Gov. Brown’s revised budget, to be released at 10AM, will include for the first time an earned income tax credit to benefit California’s poorest. Chris Megerian scooped everybody in the Los Angeles Times:
“The change would keep more money in the pockets of 825,000 families and reduce the state’s revenue by $380 million, according to administration estimates.
“The proposal, known as an earned income tax credit, would help the state’s poorest residents on a sliding scale, based on their wages and how many children they have. No one earning more than $13,870 a year would qualify.
“The average qualifying household would gain $460 a year. The maximum credit, for families with three or more children, would be $2,653.
"’In a time when the economy is doing well, we have a lot of people who aren’t doing well,’ said an administration official, who requested anonymity because most details of the budget are being kept under wraps until Brown announces them. ‘We’ve heard a lot from the Legislature ... and we know this is important.’"
And now Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) says she does have a big political announcement to make Thursday after all. There is strong speculation that she will launch her bid to replace retiring Senator Barbara Boxer. From Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee:
“Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, will follow through with the 11 a.m. news conference at the Santa Ana Train Station. Though a campaign consultant declined to discuss what she plans to say, such public events are typically reserved for formal campaign launches.
“Confirmation of the ‘significant political announcement’ comes a day after The Bee and Politico obtained an email invitation to supporters in which Sanchez said she planned to kickoff the race at the same time and venue. ‘Together we will win,’ Sanchez wrote in an email.
“A spokesman later said the invitation was a draft that was released by mistake, and it remained unclear whether Sanchez intended to run.”
Watching Sanchez’ botched rollout, Debra Saunders notes that Kamala Harris may be the luckiest politician in the state.
Assuming Sanchez does toss her hat in the ring at that train station today, her entry into the senate race (and bungled launch) will be the talk of the town at the Democratic state convention in Anaheim this weekend. Carla Marinucci, SFGate:
“Democrats this weekend will have plenty to keep their attention riveted — with Harris scoring a plum speaking slot Saturday afternoon and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of some progressive Democrats who hold out hope she will challenge Hillary Rodham Clinton for president in 2016, also addressing delegates.
“But the drama about Sanchez’s rollout is likely to trump all the other goings-on at the convention, as Democrats consider the enticing possibility of a Democrat-on-Democrat Senate smackdown in 2016 that could inject real excitement into what some have complained so far has been a coronation for Harris.”
Frustrations ran high in a budget hearing yesterday, with lawmakers blasting the financially strapped University of California for spending $32 million on aid to out-of-state-students. From Alexei Koseff at the Bee:
“’It’s just alarming, puzzling and sort of unbelievable that you would spend $32 million on this population that supposedly is supporting itself,’ Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said during a UC budget hearing. ‘This type of action doesn’t give me any confidence that we should be giving UC additional resources.’
“The revelation of the nonresident financial aid, uncovered by the Assembly budget subcommittee on education, comes as UC has threatened tuition hikes and enrollment freezes unless the state provides a funding increase next year of $100 million more than already promised.”
And, speaking of education, the Assembly Education Committee yesterday rejected a Republican proposal to repeal a controversial cap on school district budget reserves. Dan Walters has the story at the Sacramento Bee:
“Assembly Bill 1048, carried by Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Dublin, drew just three ‘aye’ votes, all from the committee’s Republican members. All Democrats either voted against it or didn’t vote. ‘These reserves are the only way our districts survived the last economic downturn,’ Baker told the committee.
“Although the measure died, the underlying issue could become part of this year’s budget negotiations. Education Committee chairman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, is carrying a rival measure, Assembly Bill 531, that doesn’t repeal the reserve limit but makes it a bit more flexible.”
Over at the Atlantic, James Fallows looks at the bankrupt city of San Bernardino and finds that the city has deep-structural problems to fix.
“The real problem for San Bernardino is not the people who live there or the businesses that have left. Rather it’s the city’s rules for governing itself.
“I know that this sounds like an impossibly dry civil-service point, and believe me that I wouldn’t stress it if I hadn’t come to believe it. Brief example: despite the city’s poverty, pay for its police and firefighters has been automatically tied to levels in some of California’s wealthiest cities, and has kept going up as the city’s resources have gone down. The report from the professional consulting group that has been studying the city’s plight (Management Partners, of Cincinnati), which is due within a few days, is likely to focus on the near-impossibility of reviving or even governing San Bernardino, let alone getting out of bankruptcy, unless it goes through something like fundamental constitutional reform.”
And, because we just can’t let a day go by without another drought story, we have this nugget from Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler: during the drought, swimming pool construction is going up.
“Californians built more backyard swimming pools last year than in any year since the peak of the housing boom. And this year, the state is on pace to shatter last year’s mark. All this - during one of the worst droughts in California history. That’s prompting some very different reactions from local water agencies.”
Best takeaway in the story: pools use less water than grass (eventually).
Sure, we all love a donut, but there is a time and place for a donut break. Unfortunately, for two Florida funeral home workers, a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts on the way to a veteran’s funeral service – with body in tow- isn’t it. Story (and photos) at WFLA.
“Rob Carpenter did a double-take on his way into his New Port Richey Dunkin' Donuts. But there it was, straddling two parking spots: a hearse, with the front window down, back curtains drawn and a flag-draped coffin on display.
“He took video, snapped a photo and then confronted the funeral home workers when they returned, coffee and a bag of doughnuts in hand.
“Carpenter, whose own father served this country in the military, described his confrontation with the driver.
"’I'm like, “Is this really a body in here?” and he says, “Yes,” and I said, “So you have a dead soldier in the back of your hearse and you're stopping to get coffee?” And he didn't say anything.’”
Because, really, what was he gonna say?