#john seiler

New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/ca-prisoner-population-down-guard-pay-up/

CA prisoner population down, guard pay up

by John Seiler

  Federal court orders forced California to cut its number of prisoners. That resulted in Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 “realignment” program, which mainly shifted prisoners to local jails.

Yet overall state prison-guard compensation is up sharply. Reported the San Diego U-T:

Overtime hit a six-year high last year, allowing hundreds of prison system employees to more than double their pay. That’s created a situation in which more than a third of officers make more than $100,000 a year.

The payroll costs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have grown $248 million per year higher than they were in 2009, a 5.3 percent increase. During the same period, the population under supervision fell 38 percent.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

Going back to 2011, even then California prison guards made twice the pay of their counterparts in Texas, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “$71,000 a year, compared with $31,000.”

The California guards’ pay is even higher now — with fewer prisoners to watch behind bars.

The question now is how long this can last. Although a key part of the Democratic Party’s coalition, the prison guards union also competes for money against other public-employee unions, such as the California Teachers Association.

As is being seen in other instances, such as Latinos objecting to the low quality of state schools their kids attend, the Democratic coalition has many fissures. Factions will be fighting over budgets and policy.

During the high-crime era of the 1980s and 1990s, the prison guards held great clout in the state. But with California crimes hitting 50-year lows, as well as sentencing reform initiatives such as Proposition 47, the guards are not as powerful as they once were. Their recent pay increases may become large targets for other factions.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/ca-officials-can-use-private-email/

CA officials can use private email

by John Seiler

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Hillary Clinton has made headlines in recent weeks for using private email for official U.S. government business when she was secretary of state. Federal law mandates that all such business be conduced on public email systems that are archived.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

.The latest: “WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of a House committee investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi formally requested Friday that Hillary Rodham Clinton turn over her email server for an independent review.”

However, California has no such law for its employees. As AP reported in another story:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has no blanket policy restricting the use of personal email accounts to conduct government business, and it’s among about two dozen states that have no clear rules or precedent-setting cases addressing whether those communications are public records.

The lack of clear policy in California, advocates say, could allow officials to shield sensitive electronic communications from public scrutiny by using personal email accounts.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris, a candidate for U.S. Senate, disclosed Wednesday that she uses a private email account to communicate with senior staff in rare instances.

It quoted Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, who said reform proposals would gain “no traction because the legislators don’t want to give up the ability to hide from public-record requests … which the status quo allows them to do.”

It may require a statewide initiative for voters to rectify the situation.

Keeping such records is not just for historians to check the record. It’s to make sure government is transparent and open to scrutiny.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/supreme-court-could-throw-redistricting-back-to-legislature/

Supreme Court could throw redistricting back to Legislature

by John Seiler

California’s redistricting reforms could be revoked by the U.S. Supreme Court for congressional races in a case involving similar reforms in Arizona. State legislative races would not be affected, only races for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

Proposition 11, the 2008 initiative voters passed, created the Citizens Redistricting Commission to apportion state legislative and congressional districts. It was modified slightly by Proposition 20 in 2010.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez

The reforms occurred after numerous gerrymandering abuses when the Legislature drew districts to benefit incumbents. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, R-Garden Grove, in 2002 described how it worked for the redistricting after the 2000 U.S. Census. She told the Orange County Register she and other legislators paid $20,000 to Michael Berman, the redistricting consultant to the majority Democrats in the California Legislature who drew up the districts. She called it an “incumbent protection plan.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, on Monday the court heard arguments in a suit “that Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature has brought. The legislators want the justices to rule that only elected state lawmakers, not voters or an independent citizens commission, may draw the boundaries of districts for members of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

At issue are the words of the Constitution, “the Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

Defenders of the redistricting reforms insist an initiative is a kind of legislative act by the people.

But those bringing the lawsuit insist there’s nothing in there about taking a vote of the people. Although the Founding Fathers probably didn’t intend for the severe gerrymandering that has occurred in recent years.

Another factor is the “one man one vote” Supreme Court rulings of 50 years ago, such as the 1962 Baker v. Carr case, disallowed districts not strictly apportioned by population. Before that, legislatures could make districts along geographic lines, with some districts more populous than others.

The court is expected to decide the Arizona case before June. That means it could affect the 2016 election, with the Legislature itself redrawing the districts.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/solar-power-causing-problems-with-electricity-grid/

Solar power causing problems with electricity grid

by John Seiler

  One theme CalWatchdog.com has covered is how solar power can cause problems to the state’s existing electricity grid. An investigation a year ago found:

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

An emerging problem with California’s new green power grid is the need to ramp up enough conventional power each day because of two events:

1) When solar power is sunsetting (going dark);

2) When the mostly nighttime wind power turbines aren’t spinning enough yet to take over.

Now this is happening. Utility Dive just ran a story with the headline: “SDG&E: If you’re not prepared for the change, it’s too late.”

Sub-headline: “Sunny San Diego may be the perfect place for solar, but solar adoption is causing serious problems on the grid.”

The article reported:

The issues caused by rooftop solar are some of the biggest challenges that SDG&E faces today, James Avery, senior vice president of power supply, told Utility Dive in an interview at SDG&E’s headquarters outside of downtown San Diego.

“There’s this interesting situation where people have a perception of, ‘I’m putting solar on my roof, I’m doing something that’s good,’ Avery said. ‘Yet at the same time, they don’t realize that they’re actually creating burdens on the system that everyone else has to pay for.’”

The problem, as SDG&E would have it, is that the adoption of solar makes the electricity system harder to run, but solar customers pay less for it.

Given that Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking to make California electricity production 50 percent renewable by 2030, these types of difficulties likely will persist.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/a-helmet-law-for-bicyclers/

A helmet law for bicyclers?

by John Seiler

No question wearing a helmet makes bicycle riding safer, much as for motorcycles.

But how much of a Nanny State do Californians want? Motorcycles go much faster, usually are in traffic and are driven by licensed adults.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

Bicycles are driven by everyone, but that includes young children literally using training wheels. Current state law mandates that anyone under age of 18 must wear a helmet while riding a bike, or get hit with a $25 fine. But a look around shows it’s roundly ignored.

State Sen. Carol Liu, D-Los Angeles, now has introduced Senate Bill 192. The bill:

“would require every person, regardless of age, to wear a bicycle helmet when operating a bicycle, riding on a bicycle as a passenger, or riding in a trailer towed by a bicycle. The bill would also require a person engaged in these activities in the darkness to wear retroreflective high-visibility safety apparel, as specified.”

It adds:

“Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.”

It’ll be interesting to see if SB192 goes anywhere in a Legislature already ridiculed for enacting close to 1,000 new bills every year, although “just” 754 last year.

Yet that’s fewer than the 2,979 passed in 2014 by Tennessee.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/gas-tax-could-be-cut/

Gas tax could be cut

by John Seiler

Golden State drivers might soon enjoy a little tax relief at the pump. The Board of Equalization announced:

Sacramento – The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) will consider lowering the excise tax rate for gasoline by $0.075 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-16 during its February 24, 2015 meeting in Culver City.

Since 2010, the “fuel tax swap” law has required the Board to adjust this tax rate by March 1st of each year. If adopted, between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016, the excise tax rate on gasoline will be $0.285 per gallon. The current excise tax rate of $0.36 is in effect until June 30, 2015.

The excise tax on gasoline pays for public road improvements and mass transit. In FY 13-14, the BOE collected nearly $5.8 billion for the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account, Transportation Tax Fund. Sales tax funds a variety of state and local programs.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

If the tax cut happens, it could offset the cap-and-tax trade increase that went into effect on Jan. 1.

Although there were warnings the cap-and-trade tax increase could be as much as 75 cents a gallon, it’s turning out to be more like 10 cents.

So if the BOE follows through, it will counteract most of that.

As of today, according to GasBuddy.com, California has the country’s second highest average gas price, at $2.80 per gallon. Highest is Hawaii, at $3.02.

Lowest is Utah, at $1.92, followed by Idaho, $1.93; Montana, $1.97; and Wyoming, $1.99 — all Western neighbors. Although Nevada is fairly high, at $2.44.

Big competitor Texas is $2.10.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/schools-signing-up-families-for-covered-ca/

Schools signing up families for Covered CA

by John Seiler

Critics of anti-poverty programs long have warned about what’s called the Welfare State or “Cradle-to-Grave” government programs. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat from New York, worked for decades to try to avoid that. He helped craft the 1996 Welfare Reform Act with Democratic President Clinton and Republicans in Congress.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

The idea was that welfare would go back to being temporary to get families back on their feet, not a permanent lifestyle.

In recent years, including under the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, things have returned more to the Welfare State model. This is especially true in California, once one of America’s wealthiest states, but now the one with the highest level of poverty, at about a quarter of our people.

According to the Lucille Packard Foundation, 58 percent of California kids now are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals.

Now, California schools even are becoming centers for signing families up for Covered California, the state’s implementation of Obamacare. Reported EdSource:

In school libraries and courtyards from Sacramento to Los Angeles and beyond, trained enrollment counselors have been invited to set up folding tables, commandeer desk space and corral parents before the Feb. 15 sign-up deadline for Covered California, the state’s online health insurance marketplace created under the federal Affordable Care Act.

And the outreach will increase. Under a new state law, all California schools must include in their 2015-16 enrollment packets information about options for health care coverage and how to get help with the sign-up process. The law, Assembly Bill 2706, authored by Roger Hernández, D-West Covina, is intended to reduce the number of children who are eligible for health insurance subsidies but remain uninsured.

For perspective, here’s an excerpt from a 1987 interview with Moynihan, still relevant today:

There is a lot of vigorous research on welfare being done again, and it has really told us things we didn’t know. One of the most important things is that people who receive welfare cannot be regarded as one undifferentiated mass of people, and you can’t treat them all alike.

For instance, about a quarter of mothers who receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children do so for less than one year. These are self-sustaining, capable people who have had a sudden divorce or separation. They’ll get their lives put back together and we won’t see them again.

At the other end of the spectrum – about a quarter of the people – are those who are unmarried and in real trouble and go on welfare very young. If you don’t get hold of those people very quickly and work very hard and put a lot of resources into them, you have a spoiled life. And their children have fairly chancy prospects.

When you know these things, the problem doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming. You don’t have to change the way people behave, because nobody knows how to change the way people behave. But you’ve got to make more equitable arrangements in areas like child support.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

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New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/ex-brown-adviser-powerful-interests-run-state/

Ex-Brown adviser: ‘powerful interests’ run state

by John Seiler

Most Californians sense that special interests, not voters, run the state. That’s why voter turnout hit record lows last November. And it’s why the Legislature scores so low on opinion polls.  A PPIC survey last year found only 36 percent of Californians approve of the Legislature’s performance — despite the general increase in the state economy of recent years.

Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com

Steve Glazer, a former top adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown, recently explained the pressures faced by majority Democrats in the Legislature:

During a panel conversation on the impact of California’s top-two electoral system Friday, Glazer said Democrats who disagree with labor unions on school, budget and pension issues have been “demonized” by influential elements of their own party.

“The Democratic Party is controlled by some very powerful interests,” Glazer said at the forum, organized by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, “and most Democrats who have ambition are intimidated by that circumstance.”

In his Assembly race last year, labor unions backing Democrat Tim Sbranti worked against Glazer, a more conservative Democrat, in the primary election. Sbranti advanced but was defeated in the general election by a Republican, Catharine Baker.

One theme we have advanced at CalWatchDog.com is that a one-party state eventually sees fissures develop in the majority party. That may be what we’re seeing happen here.

More “conservative” Democrats, such as Glazer — and at least on budget prudence, Brown — face the free-spending ways of more “liberal” Democrats, such as state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon of Los Angeles.

Right now, Brown has the edge because of his long experience in California politics, dating back to the late 1930s when his father, Gov. Pat Brown, was a young and ambitious politician. Jerry Brown also understands that, in state politics, balancing the budget is the key to everything else.

But after Brown leaves state politics, his less experienced successors will not have that edge, and the “powerful interests” may grow yet more powerful.

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Republished with permission by Cal Watchdog.com