities have mostly embraced pro-development policies that have kept them affordable by allowing housing supply to expand with population, while California’s housing prices blasted into the stratosphere due to severe development restrictions. Texas cities also benefit from favorable state policies, such as the absence of a state income tax and a reasonable regulatory and litigation environment. These factors make Texas cities today what California’s used to be: places to go in search of the American dream.