Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News California Governor Gavin Newsom Announces Appointments

Dean Fealk, 46, of Piedmont, has been appointed to the California Workforce Development Board. Fealk has been partner and co-chair of the international labor and employment practice at DLA Piper since 2007 and general counsel, honorary chair and co-founder at the Halifax International Security Forum since 2011. He was an advisor on the Europe and Russia Advisory Committee of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign from 2015 to 2016. Fealk was an Eisenhower Fellow to China in 2016, a Presidential Leadership Scholar at the Clinton Foundation in 2015 and a Marshall Memorial Fellow to the European Union in 2011. He was a guest lecturer at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2010 and an associate at Baker & McKenzie from 2005 to 2007. Fealk was a consultant for the World Bank from 2003 to 2005, an adjunct lecturer at Santa Clara University School of Law in 2004 and an adjunct law professor at Kyunghee University Graduate School of Law in 2003. He is chair of the Northern California District Export Council and a board member of the Bay Area Council and the California Business Roundtable. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a Master of Science degree in government from the London School of Economics. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Fealk is a Democrat.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Isn’t Ready To Make A Deal With China, Trump Says

President Trump raised the possibility that trade talks with China could break off again, sending stocks lower.

In comments to reporters Friday, Mr. Trump indicated the U.S. was prepared for Beijing to back out of talks, which were tentatively set to take place in Washington next month.

“We’ll see whether or not we keep our meeting in September. If we do, that’s fine. If we don’t, that’s fine. But it’s time that somebody does what we’re doing,” he said.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators held face-to-face meetings in Shanghai last month but failed to make any progress. In response, Mr. Trump has ordered 10% tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports not currently taxed to take effect Sept. 1.

On Monday, China lets the value of its currency decline, leading to the U.S. accusing Beijing of manipulating its currency.

Read More [[link removed]] Florida Raking In Billions As Americans Abandon High-Tax States

State governments can benefit Opens a New Window. greatly from an influx of movers – enjoying everything from increased tax Opens a New Window. revenues to new business activity.

Recently, changes to the U.S. tax code have encouraged an increasing number of people to move – taking their cash to lower-tax states like Florida.

As it turns out, however, Florida has been banking on moving trends even prior to the implementation of the new tax law.

According to a new study from LendingTree, which analyzed IRS data from 2016, Florida is the number one largest beneficiary from relocations out of all 50 states – by a landslide.

The Sunshine State drew in a net influx of about $17.7 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI) – most of which (72 percent) came from those aged 55 and older. It is consistently one of the most popular destinations for retirees due to affordability and low taxes.

Read More [[link removed]] America’s Pension Funds Fell Short In 2019

Public pension plans fell short of their projected returns this year, adding to the burden on governments struggling to fund promised benefits to retired workers.

Public plans with more than $1 billion in assets earned a median return of 6.79% for the year ended June 30, the lowest since 2016, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service data released Tuesday. Public pension plans project a median long-term return of 7.25%, according to data collected by Wilshire Associates in 2018.

Each year, pension funds must make this estimate on how much they expect to earn on investments. The projection determines the amount the government that is affiliated with the pension fund must pay into it.

Robust returns reduce the need for government support. When returns fall short, however, the amount the government must contribute increases, potentially diverting money from other public services.

“I think a lot of plans fell a little bit short,” said Becky Sielman, principal and consulting actuary at Milliman. “Bonds generally did well, but there are other asset classes that didn’t do as well.”

Read More [[link removed]] Tired Of Plastic Junk? California's Recycling Bills Propose Dramatic New Rules

As bills that take aim at plastic waste make their way through California’s legislature, the damage they intend to fix already is rippling through the state’s recycling economy.

On Monday, rePlanet, a major collector of beverage bottles and cans, shut its 284 collection centers in California, citing lower subsidies from the state as well as challenges facing recyclers and municipalities across California: higher operating costs and dwindling returns from post-consumer recyclables.

It was a vivid example of challenges threatening the ability of Californians to recycle and helps explain the progress a trio of bills is making through the legislature. All aim to change the economics of recycling by legislating a tough financial incentive for manufacturers.

Two of the bills, authored by Democrats Lorena Gonzalez in the Assembly and Ben Allen in the Senate, are identical and would require manufacturers to reduce waste from packaging and certain plastic products. The other, by Assemblyman Phil Ting, calls on manufacturers to increase the minimum recycled content in plastic beverage bottles over the next decade.

Read More [[link removed]] California Privacy Law Sets National Agenda As Federal Talks Fizzle

California is taking center stage, with a federal data privacy deal sputtering in Washington, in the battle over how companies handle consumer data — a familiar role for the giant state with a long history of compelling industry changes.

Just months before the state's new privacy law is set to take effect, Silicon Valley giants and other corporations are facing off against privacy advocates in a last-ditch effort to alter the measure, the California Consumer Privacy Act, in the supermajority Democratic Legislature.

“The stakes are astronomically high because businesses of all sizes across every industry are expected to comply with the letter of this complex law in less than five months,” said Sarah Boot, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce, which has led a push to narrow the kinds of data covered in the law, among other changes.

So far, the business community — which thought it would get a second chance to tweak the landmark law this year before it takes effect Jan. 1 — has been largely unsuccessful. With four weeks left of the legislative session, trade associations representing Facebook, Google and a host of other corporations are expected to unleash their lobbying firepower to secure exemptions, if not a delay, when lawmakers return to Sacramento on Monday. In the year's second quarter alone, industry groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence privacy legislation, according to their lobbying disclosure reports.

Read More [[link removed]] 'I'm Independent': Not All Gig Economy Workers Want A Full-Time Job

Samantha Saucedo drives for Lyft, she does it part time, and that’s just fine with her, thank you.

“My daughters have field trips, and I can attend to them,” she says. “One daughter went to yoga, one went skating, and I was there. Each time. I just turned off the app.”

Despite what you may hear, not all rideshare drivers want full-time jobs. Many of them, like Samantha, want flexibility. It’s why they joined the gig economy in the first place.

James Fox is a young man who calls himself an “independent contractor.” He turns on the app and drives for Lyft when he wants. “In San Francisco, there’s never a dull moment. I always have someone in my car. There are a million people looking not to park.”

Samantha, James, and several other Lyft and Uber drivers showed up at a WeWork office in San Jose to represent the I’m Independent Coalition, which says it represents 2 million people in California who want to remain just that – independent.

Read More [[link removed]] Moody’s Says Wildfire Catastrophe Losses The New Normal in Calif.

California had long been a good bet for homeowners’ insurers, with most carriers having no problem recouping paid losses through premiums.

But in 2017 and 2018, the state experienced six of the 10 most destructive wildfires in its history and suffered total wildfire fire damages of nearly $25 billion. The state’s direct loss ratio for home insurers skyrocketed to an average of 179%, the highest of any major state, according to a new report by Moody’s Investor Services.

Moody’s says those damages are not a fluke. Global warming has made wildfires a “first tier peril,” on par with hurricanes and earthquakes, the ratings house said. As a result, insurers are imposing stricter underwriting standards, raising rates and dropping policies when they come up for renewal, forcing homeowners into the residual market.

“Several recent academic studies have concluded that wildfire exposure for the western US has increased in recent years because of drier forests, a longer burning season and higher average temperatures,” the report says. “As climate change continues to intensify, California could experience further heavy wildfire losses in the years ahead.”

Read More [[link removed]] The Biggest Recycling Store Chain In California Just Closed Its Doors. Here's Why

The largest bottle and can recycling center chain in California, rePlanet, shut its doors Monday, terminating its entire workforce and creating a massive gap in recycling availability in the state.

“With the continued reduction in state fees, the depressed pricing of recycled aluminum and PET plastic, and the rise in operating costs resulting from minimum wage increases and required health and workers compensation insurance, the Company has concluded that operation of these recycling centers and supporting operations is no longer sustainable,” a company spokesman said in a statement Monday.

The company has shut doors at 284 sites throughout the state.

The closure led the group Consumer Watchdog to call on the state to step in and require all grocery and convenience store chains to begin redeeming bottles and cans.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change U.S.-China Trade Battle Is Crimping Global Oil Demand

Worries about the health of the economy and increasingly uncertain trade relations between the U.S. and China will put further pressure on global oil demand in 2019, the International Energy Agency said Friday.

In its closely watched oil-market report, the IEA downgraded its forecast for global oil-demand growth for the third time in four months, lowering it to 1.1 million barrels a day from 1.2 million barrels a day. Demand for the January-to-May period was at its weakest since 2008.

While geopolitical tensions remain elevated in the Middle East between Western and Iranian naval forces, the IEA’s main focus was the economy.

The agency has expressed growing alarm over the impact of the trade battle between the U.S. and China on both economic and “very sluggish” global oil demand growth, having cut its forecast in May and June.

Read More [[link removed]] EPA Issues Rule To Rein In Blue States From Blocking Oil And Gas Pipelines

The EPA proposed a rule Friday designed to limit blue states' ability to reject oil and gas pipeline projects.

The proposed rule implements an April executive order from President Trump to rein in state use of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. That provision of the law allows states to deny permits if leaks from an energy infrastructure project could harm nearby streams or lakes.

EPA’s rule would put a one-year deadline for states to deny permits in order to promote the “timely review of infrastructure projects.”

“Our proposal is intended to help ensure that states adhere to the statutory language and intent of Clean Water Act,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “When implemented, this proposal will streamline process for constructing new energy infrastructure projects that are good for American families, American workers, and the American economy.”

Read More [[link removed]] A Clean Energy Breakthrough Could Be Buried Deep Beneath Rural Utah

If you know anything about solar and wind farms, you know they’re good at generating electricity when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and not so good at other times.

Batteries can pick up the slack for a few hours. But they’re less useful when the sun and wind disappear for days at a time — a problem the Germans call “dunkelflaute,” meaning “dark doldrums.”

Those long stretches of still, cloudy days are one of the main obstacles standing in the way of renewable energy fully replacing fossil fuels.

For Los Angeles, salt may be a solution.

One hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, a giant mound of salt reaches thousands of feet down into the Earth. It’s thick, relatively pure and buried deep, making it one of the best resources of its kind in the American West.

Read More [[link removed]] California's Climate Deal With Automakers Had Been Rejected By EPA

A compromise between four major automakers and California’s clean-air regulator on fuel efficiency was rejected by the Trump administration months earlier as not “a productive alternative.”

The deal — which Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., BMW and Volkswagen announced July 25 alongside the California Air Resources Board — eases the pace of annual efficiency improvements required under current Obama-era rules but is tougher than the Trump administration’s proposal to cap mileage requirements at 2020 levels.

Key elements of the pact were contained in a November 2018 summary of California’s proposal that was prepared by Environmental Protection Agency staff for Bill Wehrum, who was assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation at the time, according to excerpts of the presentation viewed by Bloomberg.

Read More [[link removed]] California Struggles To Sprawl In An Environmentally Responsible Way

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 in April to give final approval to plans for Centennial, a 19,333-home planned community with more than 10 million square feet of commercial space situated 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of representatives from trade unions and working-class neighborhoods had urged the supervisors to approve the plan, calling it a case study for how to develop a community. They described the urgent need for housing in the county, where the median home price was $618,500 as of Aug. 1, according to Zillow, up from $350,000 seven years ago.

“This is key to the long-term health of our local economy,” says Jerard Wright, policy manager with the Los Angeles County Business Federation, which asked the county to approve the project. “It is a rare case where firefighters, nurses, young professionals will get an opportunity to purchase a home.”

And yet some environmental advocates want to kill the development. The reason: the potentially long drive to work for the people who’d live there. For the last 50 years, and particularly since the election of President Trump, California has been a leader in environmental regulation. It was the first state to establish tailpipe emission standards for cars in the 1960s, and its 2012 Advanced Clean Cars program aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles by about 40% by 2025.

Read More [[link removed]] Seabirds Eating Plastic. Recyclers Struggling. This Is What California's Waste Crisis Looks Like

It was more than a year after the seabird died and washed up on a California beach before Jessie Beck prepared to reveal its last meals. Holding its stomach over a laboratory sink, Beck snipped open the slick tissue. With a series of plinks, the stomach contents slumped out onto the metal sieve below.

Inside were the remains of seabird food, like hooked squid beaks the size of fingernail clippings. Mostly, though, Beck found hard shards of plastic, soggy cardboard, styrofoam, and a maroon hunk of mystery meat that looked like beef jerky—until Beck cracked it open. Its innards were pure white: more styrofoam.

The gray bird, called a Northern Fulmar, may have died in the waters off California during its winter migration. And it’s possible that the bird’s garbage-filled meals played a part in its death. But Beck, a scientist with the non-profit group Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, isn’t one to speculate, and she isn’t investigating what killed it.

Instead, the bird is part of a larger project to monitor plastic pollution, 4 million to 12 million metric tons of which wash into the ocean around the world every year. Fulmars are known to snack on this trash, particularly when they’re hungry. And when they die and wash up on shore, about 70 percent of them bring some plastic back with them every year.

Read More [[link removed]] SDG&E Introduces New Wildfire Response Measures And Equipment

San Diego Gas & Electric, the recognized leader among California’s utilities in wildfire safety, on Wednesday detailed a handful of wildfire response measures added in the last year, a period in which the state’s investor-owned utilities have faced elevated scrutiny over deadly wildfires that have also scorched hundreds of thousands of acres.

The measures highlighted largely focus on response once a fire starts.

“As good as we have been over the last 10 years, and as much investment as we have done, we cannot be good enough when it comes to protecting our communities,” said Caroline Winn, SDG&E’s chief operating officer, from a podium in an airplane hangar.

California is approaching the one-year anniversary of the deadliest fire in its history: The Camp Fire killed 85 people and pushed Pacific Gas & Electric — whose equipment caused it — toward bankruptcy.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development Child Care Providers Push California To Boost Pay For Early Education Teachers

When a preschool teacher at a San Mateo center began to struggle to interact with children, supervisors became concerned. The reason for the teacher’s drop in performance?

She was hungry.

“Our teachers are having to make choices between rent and food and getting to work,” said Heather Cleary, CEO at Peninsula Family Service, which runs nine centers for low-income children in San Mateo County. “Some of our children come with a lot of trauma and for our teachers to also have their own trauma that they’re bringing to work makes it really challenging to provide a quality learning environment.”

Read More [[link removed]] Smaller Classes, More Novice Teachers: The 'Tradeoff' For Low-Income California Schools

Former Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature law, the Local Control Funding Formula, has frustrated researchers and advocacy groups that have wanted to verify how much of the extra money intended for targeted students has actually gone to the schools they attend — and how the funding was used.

Consistent with his view of local control, Brown insisted that district offices, not schools, should control money under the formula, and he fought efforts to make it easy to compare spending across schools and districts.

Now a researcher from the Public Policy Institute of California appears to have cracked the code, at least on a macro level of data, and has published the first statewide look at differences in spending among high- and low-poverty schools under the formula. His findings are both reassuring and concerning and may renew calls for clarity in tracking funding formula dollars at the school level and for the Legislature to give more direction on how dollars should be used.

Read More [[link removed]] California's New Calbright College Faces Questions Weeks Before Opening

California’s new online community college officially starts in eight weeks but it has yet to have a formal application for students or identify employers that will host its three new industry-certified programs.

But Calbright College’s new president, Heather Hiles, said the institution is on track to meet those goals by its Oct. 1 start date.

“This is not meant to be the fully loaded, fully technologized program,” Hiles said. “We’re right on schedule for all the things we need to set up our training programs.”

With this first group of students, Hiles said the online community college is starting small just as any other startup would. Calbright officials will focus on increasing enrollment once they figure out what technology works and doesn’t work for the college’s target group of adult learners, she said. They’ve set a goal of launching with no more than 400 students who would learn skills online and in the workplace.

Read More [[link removed]] College Still Pays Off, But Not For Everyone

Investing in a college degree still pays off for most students with higher salaries and greater wealth, but in recent years it has become riskier, splitting graduates more widely into haves and have-nots.

“It just has not been the blanket guarantee of following the same path to prosperity that the earlier generations followed,” says economist William Emmons of the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

There are three related shifts causing economists to re-examine the returns of college. First, the wages of college graduates have remained mostly flat this century, after inflation. Second, the cost of attending college has soared. Third, even with higher salaries, significant numbers of college graduates in recent years are failing to build the kind of wealth that previous generations did.

The question of higher education’s value has gained urgency because so many more Americans are going to college than before, and because they are paying far more to do so. The share of Americans between ages 25 and 29 with a bachelor’s degree rose to 37% last year from 29% in 2000, Education Department data show.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Lower Mortgage Rates Aren’t Likely To Reverse Sagging Home Sales

U.S. mortgage rates have tumbled to their lowest level in nearly three years, but they are unlikely to provide much of a lift to the sluggish home-sales market.

Economists said the rates could provide a modest boost to sales during the final months of this year, though few expect cheaper borrowing costs to reverse the course of a slowing market. Home sales have been weighed down by steep prices and limited starter-home inventory in many markets.

“It’s a bit of an added lease on life for this housing cycle. I don’t think it’s going to dramatically change anything,” said Issi Romem, senior director of housing and urban economics at Zillow.

Average rates for a 30-year mortgage hit their lowest level since November 2016, falling to 3.6% from 3.75% last week, Freddie Mac said on Thursday. Those mortgage rates have been falling for much of this year, after hitting nearly 5% in November.

Read More [[link removed]] California Home Builders Are Pulling Back, Deflating Hopes For Housing Relief

Home builders are pulling back from new construction, the opposite of what economists say is needed to ease California’s housing affordability crisis.

In the first six months of 2019, builders gained approval for 51,178 new homes in California, nearly 20% fewer than the same period a year earlier. That puts the state on track for the first meaningful annual decline since the recession.

In the Los Angeles-Orange County metro area, total permits — an indication of future construction — fell by 25%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Single-family permits dropped 18.5% in the region, while those for multifamily projects such as apartment buildings -- a category in which activity tends to be more volatile -- fell 28.6%.

“We are going in exactly the wrong direction,” said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics.

Economists, developers and trade groups said the slowdown in permits has a simple explanation: It’s become harder to make money building homes.

Read More [[link removed]] Lazy Days Of Summer Plague Housing Market

Our real estate market has been so good for so long that the recent slowdown in home sales and price dip has caught many sellers and a few agents by surprise.

Buyers are always the first to sense when the market is changing. That’s likely because they are constantly on the internet searching for homes and keeping track of sales activity. Sellers are the last to admit the market has changed. They continue to base their pricing on where the market has been. Buyers make decisions based on where the market and prices are headed.

Looking back, the market has favored sellers. Looking forward, maybe not so much.

Since 2011 county home prices and sales have been steadily increasing. Sellers have been receiving multiple offers and buyers have struggled to land a home in escrow. That market intensity ended last year when the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates and the market hasn’t picked up momentum since. We have been experiencing slower year-over-year sales, flat prices and tepid homebuying interest. Last week the state Legislative Analyst’s Office officially called California’s real estate market “weak” based on data from Zillow, the California Association of Realtors and Moody’s Analytics.

Read More [[link removed]] California Governor Gavin Newsom Throws His Support Behind Rent Control Bill

Efforts to expand rent control in California got a big shot in the arm this week when Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his support for capping annual rent increases.

"I'm hopeful…that I will get on my desk in the very near term a rent cap bill because it is long overdue in the state of California," Newsom said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The governor's endorsement should not come as a surprise. In 2018, Newsom threw his support behind a legislative rent control effort in the event that a rent control initiative on the ballot that year failed. (It did.)

Newsom's recent comments are a boost for AB 1482, sponsored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D–San Francisco). Chiu's bill would cap annual rent increases at 7 percent plus inflation, or 10 percent, whichever is lower. These rent caps would not apply to buildings less than 10 years old; single-family homes owned by small, non-corporate landlords; college dormitories; or to existing rent-controlled units with stricter rent caps.

Read More [[link removed]] Sacramento City Council To Vote On Rent Control

acramento could soon join the list of cities in California to have some sort of rent control.

The Sacramento City Council will decide whether to approve the Tenant Protection and Relief Act at their Aug. 13 meeting.

The proposal emerged after nearly a year of talks between Mayor Darrell Steinberg, Councilmembers Steve Hansen, Eric Guerra and Rick Jennings, and a coalition of labor unions and non-profit advocacy groups, according to a city news release.

Hansen said the ordinance would prevent rent gauging by limiting rent increases. He said in any year, rent can be increased no more than 6% plus the cost of living increase, which is usually about 2.5% in Sacramento. But it caps out at 10% total, according to Hansen.

Currently, only about 20 cities in the state have a rent control law, according to the Nolo Network.

Hansen told ABC10 the ordinance would also prevent unfair evictions.

Read More [[link removed]] Councilman Rex Richardson Mulls 2020 Ballot Measure To Tackle Affordable Housing Crisis

Would Long Beach voters support a tax increase or bond measure to fund affordable housing initiatives? Councilman Rex Richardson wants to find out.

The 9th District councilman has launched a campaign called Lift Up Long Beach Families to explore a possible November 2020 ballot measure that would fund affordable housing across the city.

The campaign has so far raise more than $200,000 from a variety of groups and independent donors.

Affordable housing has become a top issue in Long Beach as many renters continue to be priced out of their homes. In the past decade, the city has seen an overall 28% increase in rent, with neighborhoods including Downtown, Bixby Knolls and California Heights seeing some of the highest hikes, according to a city report. Downtown’s newest luxury building, for example, is asking $2,380 for a 600-square-foot studio.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion California Goes To The Rats

Rising homelessness in California has spurred a rodent boom and resurgence of medieval disease. So naturally Democrats in the state Legislature want to ban rat poison.

Earlier this year a rat infestation in downtown Los Angeles near a homeless encampment led to an outbreak of typhus. CatsUSA Pest Control, which was hired to investigate, warned that “poor sanitary conditions” including human waste and hypodermic needles created a “harborage for rodents.” In Los Angeles County cases of flea-borne typhus more than doubled since 2012, with 109 cases reported last year.

L.A. isn’t alone. There were so many rats scurrying around the California EPA office in Sacramento this summer that the agency had to close its outdoor playground to prevent children from getting sick. After California’s EPA applied rat poison, environmentalists howled that the pesticide could harm species that prey on rats.

Read More [[link removed]] If You Want ‘Renewable Energy,’ Get Ready To Dig

Democrats dream of powering society entirely with wind and solar farms combined with massive batteries. Realizing this dream would require the biggest expansion in mining the world has seen and would produce huge quantities of waste.

“Renewable energy” is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from nonrenewable materials. And they wear out. Old equipment must be decommissioned, generating millions of tons of waste. The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar goals for 2050 consistent with the Paris Accords will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste. Consider some other sobering numbers:

A single electric-car battery weighs about 1,000 pounds. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving and processing more than 500,000 pounds of raw materials somewhere on the planet. The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery’s seven-year life.

Read More [[link removed]] California Is A Powerhouse With A Troublesome Two-Tier Economic System

Thirty-four years ago, two researchers delved into California’s rapidly changing demographic and economic trends and saw “an emerging two-tier economy with Asians and better-educated non-Hispanic whites and blacks competing for the prestigious occupations while poorly educated Hispanics and blacks scramble for the lower status jobs…”

The study, entitled “Population Change and California’s Future,” was the work of Phil Martin of UC Davis and Leon Bouvier, a demographer for the Population Reference Bureau.

Martin and Bouvier were, unfortunately, absolutely prescient, as a recent spate of statistical reports confirms.

California may be an economic powerhouse with global impact, but it also has the nation’s highest poverty rate, as calculated by the Census Bureau using a method that takes into account the cost of living, with nearly a fifth of its residents poverty-stricken.

Moreover, the Public Policy Institute of California calculates, using similar methodology, that nearly another fifth live in “near-poverty,” meaning about 15 million Californians are in economic distress, more than the population of Pennsylvania, the nation’s fifth-most populous state.

Read More [[link removed]] Sites Reservoir Needed For Reliable Water Future

A flexible, reliable water supply is essential to California’s economy and to the job creation and job security goals of California’s working families. Reliability and flexibility in our water supply has become elusive in drought-prone California, thanks in large part to a changing climate and an obsolete water storage system that was designed to utilize a steady and massive Sierra snowpack.

It’s well past time to make critical investments in water infrastructure — particularly water storage — to sustain us through future droughts and help us adapt to our new normal, one which includes extended droughts, diminished snowpack, warmer winter storms and a need for a more flexible water storage portfolio. Without a new approach, California is destined to see a reoccurrence of the devastation brought upon by the seven-year-long drought we just experienced.

Of all the projects vying for California’s attention, the proposed Sites Reservoir in Northern California offers the most tangible benefits. Located in Colusa and Glenn counties, Sites Reservoir is a proposed multi-benefit 1.8-million-acre-foot off-river storage reservoir designed to capture and store water from major storms. Sites supports state and federal goals for water supply reliability, the environment, the economy and flood protection, all while significantly improving the state’s water management system in drier years.

Read More [[link removed]] California Business Roundtable 1301 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 916.553.4093 | [[link removed]] Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed]