The notion that water districts across drought-stricken California can punish water wasters by setting up tiered rating systems in which the per-unit charges rise for heavy users was dealt a major blow by the California Supreme Court Wednesday. The court left intact a lower court decision upholding a challenge to the pricing system. Earlier, Gov. Brown said that legal decision put conservationists in a "strait-jacket."
From the OC Register's Meghann M. Cuniff: "The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request by the state’s top lawyers and water experts to depublish a groundbreaking ruling that the city’s tiered water rates system was illegal. The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled April 20 that the tiered rates approved by the San Juan Capistrano City Council in 2010 violated Proposition 218, which requires government fees be set in accordance with cost."
"The ruling didn’t declare tiers in general illegal, but the court said they must be based on the actual cost of providing water and can’t be artificially inflated to discourage water use..."
"State officials fear that any added scrutiny to how tiers are calculated will hinder agencies from implementing them. Tiers are considered one of the best ways to encourage people to use less water."
For another look at the court's action, click here to see the story in the Mercury News. For a detailed look at California's water rates, take a look at this account in Capitol Weekly, which ran in the spring.)
It's vacation time, and many people are taking to the highways to reach their destinations. But there's a problem: The roads are in lousy shape.
LAT columnist George Skelton has a few things to say about that: "The governor is in Europe saving the planet. The Legislature is on a monthlong vacation. And we motorists keep getting our cars beat up on California highways..."
"Brian Kelly, head of the state Transportation Agency, says "41% of California's pavement is distressed or needs serious maintenance, ranking among the worst in the nation. The problem has been decades in the making. We've fallen further and further behind."
"California practically invented freeways. Ours used to be the best. They started going downhill the first time Brown was governor, when he thumbed his nose at auto travel."
There's a special session in the Legislature to examine the state's crumbling roads, and the Republicans may have some political leverage here.
From Allen Young in the Sacramento Business Journal: "When the California Legislature reconvenes next month for a special session on road funding, Republicans will be in the front seat — because Democrats need GOP support to impose new taxes or fees."
"Some Senate Republicans are open to raising costs on motorists, said Senate Republican leader Bob Huff. But Democrats must first agree to bureaucratic changes that will increase efficiency and redirect existing road funds back into transportation, he said."
“The money we are already paying in the system has to go to transportation,” said Huff, a San Dimas Republican. “If (Democrats) can’t protect revenues now, and any other revenues we generate for transportation, we’re not playing ball.”
Meanwhile, the University of California is raising the minimum wage of its employees to $15 an hour.
From the LAT's Larry Gordon: "The campaign to significantly increase the minimum wage shifted from local government to the state Wednesday, with UC President Janet Napolitano announcing that several thousand workers would have their salaries increased to $15 an hour by 2017."
"UC's action is expected to heighten debate in the state Legislature about a proposal to boost the statewide minimum wage and has also prompted calls for the California State University system to follow suit."
"Napolitano announced the move a day after Los Angeles County — the nation's largest government agency — agreed to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour in all unincorporated communities by 2020. Los Angeles enacted a similar plan earlier this year, becoming the largest city in the nation to do so."
The debate over displaying the Confederate flag has reached the shores of California -- specifically Ft. Bragg, the coastal town named after Braxton Bragg, a general who fought on the side of the South during the Civil War. The issue, believe it or not, is whether the town should change its name.
From the Chronicle's Peter Fimrite: "It is the first time anyone around these parts can remember so many people uttering the name Braxton Bragg, and those who dusted off their history books know that the town’s namesake was no Abraham Lincoln, even if he bore a striking resemblance to the famous Civil War president."
"Bragg was indisputably a turncoat, serving as a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. To make matters worse, he owned 105 slaves, according to the black caucus, which has called on Fort Bragg Mayor Dave Turner to change the name of the city of 7,200 people..."
"Why are we doing this? Because we want to pretend history didn’t happen,” said the mayor as he sat behind a desk at Flo Beds Sleep Shop, which he owns. “It’s great they pulled down that flag in South Carolina. It was an in-your-face thing that was hateful. But Washington had slaves. Jefferson had slaves. Where do you stop?”
Finally, from our "Back to the Past" file, we travel to Oklahoma, where century-old chalk drawings in perfect condition were found on the backs of school blackboards. The drawings date from 1917.
" Workers at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma recently made a truly incredible discovery as they were preparing rooms for renovations. When they removed many of the old chalkboards to install smartboards in the rooms, they found perfectly untouched chalkboards from a century ago, with the lessons and drawings scribbled in chalk still perfectly intact!"
"It's an amazing find that gives us a glimpse into the educational mindset found in schools over a hundred years ago."
Cool!
