Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News California Budget Priorities Out: How's It Playing?

Governor Newsom stopped short of endorsing the “split roll” ballot initiative headed for the November ballot to dissolve limits on commercial and industrial property taxes. But he allowed that the measure from Schools and Communities First, which promises to produce $12 billion a year to schools and communities, is “perhaps the most important of all the proposals’’ on the ballot this year.

— Republican San Diego Mayor @Kevin_Faulconer: “Checks from Washington won’t solve this. Tax increases won’t solve this. The only long-term way to fund our schools and balance the budget is to let people safely work and earn a paycheck again.”

— CAGOP chair Jessica Millan Patterson: “It is absolutely outrageous for Governor Newsom to include $20 million in his May budget revision for enforcement of job-killing AB 5.”

— California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley: “Those solutions should include a state jobs recovery plan that will provide critically needed temporary litigation, regulatory and employment law relief for businesses in order to get employees back in their jobs as quickly as possible and get revenues flowing to state and local governments.”

Read More [[link removed]] California Governor’s Order Creates Workers’ Compensation Presumption For COVID-19 Diagnosis

As California employers prepare for the gradual re-opening of business, they must now take into consideration Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-62-20 executed on May 6, 2020, making any COVID-19 infection diagnosed within two weeks of an individual working outside of their home presumptively work-related.

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It remains to be seen whether California’s Order will be challenged; it has been fiercely and publicly criticized by small business groups such as the National Federation of Independent Business and the California Business Roundtable.

Read More [[link removed]] Can the Governor Do That? Changing Workers’ Comp With A Signature

Emergency powers granted the governor during the time of crisis are great. Yet, how omnipotent are his powers? The California Business Roundtable pointed out in a statement after the workers’ compensation Executive Order was issued that the governor of Illinois made a similar decree and was sued successfully by the business community in that state.

While there have been conversations within the business community about challenging the governor’s Executive Order in court, as of this time no lawsuit has been filed.

Read More [[link removed]] Biz Groups Refute SF Tax Ballot Backers' Argument In Appeals Court

California business groups refuted arguments by the backers of a San Francisco corporate tax ballot measure that only a simple majority is needed to approve tax measure brought by the people, asking an appeals court to reverse a lower-court decision.

The California Business Properties Association, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Business Roundtable, in a brief obtained by Law360 on Thursday, refuted arguments by Our City Our Home, which backed the San Francisco tax ballot measure, and asked the appeals court to reverse a San Francisco district court decision. The brief was filed in court on May 5.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation Nearly Three Million Sought Jobless Benefits Last Week

Three million workers or more have applied for unemployment benefits each week for the past two months, as disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic continued to ripple through the U.S. economy.

About 36.5 million Americans have filed applications in the past eight weeks, with weekly totals remaining at historically high levels. Still, unemployment filings have declined since an initial surge in layoffs drove claims up to a weekly peak of nearly 7 million at the end of March. In 43 states, unemployment applications fell last week.

“The numbers are very high, but they’re stepping down every week, and I see no reason why that decline in filings wouldn’t continue,” said Keith Hall, chief economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under former President George W. Bush. “Employers are likely poised to bring people back, but right now we’re in a holding pattern.”

Read More [[link removed]] WSJ Survey: Coronavirus To Cause 17% Unemployment In June

U.S. unemployment is expected to hit 17% in June as the economy contracts due to efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, economists predicted, and the economy is expected to start rebounding in the second half of the year.

A monthly Wall Street Journal survey found economists expect gross domestic product to shrink 6.6% this year, measured from the fourth quarter of 2019, a downgrade from the 4.9% contraction economists predicted in last month’s survey. While economists expect a deeper contraction in the second quarter, a majority—85%—continue to expect the recovery will start in the second half of the year. They predict an annualized growth rate of 9% in the third quarter, up from 6.2% in the prior survey. Growth is expected to clock in at 6.9% in the fourth quarter, up slightly from last month.

Read More [[link removed]] Job Losses Have Now Hit 40% Of Low-Income Homes

One in five American workers lost their jobs in March, including almost 40 percent of those in lower-income households, according to a Federal Reserve survey, underscoring the staggering impact of the coronavirus crisis.

The data — released hours after the Labor Department reported that workers filed almost 3 million new unemployment claims last week — is further evidence that the economic crunch is pounding poorer Americans the hardest. It comes as the country increasingly looks to the Fed to ease the pain of the recession and the central bank itself presses Congress to do more to halt the wave of layoffs.

Read More [[link removed]] Bay Area Layoff Pace Slackens Sharply

The pace of proposed layoffs in the Bay Area has begun to slow dramatically, a hopeful sign that the economic destruction unleashed by the coronavirus has eased, official state government filings show.

Layoffs in the Bay Area clearly peaked during April and showed a sharp increase from March, documents filed with the state’s Employment Development Department show. The job cuts proposed by employers that were received during the first week of May show a sharp decline from April, but they are well above the per-week pace for March.

On a per-week basis, the 5,300 layoffs for the first week in May are far below the per-week average for April of 18,500 — but they also are significantly higher than the per-week layoff average of 3,475 in March, this news organization’s analysis of the EDD filings shows.

Read More [[link removed]] Some Hope For The Recovery In The Dismal Jobs Report: 78% Of Workers Say Their Layoff Is Temporary

The economy lost a record 20.5 million jobs in April, but nearly 4 in 5 workers surveyed by the government see their layoffs as temporary.

The number of employees who saw themselves as temporarily furloughed was 18.06 million, up from 1.84 million in March. The interviews were conducted as part of the household survey of about 23 million who have lost their jobs, including those who lost their job in April.

“It’s high in a good way. The market could be reacting to that. If you see them move to permanent that’s a problem,” said John Briggs, head of strategy at NatWest.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Retail Data Shows 16 Percent Plunge

Retail sales fell 16.4 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Friday. That followed an 8.3 percent drop in March, producing by far the largest two-month decline on record.

April could prove to be the bottom. The March figures were helped in part by panic buying, and stores were generally open for the first half of the month. Most states have begun to lift barriers to commerce and movement, and many economists expect spending to rise in May as people venture out.

Read More [[link removed]] Public Pension-Fund Losses Set Record In First Quarter

Public pension plans lost a median 13.2% in the three months ended March 31, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service data released Tuesday, slightly more than in the fourth quarter of 2008. March’s stock market plummet led to the biggest one-quarter drop in the 40 years the firm has been tracking.

“It was a horrible quarter for all public funds,” said Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund Investment Chief Angela Miller-May.

Stocks bounced back in April, making up a significant chunk of the losses. But absent a full and speedy recovery, pension losses are poised to drive up already-burdensome retirement costs for governments.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s $54-Billion Deficit Fueled By Coronavirus Will Test A Decade Of Preparations

The warnings had been sounded in Sacramento for years: California was long overdue for an economic downturn, one in which tax revenues would evaporate and leave lawmakers with a series of painful choices in balancing the state budget.

“The next governor’s going to be on the cliff,” then-Gov. Jerry Brown said as he unveiled his final state budget plan in January 2018, pointing to a horizontal line on a chart showing California’s record-breaking economic expansion. “That big red line is what I’ve had. What’s out there is darkness, uncertainty, decline and recession. So good luck, baby!”

Read More [[link removed]] The Federal Government's Coronavirus Response Risks Spiking Inflation

The combination of the Fed's seemingly limitless monetary policy and the open floodgates fiscal response from the White House and Congress has investors worrying about inflation again.

Inflation not only increases the cost of goods and services, but it could force the Fed to raise interest rates before the economy has recovered, depressing growth as the U.S. starts to emerge from the coronavirus-induced recession.

The pandemic is currently choking off growth and inflation, but once nationwide lockdown orders are removed, the unprecedented action could spark inflation levels not seen in a generation.

Read More [[link removed]] California Considers Unprecedented $25-billion Economy Recovery Fund, Rental Relief

Two unprecedented proposals to help Californians weather the fiscal storm unleashed by the coronavirus crisis are expected to be unveiled Tuesday by Democrats in the state Senate — one to help struggling renters, the other to create a $25-billion economic recovery fund by issuing long-term vouchers to those willing to prepay their future state income taxes.

Taken together, the ideas suggest lawmakers are willing to launch never-before-tried experiments to avoid the unpaid debts and deep cuts to government services that resulted from the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

Read More [[link removed]] Women Have Been Hit Hardest By Job Losses In The Pandemic. And It May Only Get Worse.

The last time Americans faced an economic crisis, it was called a “Mancession.” As millions of people lost their jobs in the Great Recession, 70 percent were men, many in construction and manufacturing.

This time, as job losses linked to the coronavirus pandemic dwarf what the country experienced in the 2007-2009 crisis, the heaviest toll is falling on women.

Waitresses, day-care workers, hairstylists, hotel maids and dental hygienists are among the 20.5 million people who watched their jobs vanish in April — the most devastating spike in unemployment since the Great Depression.

Read More [[link removed]] Wall Street 'Flying Blind' After Pandemic-Hit Firms Scrap Forecasts

The number of U.S. blue-chips offering full-year profit guidance alongside their first-quarter earnings has been cut in half, leaving Wall Street analysts struggling to assess the full impact of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.

America’s earnings season has passed the halfway mark, with 283 companies in the S&P 500 having reported by Friday last week.

That’s according to data from Credit Suisse. The bank expects just 23 percent of S&P companies to offer guidance for the year, a little less than half the usual proportion. “For analysts, they’re really flying blind,” says Jonathan Golub, Credit Suisse’s chief U.S. equity strategist.

Read More [[link removed]] “Everything Happened All At Once”: Can California Cities Weather The COVID Recession?

Ever since the end of the Great Recession, Rancho Cucamonga has been on a tear. New retailers and restaurants have sprung up to serve the residents of its gated ‘burbs. The city’s population has swelled with Angelenos in search of cheaper housing. And at last count, its unemployment rate sat at just 4%. The city earned an upgraded credit rating earlier this year.

But now that shopping and dining have been deemed non-essential activities, the good times are gone, said Rancho Mayor Dennis Michael.

“Since we recovered from the Great Recession, we generated about $9 million in new sales tax revenue,” he said. “We’ve lost all of that gain. We’re basically starting from square one.”

Read More [[link removed]] Some California Workers Can Make More In Jobless Benefits Than Lost Wages. So Why Work?

California workers can earn as much as $1,050 per week through the end of July in unemployment benefits — a benefit causing concern that people in some areas will stay home rather than look for work because they can have a higher income if they stay jobless.

On an annualized basis, the state could pay as much as $54,600 to an out-of-work resident. While that’s well below the state 2018 median household income of about $71,000, it topped the median in several areas, including Fresno, Tulare and Yuba Counties.

“Many of the business owners that use minimum wage workers are certainly worried that the disincentive for workers to come back to work is strong if the checks are large or larger than before,” said Sanjay Varshney, professor of finance at California State University, Sacramento.

Read More [[link removed]?] Taiwan Firm To Build Chip Factory in U.S.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract manufacturer of silicon chips, said Friday it would spend $12 billion to build a chip factory in Arizona, as U.S. concerns grow about dependence on Asia for the critical technology.

TSMC said the project, disclosed earlier Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, has the support of the federal government and the state of Arizona. It comes as the Trump administration has sought to jump-start development of new chip factories in the U.S. due to rising fears about the U.S.’s heavy reliance on Taiwan, China and South Korea to produce microelectronics and other key technologies.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Clean Energy And Climate Change Unlikely To Lead American Recovery

Economists, investors and environmentalists are calling on the United States — and the world — to inject big clean energy and climate policy into recovery plans.

Such prospects face uphill battles almost everywhere, and especially in the United States, where proponents are on defense while the Trump administration and lawmakers are in crisis mode.

It’s not just environmentalists clamoring for a green economic recovery. The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and a broad swath of investors and corporate executives are calling for a range of clean-energy policies as well.

Read More [[link removed]] Climate Change Is Looming. But America Has Lost 600,000 Clean Energy Jobs

The United States shed more than half a million clean energy jobs in March and April, a new report says, reversing years of growth in an industry that has helped reduce lung-damaging air pollution and the emissions responsible for climate change.

Clean energy employment has fallen by 17% since the coronavirus brought much of daily life to a screeching halt, according to unemployment data analyzed by BW Research and published Wednesday by advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs. The numbers are especially grim in California, where 105,000 clean energy workers have lost their jobs, more than any other state.

Read More [[link removed]] IEA Sees Oil Market Improving Amid Sharp Drop In Production

The outlook for global oil markets has “improved somewhat,” with demand a little stronger than expected and supply reined in by a brutal price crash, the International Energy Agency said.

World oil production is on track for a “historic decline” this month to the lowest level in nine years, the IEA said in a monthly report. OPEC and its partners are slashing output, while others like the U.S. are forced to scale back drilling.

“It is on the supply side where market forces have demonstrated their power and shown that the pain of lower prices affects all producers,” said the Paris-based agency, which advises major economies. “We are seeing massive cuts in output from countries outside the OPEC+ agreement and faster than expected.”

Read More [[link removed]] Coronavirus Is Stalling Air Quality, Pollution Rules, Even In Eco-Minded California

As experts warn that exposure to pollution can increase the risk of dying from COVID-19, an array of powerful industries is pressuring California regulators to delay or roll back air quality and climate regulations due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The trucking industry wants to stall new emissions-reduction rules. Oil companies want looser enforcement of existing regulations. Port and shipping interests are pushing to delay rules on ocean vessels as they become Southern California’s largest source of smog-forming pollution.

Will Barrett, clean air advocacy director for the American Lung Assn. in California, said the lobbying effort is a “brazen attempt to use the COVID pandemic as a justification for long-held policy complaints about clean air programs in California” and accused industry of using the crisis “as cover to roll back or delay programs that will save lives.”

Read More [[link removed]] Giant Batteries Are Changing Everything For Clean Energy

Two days after Donald Trump was elected president, I woke up early and drove east from Palm Springs along Interstate 10, stopping just before the California-Arizona state line, about halfway between Los Angeles and Phoenix. The desert was even flatter than normal here. Thousands of acres had been scraped and graded for solar panels, which tilted en masse to face the rising sun, looking like a gleaming black sea against a backdrop of jutting mountains and blue sky streaked with wispy clouds.

Various dignitaries had gathered to commission this massive solar farm, which produces electricity for Southern California Edison. It’s now being expanded to serve additional utility customers in Los Angeles County, San Francisco and the San Joaquin Valley.

Another big change is coming to the solar facility. It’s going to get some enormous lithium-ion batteries.

Read More [[link removed]] When Will Renewables Pass Coal? Sooner Than Anyone Thought

A milestone in the clean energy transition may arrive earlier than expected, with renewables overtaking coal as a leading source of electricity by the end of this year, according to a forecast by the Energy Information Administration released on Tuesday.

Renewables have been steadily gaining on coal, a trend that has accelerated with the economic disruption of coronavirus.

There was little doubt that renewables would pass coal in the near future, but analysts had projected that it would take longer. This fast-forwarding of the timeline means that renewables will trail only natural gas and nuclear, showing that years of wind and solar power development have become major parts of the energy mix.

Read More [[link removed]] Education and Workforce Development California Schools Face ‘Devastating’ Coronavirus Cuts As They Struggle To Reopen

Even as costs skyrocket in response to the coronavirus crisis, California school districts face major funding cuts that could potentially lead to teacher and staff layoffs and leave some schools struggling to safely reopen campuses in the fall, according to district officials and educators.

The proposed budget hit to schools, about $19 billion split over the next two years, worsens their existing financial challenges and does little to help with pandemic-related costs.

Read More [[link removed]] California Child Care Providers Struggle To Stay In Business

For the past two months, many of the state’s child care providers have been like airplanes stuck in a holding pattern, worried about running out of fuel.

A survey of 2,000 licensed child care centers and family child care providers, released last week, underscores the precarious state of their finances. Having lost money during the pandemic, they face additional expenses as they prepare to fully reopen, with social distancing requirements that will limit the number of children they can serve, significantly reducing their revenue.

Read More [[link removed]] CSU Plans To Cancel Most In-Person Classes And Go Online This Fall

California State University, the nation’s largest four-year college system, plans to cancel most in-person classes in the fall and instead offer instruction primarily online, Chancellor Timothy White announced Tuesday.

The vast majority of classes across the 23-campus Cal State system will be taught online, White said, with some limited exceptions that allow for in-person activity.

The decision to continue remotely reflects how schools throughout the country are grappling with reopening challenges inflicted by the coronavirus crisis — and what campuses will look like when they do decide to reopen.

Read More [[link removed]] Campus Life In The Fall? A Test With No Clear Answer

Fall will be quiet this year at San Diego State University. No big lecture classes. No parking lots packed with commuting students. No campus hubbub around Greek life, and perhaps no pep rallies for the Aztecs football team.

As one of the 23 schools in the enormous California State University system, San Diego State will hold classes primarily online, a decision the system’s chancellor announced this week.

But 20 minutes up the freeway at the University of California, San Diego, things could look very different, with tens of thousands of students streaming back to campus, if only to single dorm rooms and socially distanced classrooms.

Across the country this fall, college life is likely to be vastly different from campus to campus — a patchwork that mirrors what is currently happening in states and communities, as some move toward widespread reopening and others keep their economies mostly closed.

Read More [[link removed]] California Community Colleges Sue Betsy DeVos Over Coronavirus Aid

California’s community colleges chancellor and five college districts across the state sued U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Monday, claiming she is illegally excluding countless students from participating in billions of dollars of federal coronavirus relief aid.

Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley and the college districts, including Foothill-DeAnza in Los Altos Hills, want a federal judge to set aside the eligibility guidelines that DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education established for the $14 billion in federal funding for college students during the pandemic.t.

Read More [[link removed](Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral] Will Others Follow UC San Diego's Plan To Widely Test For Coronavirus?

A new proposal to start testing 5,000 students at UC San Diego for the coronavirus next week, with wider testing by fall, has raised hopes about a possible way to safely reopen California universities.

The plan, called “Return to Learn,” is a first-of-its kind attempt to ensure campus health standards at a time when colleges and universities across the country are wrestling with whether to restart in-person courses and fully reopen dormitories this fall. The plan could eventually test all 65,000 students, faculty and staff at UC San Diego.

However, so far, the two public university systems in California are not rushing to embrace the idea.

Read More [[link removed]] SAT Should Be Suspended For UC Admissions, Napolitano Says

In a decision that could lead to a shake-up of the nation’s standardized testing landscape, University of California President Janet Napolitano is recommending the suspension of the SAT and ACT tests as an admissions requirement until 2024 and possible elimination after that.

In a proposal posted Monday, Napolitano is recommending a complex and unusual five-year plan that would make the tests optional for two years and eliminate testing requirements for California students in Years 3 and 4. Then, in Year 5, UC would move toward a standardized assessment developed specifically for the 10-campus system.

The plan would produce rich data on which students get admitted under each strategy and how they perform in college. It could also widen access to a UC education for more disadvantaged students. But the recommendation raises concerns about how campuses would implement different entry standards for different classes.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Rent Payments Grew In May, Despite Job Losses

More tenants paid their rent in the first week of May than in the first week of April, as unemployment and stimulus checks helped struggling families pay their bills, according to a national survey.

About 80 percent of tenants made full or partial payments during the first week of May, a slight increase from 78 percent in April, according to a new survey of 11.4 million apartments by the National Multifamily Housing Council.

“By and large, these are pretty good national numbers,” said Jeff Adler, vice president of real estate data firm MatrixYardi Systems. But Adler warned the impact of the pandemic has just begun. “We’re not out of the woods in any respect. We’re sort of just entering the woods.”

Read More [[link removed]] Landlords Threaten To Sue Cities Over Coronavirus Eviction Bans

Three Southern California cities have received letters threatening lawsuits if they don’t repeal eviction bans enacted to protect out-of-work or ill renters during the coronavirus pandemic.

Two of the cities — Upland and La Verne — repealed their bans after getting the letters. But the city attorney for the third municipality, Costa Mesa, said she’s confident her city’s order is lawful.

“There’s a long line of Supreme Court decisions about the ability to make emergency orders in the interest of public health,” Costa Mesa City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow said in response to the threatening missive. “We do not intend to respond.”

Read More [[link removed]] Pandemic Not ‘Disastrous’ Enough For Property Tax Relief

Disasters trigger automatic relief on property taxes in a handful of states, but because the coronavirus pandemic isn’t causing physical damage to real estate, granting that relief is trickier for states and localities.

Physical damage to homes from hurricanes, tornadoes, or other natural disasters typically prompt automatic relief from many states, such as delayed property tax bills or temporarily reduced property tax payments. That relief can also extend to crises that state governors declare to be disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey in Texas. But so far in the pandemic’s wake, at best property owners are seeing extended filing deadlines.

Part of the reason is financial: Property tax revenues are critical for local governments, making up half of their revenue in 2017 according to census data.

Read More [[link removed]] LA County Board Of Supes Extend Moratorium On Evictions

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday extended a moratorium on evictions through June 30 and voted to consider a wide variety of tenant and homeowner protections in reaction to the coronavirus crisis.

The extension of the moratorium on evictions of commercial and residential tenants countywide fell two months short of the goal set by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Without such a ban, "those who can be evicted will be out on the street," Kuehl warned.

Read More [[link removed]] Would California's Foreclosure Moratorium Be Enforceable?

If passed, California Assembly Bill 828 would prevent action to foreclose on a residential real property while a state or locally declared state of emergency related to COVID-19 is in effect, and for 15 days after the state of emergency has ended.

According to the text, this includes, but is not limited to, "causing or conducting the sale of the real property causing recordation of a notice of default." The bill would require a tax collector to suspend a sale and not attempt to sell tax-defaulted properties that would normally be subject to such action after five years or more of being in default.

Read More [[link removed]-] Sadly, The Pandemic Could Be Millennials' Best Chance To Buy A House

The coronavirus pandemic has created a unique set of circumstances that suddenly make home ownership seem like a possibility for people looking to buy a first home. (Provided they are some of the lucky people largely unaffected by the worst economic situation in nearly a century.)

Millennials have seen historically high prices and this sadly could represent their best chance to get on the property ladder. Mortgage rates are at historically low levels and home prices in many major cities have softened and show signs of coming down even more.

Read More [[link removed]] What’s Behind Those California Rent Strikes Over Coronavirus?

Entering a second full month of stay-at-home orders aimed at stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus, renters and landlords across California are increasingly worried about paying their bills.

Some tenants have gone on what they’re calling a “rent strike,” refusing to pay it and adding a political statement to their economic hardship. The now monthly protest, which one group of activists says has attracted more than 12,000 California tenants, is to push government officials at all levels to cancel rent and mortgage payments, ensuring renters can stay in their homes now and when the pandemic ends.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Rules Stifling Businesses Must Be Reconsidered

It should be obvious that the state of California cannot long endure without businesses reopening and employing people, but Gov. Gavin Newsom seems locked into the mistaken belief that businesses are somehow wealthy enough to absorb endless financial hits and still keep signing the same number of paychecks.

For example, the governor issued an executive order that will sharply increase the cost of workers’ compensation insurance for California businesses. It creates a rebuttable presumption that any essential workers who contract COVID-19 became infected on the job. This is a reversal of the usual burden of proof for workers’ comp claims, which is on the employee to prove that the injury or illness was work-related.

Read More [[link removed]] Memo To Split Roll Advocates: Wait.

As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, California and the rest of America wallow ever deeper into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

Millions of Californians are out of work. Thousands of businesses that were products of hard work, initiative, sacrifice and devoted nurturing are gone or soon will be. In every field from restaurants to nail salons, hobby shops and sporting goods outlets, hundreds of once-thriving businesses are dying or dead. When – or if – their eventual replacements will appear remains unknown.

For owners of commercial real estate, which range from individuals to large real estate trusts owned by pension funds and millions of small investors, this is a formula for disaster and possible destitution.

Read More [[link removed]] Split Roll Will Hurt Green Energy

I’m a proud 5th generation rice farmer. My family and I have invested heavily in environmentally friendly technology – because it’s the right thing to do for our state’s long-term future.

So, if I told you powerful special interests want to punish farmers with higher property taxes for installing solar energy on my property, would you believe me?

Given California’s global environmental leadership, I was shocked to learn that’s exactly what will happen if voters don’t defeat a flawed November 2020 statewide ballot measure that will destroy Proposition 13’s property tax protections for farmers and businesses.

Read More [[link removed]] Newsom Shakes Up Disability Politics

The cloistered community of political lobbyists who specialize in the massive, but otherwise obscure, system of compensating workers for job-related illnesses and injuries had been preparing for one of their periodic clashes.

And then Gavin Newsom interceded.

About once a decade, those with stakes in the nearly $20 billion a year workers’ compensation system do battle over the rules governing both eligibility for benefits – medical care and cash support – and their scope.

Read More [[link removed]] Want To Actually Help The Economy? Bail Out Child Care Providers

It’s a sadly telling sign that amid all the protests and political pressure on states to reopen businesses and get people back on the job, there’s been little talk about making sure those returning workers have safe, reliable child care for their kids.

Child care is too often an afterthought for the nation’s political leaders. It’s treated as an optional expense. A lifestyle choice. A woman’s problem. But you can’t have a strong, prosperous economy if a significant portion of the population can’t work. And parents of children too young to be left home alone can’t get back to work as long as schools, summer camps and day-care centers are closed.

Read More [[link removed]] Los Angeles’s ‘Eviction Ban’ Doesn’t Protect Tenants

California is often painted by liberal media as the “State of Resistance,” where rationality prevails and the response to Covid-19 has been guided by science. And Los Angeles might appear to be this progressive bastion’s crown jewel: In recent years, media outlets have praised LA’s mayor, rising Democratic star Eric Garcetti, for leading what one Economist story proposed as “the model for a more diverse America.” The mayor’s nightly Covid-19 briefings, streamed on Facebook, “come from a place of love,” one law professor recently told the Los Angeles Times. “He’s tried to come from a place of kindness. He’s trying to build consensus.”

This boosterism obscures the racialized poverty, suffering, and violence that coexist uneasily with astonishing wealth in this paradise of liberal capitalism. LA has never been a friendly place for tenants, but the situation has worsened in recent decades, as wages stagnated and rents soared. Now LA is staring down the barrel of what could be the largest wave of forced evictions in the region’s history, and local leaders—including Garcetti—are refusing to do what’s necessary to secure housing for renters and unhoused Angelenos.

Read More [[link removed]] Prop. 13 Rejected But Property Tax Battle Not Over

Confused by its title, California voters rejected Proposition 13, a March ballot measure that would have allowed the state to issue $15 billion in new school bonds.

Voters in November will again face a measure about the original Prop. 13. This time, though, they will be asked to amend the 1978 property tax reform measure to increase taxes on business properties, including packinghouses, dairy milking parlors, wineries and processors.

As it did with the March school bond measure, San Joaquin Farm Bureau will mount a campaign to defeat the November initiative.

Read More [[link removed]] This Can’t Go On. California Has To Figure A Way Out

When people were asked to shelter in place, they did so in amazing numbers and with no plan. But nobody envisioned the shelter-in-place would last this long.

Some people who have jobs or retirement checks are fine with staying inside. Those who have lost their jobs, or fear they’re likely to lose their jobs, want the state to reopen.

But so far, the authorities who have locked us in have yet to figure out how to get us out.

Read More [[link removed](Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral] Creative California Plan To Avoid Post-Pandemic Evictions

No Californian should fear eviction when the pandemic emergency ends because they can’t pay the rent.

Fortunately, California legislators are thinking creatively about how to help even though they face their own whopping state budget shortfall. Their proposal this week, to allow tenants to repay their past-due rent over 10 years and assure landlords they could get money up front, lacks key details but deserves serious consideration.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s High Cost Of Employment Will Stifle Recovery

The now ended long economic boom from 2010-2020 made Californians complacent. Workers were in demand everywhere in America, so employers put up with California’s high minimum wage, stunning housing costs and often absurd regulations.

No more. The coronavirus depression has thrown record numbers of Americans into unemployment lines. The jobless rate skyrocketed in two months from under 4% to 31% as of mid-April in Southern California, higher than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It will get worse.

Read More [[link removed]] Here Comes The Hard Part For Gov. Newsom -- And California

The job is about to get a lot tougher for Gov. Gavin Newsom. He faces the certainty of whacking government services while raising taxes.

Newsom hasn’t uttered the feared “T” word publicly that I know of. But jacking state taxes even higher in infamously tax-burdened California is inevitable.

Every governor who has faced a significant budget deficit for the last 60 years has reluctantly hiked taxes.

Read More [[link removed]] Politicians Seek Relief For Renters — But Landlords Have Rights, Too

State and local governments have closed businesses across the country in response to COVID-19, putting millions of Americans out of work. Right now, those Americans’ biggest concerns are keeping a roof over their heads and feeding their families.

Against that backdrop of economic anxiety, Sen. Barnie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted, “It is time to #CancelRent and #CancelMortgages until this crisis is over.” He’s just one of the politicians around the country pushing such plans. State legislators, county supervisors and city councils have suggested the same.

But these rent holiday and forgiveness schemes are flatly unconstitutional and are likely to cause more long-term harm to the economy.

Read More [[link removed]] It’s Time To Take A Hard Look At Tax Reform For California’s Future

The coronavirus pandemic is sending shockwaves through the global and national economy, and, without a doubt, reverberations from the pandemic will have a huge impact on state budgets across the country.

While the coronavirus crisis and response is front and center for California lawmakers, a fiscal crisis, driven mainly by the state’s uniquely volatile revenue system, is brewing in the background.

Read More [[link removed]] November Initiative That Would Bring Billions To California Schools And Communities Is An Easy Decision

As the mayor of Oakland, I make hard decisions every day and see firsthand how stretched thin we are, and it couldn’t be more clear: We need new resources to support and invest in our essential workers and local services. We need the Schools & Communities First initiative.

The city of Oakland, like all communities throughout California, faces a budget crisis unlike anything we’ve ever seen. I couldn’t be more proud of the early actions Oakland and the Bay Area took to combat the coronavirus crisis, but we will be forced to make some of the toughest decisions any community could imagine. And, frankly, we don’t have the resources to adequately invest in the most critical services and schools that we all rely on right now.

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