Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News Judge Says SF Correct In Passing Two Tax Measures On Simple Majority Vote

A San Francisco judge ruled Friday that city officials did not break the law when they allowed two ballot measures that raised business taxes to pass last year with a simple-majority vote.

The rulings mark a major development in what’s likely to be an ongoing legal fight to unlock as much as $500 million in annual tax revenue for San Francisco. It’s a dispute that could reshape the ways local governments pass new taxes in California.

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“We are disappointed in today’s ruling but will continue to fight to uphold the will of the voters. Prop. 13 and Prop. 218 are unambiguous — voters want a two-thirds vote requirement for special taxes. We will be filing an immediate appeal,” said Rex Hime, president of the California Business Properties Association on behalf of the Howard Jarvis association and the California Business Roundtable.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation $15 Minimum Wage Would Bring Mixed Fortunes For U.S. Workers

Increasing the national minimum wage to $15 an hour would deliver a raise for millions of U.S. workers but could also cost 1.3 million Americans their jobs, according to a government forecast that complicates congressional Democrats’ push to more than double the federal pay floor.

If the federal minimum wage were raised to $15 an hour in 2025, as House Democrats have proposed, a significant number of Americans would likely lose their jobs, a study released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found.

But the study also estimates that in an average week in 2025—the year after the House measure would take full effect—a $15-an-hour minimum wage would boost the pay of 17 million workers who would otherwise earn less than $15 per hour. It could also raise the pay of 10 million workers who otherwise would earn slightly more than $15 an hour. Raising the federal minimum to $15 would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty, the CBO said.

Read More [[link removed]] How A California Bill Could Affect Gig Work, Uber, Lyft, And Drivers

Two coalitions of Uber and Lyft drivers went down to California’s Sacramento Capitol building on two different days this week to talk about what AB5, a state bill that would turn many gig employees into full employees, would mean to them.

One group of drivers stood firmly against the bill on Tuesday, fearing it will erode the freedoms they enjoy as independent contractors. Their stance is shared by Uber and Lyft, both of which have called on the state to commit to a classification compromise, arguing that destroying the gig-worker model upon which their business is based will be bad for drivers, too.

The other group of drivers, made up of ride-hail organizers from Rideshare Drivers United and Gig Workers Rising, advocated strongly for AB5’s passage on Wednesday, hoping that with traditional employment will come expanded rights and less volatile pay.

Read More [[link removed]] Robots Kill Jobs. Will The Bay Area Be Better Off For it?

Nor is there required such profound knowledge to discover the present imperfect condition of the sciences, but even the rabble without doors may, judge from the noise and clamour, which they hear, that all goes not well within. There is nothing which is not the subject of debate, and in which men of learning are not of contrary opinions.A cafe in downtown San Francisco uses swinging robotic arms to make lattes. Companies are competing to build software for self-driving cars. At UC Berkeley, a delivery app’s four-wheeled, cooler-size bots ferry burritos, Big Macs and bubble tea to students.

Robots and artificial intelligence are starting to come for the Bay Area’s jobs — a theory endorsed by a new report from management consultancy McKinsey & Co., which suggests that at least 907,000 jobs could be lost to automation in the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas by 2030.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Bay Area will be less hard hit than most of the rest of the country. The region’s job loss equates to 21.5% of the workforce, below the projected rate of 22.9% for California and the national rate of 23%.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change It’s New York Vs. California In A New Climate Race. Who Will Win?

California and New York have recently set some of the world’s most ambitious climate targets, aiming to slash their net emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases down to nearly zero in just three short decades.

Now the race is on to see if either state can pull off this feat — something that no major economy in the world has yet achieved. For now, neither state has a clear advantage, and both must overcome unique obstacles to clean up their power plants, cars and buildings. New York has the lowest per-person emissions of any state in the nation, but California is close behind.

New Yorkers love cars (slightly) less

Transportation is the single biggest source of climate pollution in both states: Cars, trucks, buses and planes are responsible for 41 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions and 33 percent of New York’s.

Read More [[link removed]] Governor Orders Regulator’s Ouster After Reports By Desert Sun, Watchdogs

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday directed his secretary of natural resources to fire Ken Harris, the state’s top oil regulator, after learning from The Desert Sun/USA TODAY and watchdog groups that fracking permits have doubled without his knowledge since he took office and that seven supervisors charged with regulating the industry own shares in major oil companies.

Ann O’Leary, chief of staff to Newsom, sent a letter to Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary for Natural Resources, asking him to immediately make several changes in the Department of Conservation, including firing Harris.

Harris is the head of the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, also known as DOGGR. He could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

O'Leary also told Crowfoot to "continue at full pace the investigation you have already started related to the allegations that employees at DOGGR have holdings in energy companies, which could constitute actual or apparent conflicts of interest, and take the maximum disciplinary action appropriate under law."

Read More [[link removed]] California Lawmakers Give Utilities A Backstop On Wildfire Liability

Heading into another wildfire season, California’s political leaders have moved with unusual speed to help the state’s utilities erect a backstop against huge liability claims.

The State Legislature gave final approval on Thursday to a measure that would set up a fund to help compensate victims for losses from fires started by the utilities’ equipment.

The bill is based on a proposal last month by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and legislators rushed to pass it before a summer break. It is a response to two years of devastating wildfires that in January led Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, to file for bankruptcy protection.

PG&E has estimated that its liability from recent fires exceeds $30 billion. Investigators found that its equipment was responsible last year for the worst wildfire in state history, the Camp Fire, which killed 84 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. Under California legal doctrine, utilities are liable for fire damage caused by their equipment, even if no negligence is involved.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development University Of California Considers Ways To Increase Tuition But With A Price Freeze Guarantee

The ten-campus University of California system is considering a new tuition plan that would freeze tuition for an incoming class for six years while the next group of students could be charged more.

The so-called cohort-based tuition is aimed at providing students and families more stability and predictability about education costs, according to an agenda item for next Thursday’s meeting of the UC regents.

Under such a plan, if the board of regents were to increase tuition by a certain amount, incoming students would be assured that tuition would be fixed for them at that rate and not go up for as long as six years. The regents then could decide to increase tuition again for a subsequent incoming class of students and their tuition would similarly be fixed at the rate they paid during the first year at the university.

Read More [[link removed]] California To Pay Off $10.5M In Student Debt - Giving Poor Patients Greater Access To Dentists

The state of California is paying off $10.5 million in student loans for 40 dentists who agree to ensure that 30 percent of their patient caseload is made up of Medi-Cal patients – among the state’s poorest and frailest residents.

“Dentists with significant student loan debt may find it more difficult financially to commit to care for the Medi-Cal population,” said Jennifer Kent, director of the California Department of Health Care Services, the agency that administers the program. “Helping them to pay off their debt will make that commitment possible.”

Dr. Byron Ruiz, a 2018 dental school graduate who joined the Sacramento Native American Health Center, learned Wednesday that he had been selected for an award, just minutes before Gov. Gavin Newsom called him on stage to congratulate him. Ruiz said he was overcome with emotion upon learning of his good fortune.

Read More [[link removed]] They’re Young, They Have A College Degree, They’re Coming To California. Who Are They?

It’s no secret that not everybody loves the Golden State. In fact, more people are moving out of California than are moving into it from other states.

Yet the population of California continues to expand. Births, an influx of international immigration and a wave of young, college-educated adults moving in are combining to keep the state growing.

From 2012 to 2017, an estimated 186,000 adults, most of whom were under 40, moved into the state, with the majority coming from New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

“From a labor market perspective, attracting young college graduates is especially advantageous. Young adults with college degrees are at the start of their careers and provide the state with much-needed highly educated workers,” according to the PPIC.

Read More [[link removed]] In Support Of College Admissions Tests

In recent years, there has been a lively debate in California about whether to allow school districts to replace the 11th grade Smarter Balanced assessments that students take each spring with the SAT or ACT.

Some school district leaders have argued that doing so would reduce test fatigue for 11th graders, many of whom are also taking AP and college admissions tests. Giving students more opportunities to take the test, they argue, will also better prepare students to gain admission to colleges of their choice. Others have opposed the move on a number of grounds, including that college admissions tests are not as well aligned to the state’s academic standards.

Assembly Bill 751,which is making its way through the Legislature, would allow school districts to administer a college admissions test instead of the Smarter Balanced math and English language arts tests to their high-school juniors. It would require the state to cover the cost of administering the test up to the amount it would cover for Smarter Balanced administration and to report out the test results in the same way it reports the Smarter Balanced results.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Housing In Brief: California Rent-Control Bill Advances

An “anti-rent-gouging bill” cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday, bringing the state of California closer to universal rent control, Curbed reports. The bill, which still has to clear another Senate committee as well as the full Senate, would cap rent increases at seven percent plus the rise in the consumer price index per year. The bill would also restrict landlords’ ability to evict tenants unless they had “just cause,” such as criminal activity or failing to pay rent.

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation estimates the bill would affect 4.6 million households statewide, including some in cities that already have their own rent control. For example, Los Angeles has rent control for buildings built before 1978; the new bill would extend rent control to buildings built between 1978 and 2009.

California ranks 49th out of 50 states for per capita housing construction, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report; to satisfy demand, it needs to build 3.5 million homes by 2025.

Read More [[link removed]] Multigenerational Housing Is the Biggest Homebuying Trend—And More Millennials Are Opting For It

Remember The Waltons? John-Boy, his umpteen siblings, Ma, Pa, Grandma and Grandpa famously shared a rambling Depression farmhouse in TV Land. More recently, multiple generations have lived together on The Conners and One Day at a Time. Turns out that extended family living has never gone away. It’s just constantly shape-shifting.

In fact, a record 64 million Americans—one in five of us—live in a multigenerational home, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s 1950s levels, way up from just 12 percent in 1980. (“Multigenerational” is defined as including two or more adult generations—not counting college students—or a household with both grandparents and grandkids under 25.) Also on the rise: four generations living together.

“We’re shifting from an age-segregated world to an age-integrated world,” says longevity expert Bill Thomas, M.D.

Read More [[link removed]] San Jose Awarded $31.5M For ‘Transit-Oriented’ Housing

A California committee has awarded San Jose $31.5 million to build 155 new affordable apartments downtown and improve public transportation and infrastructure.

According to the announcement Thursday, the housing must be “transit oriented,” putting hundreds of residents near public transit, which city planners say will cut down on traffic and vehicles in downtown.

The California Strategic Growth Council, which awarded the grants to San Jose, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicles on California roads. The group has reduced 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to having fewer than 531,000 cars on the road, according to its website.

City officials plan to fund two nonprofits to each develop two separate sites for the 155 new affordable units, said Jeff Scott, a spokesman for the city housing department.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Local Tax Conflict Heats Up

For decades, it’s been an article of political faith – as well as law – that local government taxes designated for particular purposes require two-thirds approval by voters.

The supermajority vote provision was created by Proposition 13, California’s famous – or infamous – property tax limit measure, passed by voters in 1978, and later bolstered by another initiative, Proposition 218.

Two years ago, however, the state Supreme Court seemingly carved out a way for local governments to sidestep that law. It implied, in ruling on a Southern California marijuana case, that if special purpose tax measures are placed on the ballot by initiative petition, rather than by the local governments themselves, the two-thirds vote threshold might not apply.

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