A compromise has been reached in Sacramento over raising the minimum wage to $15 over the next several years, a move that keeps the proposal away from the ballot box.
From the Mercury News' Robert Salonga and Jessica Calefati: "An agreement that will raise the state's minimum wage to $15 is expected to be unveiled early this week and already has elicited a divide with workers contending the boost could help them keep up with California's high cost of living, while employers voiced concern about staying solvent.
"Gov. Jerry Brown and state labor unions have been negotiating over the past week to increase the current $10 minimum wage in increments over the next six years, a Capitol source close to the negotiations told this newspaper."
"Brown aims to announce a proposal Monday or Tuesday, the source said, even as the governor had no comment on the matter. Also, it was not clear whether Kevin de León, president pro tem of the state Senate, or Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon were briefed on the final version. The Democratic leaders of the Legislature could not be reached Sunday for comment on the agreement, but both have been supportive of a $15 minimum wage, which would be the highest in the country."
The deal hasn't been officially announced yet, and already one group is complaining -- the restaurants.
From the LAT's Shan Li , John Myers , Liam Dillon and Ruben Vives: "Selwyn Yosslowitz said that minimum wage hikes add increased pressure to restaurants, which already operate on very slim margins. With the minimum wage going up, Yosslowitz said he's going to have to rethink his menu and what dishes his restaurants serve."
"First, you have to raise prices, otherwise you'll be out of business," said Yosslowitz, president of the Marmalade Café, which operates seven Southland restaurants and an outlet at LAX. Restaurant owners also have to think about "re-engineering the menu" to require fewer kitchen workers."
"We will try to re-engineer the labor force," he said. "Maybe try to reduce the number of bus boys and ask servers to bus tables."
California Republicans, long feeling marginalized as an increasingly minority party, may get payback in June: They likely will prove decisive in the presidential race.
From the Bee's David Siders: "Because of the way California Republicans award nearly all of their 172 delegates – three delegates each to the winner of each congressional district – the relatively small number of Republican voters living in heavily Democratic districts such as Piedmont’s will hold a disproportionate influence on the result."
"A statewide California media buy could cost millions, but reaching voters in such areas could be a bargain."
“Having winner-take-all by congressional district allows candidates who don’t necessarily have the resources to compete statewide to really be able to go into a particular media market and saturate it with advertising,” said Jim Brulte, chairman of the state Republican Party. “So, if you can’t afford the $2.5 million that it costs to do one week of TV across the state, you can go into the Central Coast and buy television, you can go down into Palm Springs and the Palm Desert and buy TV. You can go up into Merced ...”
Determining exactly how much liability exists in California's two huge public pension systems hasn't always been easy, but help is on the way -- a revised accounting method.
From Calpensions' Ed Mendel: "Following new accounting rules, the annual state financial report issued this month shows a “net pension liability” of $63.7 billion, a dramatic increase from the $3.2 billion “net pension obligation” reported last year."
"It’s mainly the result of including, for the first time, the large debt or “unfunded liability” of the two big statewide pension systems: the California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System."
"New rules from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board are directing state and local governments to report more of their pension debt, a “hidden” and “unsustainable” long-term drain on basic services in the view of some critics."
Meanwhile, it looks like there won't be a ballot measure in November to take money from the bullet-train project and divert it elsewhere.
From John Myers in the LAT: "A Republican-led effort to ask voters to redirect billions of dollars earmarked for high-speed rail has abandoned its effort for 2016. The reason, in a single word: money."
"On Thursday, the political team behind the proposed initiative concluded it's just too expensive to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot."
"Spokesman Hector Barajas said the decision was "the financially sound thing for the supporters and the donors" and that the group still hopes to place the initiative on the 2018 statewide ballot."
And from our "Long and Winding Road" file comes the tale of Cupcake the Cat -- who actually got sent out with the mail and arrived okay.
"A Siamese cat named Cupcake survived a 260-mile journey through the mail after she fell asleep inside a shipping box with DVDs."
"The female cat fell asleep in a box in Falmouth, England as her owner was packing it. She arrived eight days later in West Sussex, dehydrated and nervous but otherwise well. Since Cupcake had an identifying microchip, the person who received the box was able to find Cupcake's owner, Julie Baggott."
""When I realized she was missing two weeks ago it was the most horrible, scary feeling," she told the BBC. "I feel terrible about what's happened, because I put everything in the box and sealed it straight away so I don't how she managed to get in there."
She thinks she felt bad? How 'bout Cupcake?...
