Jerry Brown, who recently signed into law new rules to regulate an oil drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is being dogged and heckled at public events by some environmentalists who say he should have barred fracking in California.
From the Bee's David Siders: "Environmentalists frustrated with Brown’s permissiveness of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have followed the Democratic governor to events throughout the state since September, heckling him for his approval of legislation establishing a permitting system for the controversial form of oil extraction."
"The protests have become an awkward sideshow for the third-term governor, highlighting the deepening division between Brown and environmentalists – a reliably Democratic constituency – as he prepares for a re-election bid next year."
“The issue … here is about how Governor Brown wants to be remembered, and his history, and what his legacy is going to be in California,” said Victoria Kaplan, campaign director at MoveOn.org Civic Action. “Is he going to be remembered as the governor who backtracked on his commitment to addressing climate change?”
Health care for retirees on public pensions is costing more than those of active state workers and soon could be eating up a bigger piece of retirement benefits than the monthly living payments.
From Calpensions' Ed Mendel: "As if trading places, a new forecast expects the annual general fund payment for state worker retiree health care, now $500 million less than the payment for pensions, to be $500 million more than the pension payment in six years."
"A forecast from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office last month projects that a $2.3 billion general fund pension payment to CalPERS this fiscal year will grow to $2.8 billion in fiscal 2019-20."
"State general fund spending on retiree health care for state workers, $1.8 billion this fiscal year, is projected to grow more than 10 percent a year during the same forecast period, nearly doubling to $3.3 billion."
Eloise Gomez Reyes, a lawyer making her first run for public office, asked the state Democratic Party to look into the race for an Inland Empire congressional district, saying the Democratic process isn't so democratic after all.
From the LAT's Jean Merl: "She described how she had tried repeatedly to address local party clubs about her candidacy for a hotly contested congressional seat in the Inland Empire, only to learn four of those organizations had endorsed a rival, Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar."
"The backing, announced by the Aguilar campaign, "suggests that information needed to participate fully in the Democratic Club endorsement process has intentionally been withheld" from other candidates, Reyes, a Colton attorney and first-time candidate, said in her letter. She asked the state party to look into the matter."
"Although four Democrats are taking on Rep. Gary Miller (R-Rancho Cucamonga) in next year's June primary, party leaders months ago decided to back Aguilar, funneling endorsements from a bevy of elected officials and campaign contributions his way. That leaves Reyes, former Rep. Joe Baca of Rialto and San Bernardino school board member Danny Tillman with an uphill climb."
Speaking of Democrats, Assembly Speaker John Pérez talks politics, the future and the Assembly's last-minute effort to get a supermajority.
From Jim Cameron in Capitol Weekly: " So Ron Smith is there going through classes and a day before swearing in ceremonies, it’s clear there’s only a hair’s breadth between the two of them. So I called in Smith and said ‘look, here’s what we do, we swear in whoever is the leader and if the results change, then that person steps down.’ He was very good about it. I had the same conversation with Steve Fox."
"At 2:45 PM on Sunday, the day before swearing in, Steve Fox won. So we got him on a plane, got him here at seven o’clock that night. We were doing a reception for new members and their spouses and Fox came in just at the tail end and missed the Governor who had just left. That night I had to personally physically rearrange office space. "
"We were in here late at night taking center pages out of the brochure for swearing in so that at six in the morning we could get them to the printer. People grabbed them, thinking they had a memento because of the typo."
Money-wise, the state is better off than it was before, but the question now is this: How do we spend it?
From Capitol Public Radio's Ben Adler: "California’s non-partisan budget analyst has declared the state’s structural deficit a thing of the past and projected multi-billion dollar surpluses for years to come. That’s prompting calls from some Democrats and progressive groups to reinvest in programs hit hard by recession-era budget cuts."
"When Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor released his budget projections a few weeks ago, he tempered the good news with words of caution. “We’ve given priority towards being careful about the additional commitments you make in the near term, and using those monies that we see coming in – those operating surpluses – to give the reserve a very high priority.”
"Governor Jerry Brown has repeatedly insisted on keeping spending levels down, to break what he calls California’s “boom and bust” cycle. “It’s cruel to lead people on by expanding good programs, only to cut them back when the funding disappears. This isn’t progress; it’s not even progressive. It’s an illusion,” he said in his January State of the State address."
And finally from our "What's Google Up to Now?" file, we learn from the Chronicle's Matier & Ross that the high-tech behemoth is making waves, literally: It's building huge barges that will serve as retail outlets to float in the waters of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"In a confidential budget report we obtained, barge builder Turner Construction Co. says the idea is to construct the vessels at Treasure Island, then dock them in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York."
"The secretive project is code-named Hangar 3 - an apparent reference to the Treasure Island hangar where much of the construction is being done."
"Each barge is to be stacked with 80 shipping containers and flanked by rows of sails. The Turner Construction report also says each barge is intended to be used as a "floating retail store."
