California's birth rate currently is the lowest since the Great Depression, a startling factoid descriptive of how the deep economic malaise is affecting California society.
From the Bee's Phillip Reese: "California families are looking at their personal finances, their job security, their prospects for the future – and increasingly deciding now is not the time to have a baby."
"Marriages are down, foreclosures are up, job openings are scarce and kids are expensive. The average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 is about $225,000, federal data show..."
"Other, more permanent changes also are taking place. The children of immigrants are having fewer kids than their parents did. The population as a whole is getting older. Couples are waiting longer to start families."
With the Occupy movement apparently gaining traction, increased attention is being directed at the economic disparities between the nation's poor and rich. One issue: The wages of the top 1 percent increased at a much faster rate than everbody else outside that income zone. The LA Times' Alana Semuels has the story.
"Income growth for the top 1% of households has far outpaced that of all other households over the last two decades, bolstering the theory advanced by groups such as Occupy Wall Street that conditions are improving much more quickly for people outside the "99%."
"An economic snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute shows that inflation-adjusted incomes of the top 1% of households increased 224% from 1979 to 2007, while incomes for the bottom 90% grew just 5% in the same time period. Those in the top 0.1% of income fared even better, with incomes growing 390% over that time period."
"The top 1% of households still fare well from President Bush-era tax cuts and from a decrease in the estate tax, according to the EPI. Its authors argue, in a separate paper, that in light of these rising incomes, high-income households should be taxed more to reduce the deficit."
For the first time in nearly 15 years, California is going through what used to be a familiar period -- a 20-month hiatus between a November general election and the next primary in June of the following even-numbered year. Despite the breathing space, all is not tranquil.
From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "The last statewide election was November 2010 and the next primary is June 2012. The last time there was such a gap was from November 1996 to June 1998. "
"But it’s not a period of tranquility – redistricting has seen to that. For termed-out lawmakers the options are difficult, but incumbents aren’t having an easy ride either."
"And it hasn’t been easy on consultants -- especially Republican consultants – who rely on political campaigns to pay their bills, noted one strategist. “I think this is an unprecedented time for a lot of consultants, especially Republican consultants,” said Tim Hart of Sacramento-based Premier Strategies, a campaign strategy firm whose clientele include GOP candidates. “It is a difficult time. We’ve gone through something of a metamorphosis because of Whitman spending $174 million and still not winning. That impacted a lot of donors in California, making it more difficult to raise money,” said Hart in a telephone interview from Guatemala."
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer says he continued to back a law giving hefty tax breaks to alternative energy companies, even though the first and largest recipient was the now-bankrupt Solyndra.
From Aaron Glantz in the Bay Citizen: "Solyndra was granted a $34.5 million subsidy under SB 71, a 2010 law championed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that exempts alternative energy companies from paying taxes on purchases of new manufacturing equipment."
"Lockyer's statements marked a departure from the stance he took last month. After The Bay Citizen revealed Solyndra's tax break, which the state granted without scrutinizing the company's finances, Lockyer called for a moratorium on issuing additional subsidies under the law, saying, "[W]e owe it to taxpayers to see if there is more we can do to make sure we don’t give their money to companies headed for a fall."
"But on Wednesday, he told a joint hearing of two state Senate committees that SB 71 is a "wise and needed law" that incentivizes green-energy manufacturing and serves as "a model for how tax expenditure statutes ought to be written."
The California Supreme Court has set Nov. 10 as the date to hear oral arguments in the fight between redevelopment agencies and the state, which stemmed from the Brown admnistration's move to abolish the local agencies to help balance the state budget.
From the Mercury News' Tracy Seipel: "Oral arguments will be heard on Nov. 10 on a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the state's plan to eliminate California's 398 active redevelopment agencies unless they agree to pay $1.7 billion for fiscal year 2011-12 and $400 million in subsequent years."
"The California Redevelopment Association, along with the League of California Cities and the cities of San Jose and Union City, filed the initial petition on July 18. The central claim in the lawsuit: bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June as part of the state budget are unconstitutional."
"The lawsuit claims the bills violated Proposition 1A, adopted in 2004 to limit the state's use of local funds for its own purposes, and also Proposition 22, passed by voters last fall to further safeguard local revenues against a state raid and to protect redevelopment funds."
