Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News Field Of Dreams

At first glance, controversy over plans to enlarge the Monterey High School football facility and add permanent lighting might seem like just another neighborhood dispute of little importance to anyone beyond the potential glare.

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One of the flyers distributed by district officials in the run-up to the election begins:

“Students in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District — which serves Monterey, Seaside, Marina, Del Rey Oaks and Sand City — have made great strides in recent years. Graduation rates have steadily increased and district schools have been recognized statewide by the California Department of Education and California Business Roundtable and nationally by the US News and World Report and by the National Education Policy Center.

“Despite the growing success of our students, the District’s newest school was built in 1965, more than 50 years ago, and all of our schools are in need of repair. Additionally, there are over 100 aging portable classrooms in our District. Some classrooms and school facilities have been updated recently, but there is more work to be done. Upgrades to our schools would help ensure that every student has equal access to a safe and modern learning environment.”

Read More [[link removed]] Second Tax Measure To Fund California Schools Proposed For 2020 Ballot

The California School Boards Association is exploring whether to place a $15 billion tax for K-12 schools, early education and community colleges before voters, creating the possibility of dueling tax initiatives on the statewide ballot in November 2020.

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The initiative would require all commercial and industrial properties to be reassessed every three years, generating additional revenue from higher fair market values. All business properties assessed at under $3 million would be exempt from higher taxes.

Two polls this year put support for a split-roll initiative in the mid-50s (54% of likely voters backed it in the Public Policy Institute of California poll and 55% of voters in a poll by the nonprofit PACE and USC). However, business groups are vowing to bankroll what could be an expensive effort to defeat it and are organizing already with FightforProp13.org (fightforprop13.org/), led by the California Business Roundtable, and Californians to Stop Higher Property Taxes (stophigherpropertytaxes.org/join-the-coalition/), led by commercial real estate interests.

Read More [[link removed]] California Still No. 1 In Poverty

As the California Legislature churned toward adjournment last week, its members received another reminder that the state’s most vexing — and shameful — socioeconomic malady persists.

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Meanwhile, a multi-million-unit shortage of housing grows worse by the moment, driving its costs ever-upward, and housing is not the only cost factor that influenced the Census Bureau poverty calculation.

The California Center for Jobs and the Economy, a business-backed economic research organization, says in a new report that Californians pay the nation’s second-highest prices for gasoline, an average of $1.07 per gallon more than prices in other states. That alone costs California motorists an extra $15 billion a year.

The organization also notes that California’s residential electric power rates are 52.9% above the national average and 7th highest in the nation. Since 2010, the average residential power bill has jumped by 25.5% to $1,247 per year.

Those rates are headed further upward as utilities, one of which is in bankruptcy, apply for increases to comply with state renewable energy rules and pay for wildfire damages.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Factories Bounced Back In August

U.S. industrial production rose in August, a welcome sign of resilience in the economy after recent weak readings.

Industrial production, a measure of factory, mining and utility output, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in August from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday, well above economists’ expectations for a 0.2% increase.

“This sector cannot be considered strong, but damage from slow growth abroad and trade tensions has not been severe so far,” Daiwa Capital Markets economist Michael Moran said in a note to clients.

The stronger-than-expected report on factory output comes as Federal Reserve officials meet in Washington for a two-day policy gathering. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is leading his colleagues to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point at their meeting, for the second time in as many months, to cushion the U.S. economy against a slowdown from the U.S.-China trade conflict and weak growth abroad.

Read More [[link removed]] Pace Of Growth Slowed For U.S. Household Net Worth In Second Quarter

The net worth of American households grew in second quarter, but at a slower rate than the prior quarter.

Household net worth grew 1.64% in the second quarter to $113.5 trillion, compared to a 4.99% growth rate in the previous three-month period. However, the first-quarter growth was largely a bounceback after stock-market declines produced a contraction in household wealth in 2018’s fourth quarter.

Much of that gain comes from a 3.3% rise in the value of household holdings of corporate equities. Stock markets bounced up and down in April and May as the threat of trade conflicts waxed and waned.

Americans also saw a modest rise in their housing wealth. Equity in real estate owned by households rose 0.4%. The housing market has struggled for more than a year, which has weakened the growth of home prices despite low mortgage rates.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Existing-Home Sales Rose In August

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in August, adding to recent modest signs of recovery in the housing market.

Existing-home sales rose 1.3% in August from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That was the strongest pace of sales since March of last year. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected sales to fall 1.1% last month.

Over the past year, sales in August were up 2.6%, the second month of growth following 16 straight months of year-over-year declines.

“Just perhaps we may have turned a corner for good in terms of home sales, which had been underperforming in relation to jobs, mortgage rates and other factors,” said Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist.

July’s sales were unrevised at a 5.42 million annual rate.

Read More [[link removed]] Fed Cuts Rates by Quarter Point But Faces Growing Split

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-percentage point for the second time in as many months to cushion the economy against a global slowdown amplified by the U.S.-China trade war.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open to additional cuts and repeatedly cited the costs of rising trade-policy uncertainty. But central-bank officials were split over Wednesday’s decision and the outlook for further reductions.

“There will come a time, I suspect, when we think we’ve done enough. But there may also come a time when the economy worsens and we would then have to cut more aggressively,” said Mr. Powell at a news conference Wednesday. “We don’t know.”

U.S. stocks wobbled, then pared losses after the Fed’s decision. Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, ticked higher though held their recent range.

Read More [[link removed]] Newsom Signs Bill Rewriting California Employment Law, Limiting Use Of Independent Contractors

California businesses will soon face new limits in their use of independent contractors under a closely watched proposal signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, a decision praised by organized labor but unlikely to quell a growing debate over the rules and nature of work in the 21st century economy.

Newsom, who signed Assembly Bill 5 in a private ceremony in his state Capitol office, had already committed to embracing the new law. Legislators gave final approval to the sweeping new employment rules before adjourning for the year last week.

The new law “will help reduce worker misclassification — workers being wrongly classified as ‘independent contractors’ rather than employees, which erodes basic worker protections like the minimum wage, paid sick days and health insurance benefits,” Newsom wrote in a signing message released by his office.

Read More [[link removed]] Trucking Industry Raises Alarms On California Gig Economy Legislation

Trucking industry officials say a California bill aimed at the “gig-economy” business models of ride-hailing companies would upend operations in the state and potentially raise shipping costs by pressing fleets to count as employees the thousands of drivers that now move freight as independent contractors.

The state’s Senate and Assembly this week passed legislation that seeks to force companies to reclassify certain contract workers as employees. The measure is aimed at putting into law a state court ruling last year involving package-delivery workers.

The bill is aimed at big tech companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., but experts say it would go beyond those businesses to affect industries like trucking that use contract workers.

Read More [[link removed]] New Study: Disneyland Resort Generates $8.5 Billion For Southern California Economy

Disneyland Resort is a major driver of the Southern California economy, according to economists from Cal State Fullerton’s Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting. The Woods Center studied the economic impact of Disneyland Resort in 2018, and found that the resort generated $8.5 billion for the Southern California economy. “Tourism is one of the major and growing segments of the economy as consumers shift more of their spending to leisure activities. Disneyland Resort has shown phenomenal growth,” said Dr. Anil Puri, director of the Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting. Additionally, visitors traveling to Disneyland Resort were responsible for $2.5 billion in off-site spending at hotels and businesses in Anaheim and throughout the broader region.

The Woods Center also credits Disneyland Resort with generating nearly $510 million in tax revenue for Southern California cities, counties and the state of California. In Anaheim alone, the resort generated nearly $162 million for the city’s general fund. The study also found that Disneyland Resort is responsible for generating a total of more than 78,000 jobs—and nearly 75 percent of those jobs are located right here in Orange County. Disneyland Resort is the largest employer in Orange County—directly employing a total of 31,000 cast members. The resort has committed to training and developing job skills for the future with cast members, as well as working with partners to extend these efforts to the broader Anaheim community. “Disneyland Resort also plays an important role in propelling the economy forward through programs like Disney Aspire, a free education program, and other programs offering skills for economic mobility and advancement,” said Dr. Puri.

Read More [[link removed]] Trump's War With California Moves To New Level

Donald Trump wants to put the most influential state in the nation in its place.

By threatening to yank California’s prized authority to set auto-emissions standards and to intervene so that homelessness does not “destroy” Los Angeles and San Francisco, Trump this week turned up the dial on an epic power struggle with an iconically blue state where he is wildly unpopular — and which represents the fifth-largest economy in the world.

He may not win on the policy — the courts, ultimately, will decide whether Trump’s move on auto emissions will have teeth.

But as he prepares to fend off a Democratic challenger in 2020, Trump is certain to continue to hold up California — where he courted wealthy donors up and down the state this week — as a cultural outlier and in essence, a failed state.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change EPA Set To End California's Ability To Regulate Fuel Economy

he Trump administration is poised to revoke California’s authority to set auto mileage standards, asserting that only the federal government has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy.

Conservative and free-market groups have been asked to attend a formal announcement of the rollback set for Wednesday afternoon at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington.

Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said Tuesday that her group was among those invited to the event featuring EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

The move comes after the Justice Department recently opened an antitrust investigation into a deal between California and four automakers for tougher pollution and related mileage requirements than those sought by President Donald Trump. Trump also has sought to relax Obama-era federal mileage standards nationwide, weakening a key effort by his Democratic predecessor to slow climate change.

Read More [[link removed]] Gavin Newsom Tells CalPERS, CalSTRS To Favor Green Investments In Climate Change Order

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order to leverage the might of the state’s $700 billion public pension funds and its purchasing power as a highway builder in a campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Newsom’s order caps a week in his administration fought with Trump administration over the state’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and in which the $83 billion University of California Retirement Plan announced that it would divest from fossil fuels.

“In the face of the White House’s inaction on climate change, California is stepping up and leading the way,” Newsom said in written remarks. “Our state is proof that you can reach some of the strongest climate goals in the world while also achieving record economic growth. How we meet this moment will define our state – and country – for decades to come, just as the emergence of the internet defined our economy over the past few decades. We have to get ahead of this and align our state investments, our purchasing power and our transportation and housing policies to be ready to meet this moment head-on.”

Read More [[link removed]] Your PG&E Bill Is About To Go Up. Here's Why And How Much California Customers Will Pay

PG&E Corp. bills are going up next month, mainly to cover the utility’s costs from major wildfires and storms in recent years.

However, PG&E said Thursday the rate hike won’t pay for any of the billions of dollars in liabilities generated by the disastrous wildfires of 2017 and 2018. Those liabilities drove PG&E into bankruptcy in January.

PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty said electric customers’ bills will climb an average $3.07 a month. Natural gas bills will rise $1.73. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the higher electric charges in May and the gas bills last week, but both increases will take effect Oct. 1.

On average, residential customers currently pay $118.03 for electricity and $54.91 for gas.

The higher electric bills will pay for equipment damage and other costs stemming from selected “catastrophic events” in 2016 and 2017, including several wildfires, Doherty said.

Read More [[link removed]] California Looks For Ways To Preserve Environmental Clout

The Trump administration’s decision to stop California from setting its own emission standards for cars and trucks would undermine the state’s ability to convince the world’s largest automakers that they should make more environmentally friendly vehicles.

“We will not let political agendas in a single state be forced upon the other 49,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday at a Washington news conference after the administration revoked the power California exercised for decades under a waiver from the federal Clean Air Act.

One California lawmaker is already working on a way to preserve at least some of the state’s environmental muscle: rebates for electric cars.

California residents who buy or lease a zero-emission vehicle can get up to $7,000 from the state. A bill by Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting would mean people could only get that money if they buy a car from a company that has agreed to follow California’s emission standards.

Read More [[link removed]] University Of California Divests From Fossil Fuels, Calls New Energy Sources More Attractive

The University of California is divesting from fossil fuels.

On Tuesday, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, UC’s chief investment officer and treasurer, and Richard Sherman, the chairman of the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee, said that by the end of September, the university’s $13.4 billion endowment will be “fossil free” — without a single investment in an “old” energy source they called a financial risk.

Soon, the university’s $70 billion pension will also be fossil free.

Read More [[link removed]] Cashing In On Climate Change

A friend of mine bought a house in Houston last year. The day he moved in, a neighbor walked across the driveway to introduce himself: “I’ve been here 40 years. Never floods.” My friend already knew this. He’d done his research. Not 12 months had passed since Hurricane Harvey inundated East Texas; his own relatives were just moving back into their homes. Of course he’d bought on high ground. In a city where new weather patterns and human development have stretched flood plains beyond what the FEMA maps show, who wouldn’t?

In his own small way, my friend is a climate investor now. He’s not alone. Climate will soon be changing the way you spend your money too. The coming upheaval—and our response to it—is working its way into the price of your coffee, your electricity, and your car. Like the microplastics discovered in the virgin snow of the Pyrenees, the climate crisis has permeated every single sector of the global economy.

The conventional wisdom about climate change is that it will limit economic growth. In a working paper last month, a team of international economists estimated that unchecked global temperature increases will chop 7.2 percent off per capita GDP by 2100. Many argue these models fall far short of capturing the full span of risks and tipping points a planet cooking in a carbon dioxide haze might face.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development California Community Colleges Push For Financial Aid Reform In Budget

The California Community Colleges Board of Governors on Tuesday voted to ask for about $780 million in additional state dollars for the 2020-21 budget year, which would be a 7.5 percent increase over its current budget of about $10.3 billion.

The request includes more than $250 million for financial aid reform and about $426 million in extra spending through Proposition 98, which sets the minimum amount of California’s budget that must be spent on K-12 schools and community colleges.

The request serves as the beginning of negotiations between the California community college system and the state, which will finalize its 2020-21 budget in June.

Christian Osmeña, vice chancellor for finance and facilities planning, said Tuesday at the meeting that the budget requests are meant to advance the “Vision for Success,” Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley’s roadmap to improve the system’s ability to prepare students for further education or work.

Read More [[link removed]] UC President Janet Napolitano Will Step Down Next Year

University of California President Janet Napolitano announced her resignation Wednesday after six years in which she oversaw significant growth in university enrollment but faced criticism over her office’s financial management.

Her decision, effective in August of 2020, leaves a leadership vacuum at the nation’s most prestigious public university system.

A former US Homeland Security secretary and governor of Arizona, Napolitano became the first woman to lead the university in 2013.

During her tenure, UC has increased its ranks of first-generation and community college transfer students. Napolitano supported efforts to address food and housing insecurity on campuses and add services for undocumented students, often at the urging of student activists.

Read More [[link removed]] Full-Day Kindergarten Could Soon Be Required In Every California School

Kindergartners across California could soon be spending more time in their classrooms if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill approved by the state Legislature last week.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 197, introduced by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, would require every public elementary school, including charter schools, to offer at least one kindergarten class the same length as 1st grade, beginning in the 2022-23 school year.

Schools will be exempt if they don’t have enough kindergarten classrooms to offer a full-day class for all students and have to offer one part-day kindergarten class in the morning and one in the afternoon in the same classroom.

Full-day kindergarten is defined as any program lasting more than four hours, not including recess time. For example, a program beginning at 8:30 and ending at 1:30, would be considered full-day. Currently, California only requires part-day kindergarten, which lasts between three and four hours a day, not including recess time.

Read More [[link removed]] Survey: Non-Tuition Expenses Hinder California College Students

California college students say paying the total cost of college is an obstacle to graduating because of inadequate financial aid.

In a survey released Thursday, students statewide said it’s the non-tuition costs — such as those for textbooks, housing and food — that are creating the biggest roadblocks to pursuing higher education in the state’s colleges and universities.

The Student Expenses and Resources Survey (SEARS) found that non-tuition expenses average $1,991 per month for students or about $18,000 per nine-month academic year. Those expenses outweigh the tuition and fees students pay — and receive state aid for — across the public college and university systems. By comparison, tuition and fees in the University of California system are about $12,500 and about $6,000 in the California State University System. Tuition and fees for a full-time student in the California Community Colleges are about $1,400 a year.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing State Of California To Assist Financing California-Vegas Train

California officials on Wednesday could put a private company's plan to build a high-speed train connecting Las Vegas and Southern California one step closer to reality by helping it access billions of dollars in private financing.

A committee chaired by state Treasurer Fiona Ma is likely to approve $300 million in tax-exempt private activity bonds for Virgin Trains USA this year, followed by the same amount again next year. That will allow the company to issue about $2.4 billion in debt, roughly half of what it needs to build the first private, high-speed train in the U.S. West.

Ben Porritt, senior vice president for public affairs at the company, called the approval "a major milestone."

Read More [[link removed]] Land Deals for California’s Bullet Train Are Off Track

It has been seven years since the California High-Speed Rail Authority started acquiring land for the state’s bullet train, but a new report shows it still has to acquire hundreds of parcels throughout the state for the project.

The rail authority does not yet have the property it needs for both the right of way for the 220-mph train or for relocating utilities and roads, the Los Angeles Times reported. The authority also acquired and became the landlord for a surplus of land that serves no purpose for the high-speed train, but the authority is now tasked with managing it.

According to the report, the authority has made hundreds of deals in which it was forced to purchase entire plots of land, even though it only needed a small portion for the project. For example, the authority now has at least 466 acres of land under cultivation after it purchased entire agriculture fields just to get a corner for the rail route.

Managers have also reportedly underestimated the land needed to relocate utilities like gas pipes, electrical wires, water mains and more that are in the path of the train.

Read More [[link removed]] Newsom Wanted To Go Bold On Housing. Have He And Lawmakers Delivered So Far?

On the campaign trail and after taking office, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised bold action to confront the issue he called California’s greatest challenge: making housing affordable again. Or at least returning us to a world where this house doesn’t sell for $900 grand.

The rhetoric was lofty: A “Marshall Plan” for affordable housing; unprecedented state action on homelessness; and most audacious, 3.5 million new housing units by 2025, a construction rate not seen since they started keeping track of that kind of thing.

“If we want a California for all, we have to build housing for all,” Newsom said during his first State of the State address, a reference to his campaign slogan.

California lawmakers just wrapped their first legislative session with Newsom in the governor’s office. Here’s what he’s accomplished so far.

Read More [[link removed]] Worried About Rising Rents, An L.A. Councilman Calls For 'Anti-Displacement' Zones

Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson called this week for the rejection of a proposed 577-unit housing project, saying the city should go further by establishing “anti-displacement zones” around certain market-rate housing developments.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, Wesson said the six-story, market-rate project known as District Square would result in higher rents for the area’s low-income households, displacing “lifelong community residents.” District Square was originally supposed to be a two-story shopping center with a Target and a Ralphs supermarket when it was approved in 2010, he said.

“We voted as a council for a development that would improve, not displace, the community,” Wesson said. “We have no need for a six-story development consisting of 577 luxury apartments that will be unaffordable to most of the neighborhood’s current residents.”

Wesson said in his letter that he would not consider supporting District Square unless it has a “significant” number of units set aside for low-income residents. He also said he would unveil a proposal in coming days for capping rents on properties within a two-mile radius of projects like District Square and protecting renters from “predatory” rent hikes.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion For California To Thrive, Latinos Must Be Included, And Right Now They're Too Far Behind

The good news is that the last decade has been better economically for Latinos living in California.

But challenges persist.

While Latino poverty rates are shrinking, Latinos still make up the largest ethnic group in the state who live in poverty.

While Latino household income is up, $56,000 per household, it is not increasing at the same rate of non-Latino whites and Asian-Americans and, statistically, is only half of what is needed to make the dream of homeownership a reality.

And while more Latinos are finishing high school, barely a third are eligible for a University of California or California State University school.

We must do better.

Read More [[link removed]] In Landmark Session, The California Legislature Shows What Progressive Lawmaking Looks Like

California is often identified as one of the most liberal states in the union — perhaps the most liberal. In the session just ended, its Legislature showed its willingness to live up to that standard.

Among the measures passed in Sacramento were bills to enforce worker employment rights at “gig economy” firms such as Uber and Lyft; to require that student athletes be paid for the commercial use of their names and likenesses; to enforce childhood vaccination rules; to mandate access to abortion pills at state colleges and universities; and to place caps on rent increases and predatory interest rates on loans.

What makes many of these legislative initiatives important is that they run counter to trends in other states and in Washington. The assault on abortion rights is in full cry in statehouses across the Midwest and South and in the Trump administration. Worker rights to good pay, safe workplaces and unionization are undermined by the refusal of Trump’s National Labor Relations Board to prevent employers from classifying their workers as “independent contractors” in order to limit their pay, benefits and organizing rights.

Read More [[link removed]] UC Investments Are Going Fossil Free. But Not Exactly For The Reasons You Might Think

Our job is to make money for the University of California, and we’re betting we can do that without fossil fuels investments.

We are investors and fiduciaries for what is widely considered the best public research university in the world. That makes us fiscally conservative by nature and by policy — “Risk rules” is one of the 10 pillars of what we call the UC Investments Way. We want to ensure that the more than 320,000 people currently receiving a UC pension actually get paid, that we can continue to fund research and scholarships throughout the UC system, and that our campuses and medical centers earn the best possible return on their investments.

We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk. That’s why we will have made our $13.4-billion endowment “fossil free” as of the end of this month, and why our $70-billion pension will soon be that way as well.

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]