Stung by a stealthy, $11 million donation in the final days of the Nov. 6 election, majority Democrats in the Legislature are pushing for tougher disclosure laws.
From Steve Harmon on the Contra Costa Times: "Two bills introduced Thursday would put sunshine on political groups that pour big money into state campaigns. One, AB 45, would give the state's political watchdog agency explicit authority to force anonymous outside groups to reveal their donors. The other, SB 52, would require the top funders behind political advertisements to list themselves in the ads."
"And now that they have a super majority in both chambers of the Legislature, Democrats will stand a better chance of revising the Political Reform Act, which requires a two-thirds vote. Last year, they were stymied in several attempts at campaign finance reform."
"We all know that where money comes from and who it's given to is a relevant factor in making a judgment about the merits of a particular issue or particular candidate," said Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, who wrote AB 45."
Despite their importance to students, school counselors are in short supply in California.
From Susan Frey in EdSource: "As a mourning nation focuses on the need for more mental health support for students, California has regularly ranked at or near the bottom among the states in the number of counselors per student."
"In California, there was one counselor for every 810 students in 2009-10. Nationally, there were almost twice as many. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of one counselor to 250 students."
“We don’t have enough counselors in school,” said Art Revueltas, deputy superintendent of Montebello Unified School District near Los Angeles. “As they transition out of our schools, they’re abandoned. There’s no mental health services for them out there.”
Down in Los Angeles, it appears that the Sheriff's Department used aircraft for questionable purposes.
From the LAT's Robert Faturechi: "An audit released Thursday found that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department managers improperly used department aircraft, including a helicopter dispatched to give a commander’s daughter a ride to a retirement party."
"In another instance, sheriff’s officials used a department airplane to fly to Connecticut, costing the county more than $35,000 for a trip that would have been significantly cheaper and likely faster on a commercial flight."
"The county audit was prompted earlier this year by a Los Angeles Times report about allegations that officials were abusing aircraft privileges, purposely delaying emergency calls to make the case for more overtime pay, and possibly manipulating time sheets. The Times reporting was based on internal sheriff’s memos and a deputy’s lawsuit that implicated officials."
Meanwhile, most of the price tag to cover the costs of improving PG&E's gas pipelines will be carried by the utility's own ratepayers.
From Jaxon Van Derbeken in the Chronicle: "Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers will pay nearly two-thirds of the $1.8 billion it will cost to upgrade the company's natural-gas pipelines, which were exposed as potentially unsafe by the 2010 explosion in San Bruno, the California Public Utilities Commission decided Thursday."
"In dividing up the costs of overhauling PG&E's 1,100-mile urban gas transmission system, the commission also abandoned a proposal that would have slashed the profit that the company could make on the project."
"PG&E originally wanted its customers to pay almost all the cost of its three-year effort to inspect and replace pipelines, the safety of which was cast into doubt when a major transmission line ruptured and exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people."
Proposition 13, the property tax-cutting initiative that voters approved nearly 35 years ago, is being targeted on several fronts in the Legislature, including a constitutional amendment authored by a San Francisco lawmaker.
From Jim Cameron in Capitol Weekly: "Leno's SCA3, which requires voter approval, would allow passage of local parcel taxes with a 55 percent vote. Currently that threshold, set by Proposition 13 in 1978, is a two-thirds vote."
"Proposition 13 has profoundly affected California government over the years and remains popular with the statewide electorate, although that support clearly is lessening, according to polls."
"But elements of Proposition 13 may be vulnerable, such as the parcel tax. Leno noted voters’ earlier decision to lower the threshold for local school bonds. And he isn’t alone in looking at Proposition 13: In the Assembly, legislation is brewing for a so-called “split roll,” in which commercial property is taxed differently than residential property."