A group of California legislators are heading to Maui for a week, courtesy of a nonprofit group financed largely by business and labor interests. The fun-in-the-sun junket offers an opportunity for lawmakers to mingle in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere so they can bridge the partisan divide and learn new ideas. Right.
From the LA Times' Patrick McGreevy: "The group's financial supporters include cigarette maker Altria, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn., Chevronand the state prison guards union."
"The five-day event, running this weekend through Nov. 18, features panels on prison issues, biofuel and pollution at the Salton Sea, according to organizers including former Democratic state Sen. Steve Peace. He co-founded the group with former Republican Assemblyman Jeff Marston."
"Peace said the conference allows lawmakers to "get to know each other and talk about issues in depth," away from Capitol pressures. "It's those kinds of relationships that allow people to bridge partisanship."
Gov. Brown's proposal to overhaul public pensions drew a mixed reponse from the Legislative Analyst, which says the hybrid plan marks a bold move but contains legal pitfalls. The LAT's Anthony York tells the tale.
"The report praised the governor for offering "a bold starting point for legislative deliberations" on pensions. And it lauded Brown's call to combine a 401(k)-style savings plan with the existing guaranteed-benefit system and raise the retirement age for most future public employees from 55 to 67. Those proposals would save the state millions of dollars down the road."
"Brown, who announced his plan last month, also wants to require current workers to pay a larger share of their retirement costs. That, the report says, "is a legal and collective-bargaining minefield.… It will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, for the Legislature, local governments or voters to mandate such changes."
"Existing law protects current workers' benefits, the report says."
Ed Lee, the incumbent appointed mayor and a political rookie, took an early lead in San Francsisco's mayoral election, culiminating a fierce campaign as the electorate went to the polls for the first time in the city's system of ranked-choice voting.
From the Chronicle's John Cote and Stephanie Lee: "With 16 candidates on the ballot, it will probably take a day or two for clear results to emerge in the city's first competitive mayor's race using ranked-choice voting, in which voters can select their top three choices. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting Tuesday night, Lee was the top vote-getter in the first round with more than 31 percent."
"At an election night party with supporters, Lee stopped just short of declaring victory after he emerged from the first round of voting with an almost 13-point lead over his closest rival, Supervisor John Avalos."
"From all indications that we are looking at ... I think San Francisco wants us to do four more years," Lee said. Because no candidate crossed the 50 percent mark outright, the contender with the fewest votes will be dropped from consideration today and his or her supporters' second-choice votes will be added to the totals of the remaining candidates. This continues, round after round, until someone crosses the 50 percent mark."
San Francisco voters also gave a definitive victory to Ed Lee's pensions reform proposal contained in Proposition C, and rejected a rival, competing plan. The Chronicle's John Wildemuth gtells the tale.
"Prop. C was backed by Lee, unions and most of the city's political leaders. It will save an estimated $1.3 billion over the next decade by requiring city workers to contribute 7.5 percent of their salaries to the pension fund, a percentage that would rise in bad economic times and fall when the city - and its pension plan - was flush."
"Prop. D, a simplified version of an Adachi proposal rejected by voters last year, would have set a minimum contribution of 7.5 percent, a number that could have jumped as high as 16 percent for the highest-paid city workers when financial times were bad."
"Adachi's plan would have saved an estimated $1.6 billion in the next 10 years."
"The biggest difference between the two plans, though, is how they were created. Prop. D was the creation of Adachi and his advisers, and would have required higher pension contributions from police officers and firefighters, whose pensions cost the city far more than those of other city workers."
UC President Mark Yudof is going to push for new state funding next year to allow the university to increase enrollment and avoid another round of tuition increases.
From the LATimes' Larry Gordon: "Shifting tactics in a difficult budget situation, University of California President Mark G. Yudof said Tuesday that he would seek enough additional state funding to avoid a tuition hike next year and increase enrollment by 1%, or about 2,100 students."
"Yudof's statement was a tactical retreat from a controversial plan floated in September in which UC said tuition could rise 8% to 16% annually over the next four years if state funding did not increase enough to offset increasing costs. Reaction from students and families in September was vociferously negative, and UC regents shelved the idea, at least for now."
"On Tuesday, the UC leader focused on a new proposal to seek a state funding increase of $411 million, or 8%, for the 10-campus system in the 2012-13 academic year. He acknowledged, though, that persuading the state to appropriate nearly $2.8 billion in total funding for UC may be difficult given the continuing recession."
