Lawmakers will vote today on a proposed $115 million budget and accompanying trailer bills. SFGate’s Melody Gutierrez finds it stuffed with legislators’ pet projects and unrelated legislation:
“With a state budget deal announced this week, details are emerging of last-minute policies tucked into the spending plan that will bypass the typical public scrutiny….
“’There are decisions in these bills that have never been heard, and many that were publicly rejected, only to be put back in when no one was looking,’ Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula (Riverside County), said Thursday during a Senate hearing to review the budget bills.
“For example, one non-budgetary provision would extend a deadline for an environmental review required for the planned Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco, and another would grant the state new authority to force troubled water districts to consolidate with larger, better-funded ones.”
The Budget process is also being used to sidestep the California Environmental Quality Act. Chris Megerian and Patrick McGreevy have the story at the Los Angeles Times:
“Jerry Brown has built a reputation as an ardent environmentalist, but his experience as Oakland mayor taught him that too many regulations could stall or even strangle development.
“After returning to the governor's office, he vowed to ease California's landmark environmental restrictions, saying it would be ‘the Lord's work.’
“That effort, resisted by environmentalists and powerful labor unions, sputtered out two years ago. Since then, Brown and Democratic lawmakers have instead struck deals giving special consideration to certain projects rather than confront the political difficulties of overhauling the law.
“This year is no exception, with several such exemptions forged behind closed doors and built into the budget that lawmakers are scheduled to finalize Friday.”
Once the Budget is signed, Governor Brown and legislators will focus on solutions to California’s serious infrastructure problems in a Special session that begins today. From John Howard, Capitol Weekly:
“Gov. Brown’s call for a special legislative session to fix California’s crumbling roads, highways and bridges comes as music to the ears of those who build big projects.
“For months, groups representing labor, contractors, local governments, transportation interests and others worked on legislation to revamp the state’s roads and ease the movement of freight at the state’s ports. The bill, which would use the $1 billion collected annually in truck weight fees for road work, awaits action on the Senate floor. The measure may be converted to a special session bill and serve as the centerpiece of the legislative session.”
The hottest part of the battle over SB 277, the bill that would eliminate most exemptions for schoolchildren appears to be over, having passed both the Senate and Assembly. The bill’s opponents say they smell a rat - a rat named PhRMA. Jim Miller, Sacramento Bee:
“Critics of Senate Bill 277, which would eliminate the personal belief and religious exemptions for schoolchildren, accuse the measure’s supporters in the Legislature of doing the bidding of donors who make vaccines and other pharmaceuticals.
“The bill’s proponents and drug companies dismiss the charge. The companies’ lobbyist filings for the first quarter of this year as well as legislative committee reports show no connection between the pharmaceutical industry and SB 277.
“’We aren’t pushing this bill behind the scenes,’ said Priscilla VanderVeer, the senior director for communications for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, the industry’s main trade group. The group has no taken no position on SB 277, although the group has long backed vaccinations as sound public health policy, she said.”
California’s groundbreaking Cap-and-Trade program to combat climate change has come under fire from a surprising source: Pope Francis. David Baker at SFGate:
“’The strategy of buying and selling ‘carbon credits’ can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide,’ Francis wrote in his wide-ranging encyclical on the environment and global warming.
“’This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require,’ he wrote. ‘Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.’”
As we looked around to see who had the worst week, Rep. Jim Costa floated near the top of the list. Labor has put a target on the Fresno democrat for supporting Trade Promotion Authority last week, and is recruiting candidates to take him on in the primary. From Emily Cahn, Roll Call:
“’Costa has voted against labor, he’s voted against the American people and American jobs by voting for TPA and TAA, and we’re strongly trying to recruit other folks into the mix to get someone who is friendly to working people and working families,” said Rob England, a political coordinator for the Communications Workers of America.
“Union leaders in the Golden State declined to comment on who they are in talks with to run against Costa next year. But three Democratic operatives in California said union groups are courting state Assemblyman Henry T. Perea.”
That’s not good, but we’re still a long way from the election – and Costa has over $600K in the bank – so there’s no telling how this will all shake out.
The same could be said of the California Labor Commission’s ruling Wednesday that declared that an Uber driver named Barbara Ann Berwick was an employee – not independent contractor – of the company. Uber has appealed the decision and will likely keep on appealing right up the California Supreme Court if they need to, so this is certainly not the final say on the matter
Still, we have to think that the decision is giving our #WorstWeekinCA award winner, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, indigestion – if not, it should be. Alison Griswold at Slate:
“The Berwick ruling applies only to one employee in one state. But it presages trouble for Uber and its on-demand peers. Imagine briefly if all of Uber’s drivers in the United States—more than 160,000 as of December—were deemed employees and awarded unpaid expenses. Uber would be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, in fees. The low-cost, thin-margin model that lets Uber keep prices low for riders might no longer be sustainable. Uber as we know it could cease to exist.”
Barring that extreme scenario, the company – and many of its “sharing economy” competitors are likely looking at increased regulatory attention sooner rather than later.
“’Today’s ruling from the California labor regulators demonstrates why federal policymakers need to re-examine the 20th century definitions and employment classifications we’re attempting to apply to a 21st century workforce,’ Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement Wednesday. ‘We have a responsibility to provide clarity and predictability instead of allowing inconsistency and confusion as these issues are litigated on a case-by-case and state-by-state basis.’”
Congrats, Travis!
