The Golden State is more like the Golden Goose for political candidates, and not just in California: Campaign cash is a big export.
From Summer Ballentine and Richard S. Dunham in the Chronicle: "Unlike Texas, which keeps 65 percent of its campaign contributions at home, Californians are the nation's leading exporter of political donations. The Chronicle analysis identified $183 million in out-of-state contributions by Californians, while $131.6 million went to Golden State candidates."
"President Obama - whose frequent fundraising forays to the Bay Area and Southern California have prompted complaints that he treats the state like an ATM - is the favorite candidate of California donors, with more than $65 million in contributions. Obama's California haul is larger than the total amount of all political contributions generated in 41 of the 50 states."
At the congressional level, California's favorite out-of-state recipients are powerful Republicans and liberal Democrats, particularly women. The top out-of-state House recipients include Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, $1.9 million, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., with more than $770,000."
Water delivery across California is not only a question of availability, it depends upon billions of dollars worth of aging, expensive infrastructure.
From Capitol Weekly's Max Theiler: "Aging infrastructure – the pipelines, the troughs, the reservoirs, the flumes -- tops a long to-do list and carries a price tag that points to bigger water bills for families and business across the state."
“There has been a trend,” says Lisa Lien-Mager of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), “where basically every aspect of delivering safe drinking water is becoming more expensive.”
"The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the huge wholesaler that through its member agencies supplies some 18 million people with drinking water across the south state, announced in its two-year budget a 5 percent rate increase for the 2012-2013 water year and another in 2013-2014. In raw dollars, the MWD’s cost of refurbishing and replacing its infrastructure has risen 10-fold in little more than a decade."
One result of the newly approved relalignment of state and local services has resulted in overly crowded county jails. But erfforts are underway to ease the inmate load with no pre-trial bail.
From the Chronicle's Marisa Lagos: "These pretrial programs, which are used to reduce jail populations in San Francisco, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, allow nonviolent defendants who cannot afford bail to continue living at home, to work and to care for their children while they await trial."
"The programs provide an alternative to the traditional bail bonding system, in which bail is set based on the crime a person is charged with."
"Advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union and some Democratic lawmakers, say the programs promote both public safety and justice by using scientific evaluations to help judges decide whether it is safe to release a defendant before they go to trial. The current bail system, they say, favors wealth and strands low-income people behind bars because they cannot afford bail amounts. They also argue that a defendant who gets out of jail is less likely to accept a plea deal and has a better chance of an acquittal or a shorter sentence if they go to trial."
The level of debt of public pension funds is a critical piece of the debate over pension reform, with activists contending that debt is threatening the entire system. But is it a myth?
From Calpensions' Ed Mendel: "A new study of the 100 largest U.S. public pension funds shows CalSTRS reports a below-average funding level and the CalPERS funding level is a wobbler — higher than average if its assets are radically “smoothed,” much lower if assets are at market value."
"Though notoriously difficult to measure, debt is a key issue in the national debate over whether pensions are “unsustainable” and need cost-cutting reforms to avoid eating up state and local government budgets and, in the worst cases, seeking a federal bailout."
"The study issued last week by an actuarial firm, Milliman, concluded that the largest pension funds are not, as critics have charged, using overly optimistic earnings forecasts and other methods to hide massive debt."
More cities in California may soon be joining the ranks of the bankrupt, according to a Wall Street credit-rating agency.
From the Bee's Dan Walters: "That's not merely journalistic speculation. Moody's Investment Service, which closely monitors state and local governments for the huge municipal bond industry, issued an unusual public warning the other day that other California cities may be headed down the same path."
"To summarize," Moody's said, "we expect … more bankruptcy filings and bond defaults among California cities, reflecting the increased risk to bondholders as investors are asked to contribute to plans for closing budget gaps."
"Moody's named a number of cities whose fiscal health it will review and implied that some sort of blanket downgrading of local municipal bond issues may result – a step that could slam the brakes on governmental borrowing."