The Working Californians Blog

LAUSD Board President Gets it Right

davidjkoenig@gmail.com — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:07:28 -0400

LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia hit the nail on the head last week when she called out Meg Whitman for her two-faced approach to courting the Latino vote. As any political observer has been able to deduce Whitman is saying one thing in English and then going on Spanish language TV and saying something else. Thankfully we have trusted public servants like President Garcia who can shine a light on this duplicity. Hats off to you.

Here is the content of her press release:

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Mónica García today called upon gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman to explain the apparent inconsistency in her approach to Latino students in our public schools.

“Meg Whitman is running a new TV ad saying she wants to help Latino students,” said President García. “But her campaign is led by Pete Wilson, a man who wanted to kick the Latino children of undocumented parents out of our public schools with Proposition 187.”

“Whitman has also advocated for rounding up and prosecuting ‘illegal aliens’ in every city in the State, for denying state services to the undocumented, and for blocking our undocumented students from attending state and community colleges,” said García.

“I am trying to reconcile Meg Whitman’s terrible record on Latino students with her current rhetoric. It just doesn’t add up,” said García.

“If Meg Whitman truly wants to help our Latino students, she has got to stop attacking immigrant students and start understanding that the best way to help our Latino students, regardless of their parents’ residency status, is to give each and every one of them the opportunity to get a quality education in our schools and become productive members of our society,” she added.

Mónica García was elected to the Board of Education in June 2006, becoming the third Latina to serve on the Board in its 155 year history. As a board member, she gives voice to the hundreds of thousands of children and families that rely on education for access to good jobs, healthcare and a sustainable quality of life. In affirming her commitment to a quality and equitable educational system, Ms. García supports initiatives that provide all students access to a college preparatory curriculum and to career and technology pathways.

Working Californians launches IE for Brown

davidjkoenig@gmail.com — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:50:15 -0400

Working Californians, an independent expenditure committee, will begin a radio ad campaign on behalf of Jerry Brown today. The campaign is designed to run four weeks and will take place in radio markets across the state. Working Californians represents a coalition that includes the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Service Employees International Union.

“Our research show us that voters are eager to hear more about Jerry Brown and why he is the best choice for governor of our state, “ said Marvin Kropke, Business Manager of IBEW Local 11 and co-chair of Working Californians. “We believe that these radio ads make the case that Jerry Brown is the only candidate with the experience and the values to succeed in this critical time.”
Working Californians was formed in 2006 to support causes and candidates that improved the quality of life for average Californians.

“From our perspective,” said Brian D'Arcy, IBEW Local 18 Business Manager and Working Californians co-chair, “Jerry Brown is the best candidate for Governor. He has a 40-year record of fighting for the average Californian on crime, on consumer protection issues, the environment, and worker’s rights.”

Jerry Brown’s experience is also a key factor in the Governor’s race according to Courtni Pugh, Service Employees International Union. “Jerry Brown has devoted his life to public service and has a proven record of leading successful turnarounds in the face of great challenges,“ said Pugh. “He knows what it takes to get a budget through the legislature and he has a commitment to straight talk and common sense.”

In the 2006 election cycle, Working Californians led a broad coalition of labor and business that supported John Chiang for Controller and played a significant role in his election.

LA Can Lead the Nation Towards Green Job Future

LAGreen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:05:38 -0500

California has always been a land of pioneers– and since the 1970s it has originated innovative energy and environmental policies that have served as models for the rest of the nation. Landmark pieces of legislation and investment have encouraged the creation of everything from cleaner cars to a smarter electric grid. We have spurred the growth of new industries while preserving one of the planet's most beautiful natural landscapes. Measure B is the next big step in this proud tradition and will make Los Angeles the solar capital of the United States.
What Silicon Valley was to the computer chip, Los Angeles can be to the solar panel. If voters pass Measure B, Los Angeles will become the living laboratory for President Obama's promise to create five million green jobs. Below are links that put Measure B in the context of the burgeoning national green jobs movement:

This article from this month's issue of Rolling Stone describes how:

"If the president wants an energy policy that creates jobs while protecting the environment, one state holds the answer: California."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25833544/look_west_obama

This advertisement, the first general election TV spot run by the Obama campaign reminds us of the new President's promise to put people back to work by transforming our energy system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRgWpa_rnWQ

This article from Time magazine discusses the promise of green jobs to improve the lives of working Americans:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1852183,00.html?iid=spher...

This editorial by S David Freeman- former General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power- describes how Measure B will make LA the solar hub of America:

http://www.greenenergygoodjobsla.com/news/entry/sun-can-offer-l.a.-a-wor...

On March 3rd we can not only provide green energy and good jobs for Los Angeles but lead the rest of the nation towards a clean renewable energy revolution.

Health Care Bill Dead

Julia Rosen — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:21:01 -0500

Today the Senate Health Committee voted 7-1 not to advance AB 1x1 the massive health care reform bill championed by Speaker Fabian Nunez and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That means health care reform legislation is killed for the year given the timing to make it on the ballot. Chron:

Shortly before the committee hearing, Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, said in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that he does not support the measure because it lacks adequate funding and could worsen the state's budget problems.

The measure, which passed the state Assembly last month, needs the backing of a majority of legislators in each house before it can be sent to the governor, who supports it.

Schwarzenegger, speaking to the editorial board of the Chronicle, said he will do everything he can to keep the measure alive.

"I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," he said. "We've come a long way to get as far as we have ... this is the last mile."

The $14 billion plan was the product of more than a year of negotiations between the Republican governor and leaders of the Legislature's Democratic majority. The proposal had the backing of a diverse group of corporate, labor and consumer groups but failed to attract the necessary six votes from the 11-member health committee largely because of concerns over the long-term costs of the plan.

The amount of resources mobilized for this fight was enormous. Many groups and organizations poured many man hours and dollars into advancing this cause and then this specific piece of legislation. It is a bitter end to a noble goal: reforming our health care system. Our health care system is a disaster, yet fear of the unknown determined the outcome. We could not ensure that the expenses would not out strip revenues a crucial calculation given our state's current precarious fiscal state. It was not clear how much this bill would impact working middle class Californians. The plan was attacked from the right and the left.

The good thing is that this is not the mid-nighties all over again. When the budget situation improves we will again have a shot at reforming the system. This loss does not mean we have to wait a decade before working hard to enact sweeping change.

This is a victory for the status quo today, but we have a chance in the not too distant future to enact the reforms legislators dared against all odds to advance this past year. There were many more reasons for this to fail than to pass. That will not change the next time we take a shot at it. Hopefully we will learn some lessons from this fight and have a better chance the next time. They sure did a lot better than we did nationally in the mid-90s.

They Write Letters: Health Care Edition

Julia Rosen — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:09:58 -0500

The supporters of AB 1x1 are pulling out all of the stops. A group of health care reform leaders signed a letter to Sen. Shelia Kuehl urging her to support the bill. Sen. Kuehl is a huge proponent of single payer and has stated she will not support the bill sitting before her committee. It cannot pass unless she votes for it or Sen. Perata replaces Sen. Yee from the comittee.

Here is the letter they sent (h/t to Anthony)

What Motivated Stephen Johnson?

Julia Rosen — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:55:25 -0500

Stephen Johnson is the EPA chief who rejected his own staff's recommendations to grant California a waiver to regulate our own greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Boxer hauled him in front of the environmental committee she chairs for a grill session to see what the heck prompted him to ignore science and decades of legal precedent. LAT

"I was not directed by anyone," Johnson said at a hearing before the environment and public works committee, denying he had been influenced by political pressure from the White House or anyone else. "This was solely my decision."

Johnson failed to mollify Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee chairwoman and perhaps his fiercest critic, who vowed to press ahead with her investigation into how the EPA chief reached his decision. Within hours of his testimony, she introduced legislation -- co-sponsored by 17 senators, including Democratic presidential front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois -- to overturn the decision.

Good. They should. There appears to be no reasonable explanation for the rejection other than the car industry doesn't like California regulating its own air.

In his first Capitol appearance since denying California's request late last month, Johnson drew the ire of other Democratic senators whose states also want to enact greenhouse-gas-emission standards for new cars and trucks that are more stringent than the federal government's.

"Your agency's decision to deny California a waiver just defies logic to me," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told Johnson. "It's clearly a decision, I believe, that's based on politics and not on fact."

Boxer called Johnson's decision "unconscionable" and accused him of going against the advice of his legal and science advisors and siding instead with the auto industry, which has resisted California's efforts to implement its tailpipe law.

There are fifteen other states that have sided with California and want to enact the same regulations we passed.

The EPA has stonewalled Boxer's attempts to get information on the decision. They even went to far as to cover up some documents with duct tape. Yes duct tape. It would be amusing if the subject were not so important to our quality of life.

In all reality it will likely take a new administration and a Democratic at that to let the states regulate their own greenhouse gas emissions.

California Facing Cash Crunch

Julia Rosen — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:14:31 -0500

The state simply does not have enough money in our bank accounts to pay our bills. That means we will need to borrow a bunch of money. Bloomberg:

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- California may need to borrow as much as $9 billion later this year to pay bills, as the most populous U.S. state faces its biggest cash shortage since 2003, a budget official said.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance office estimates the state will need to sell $9 billion of short-term notes in September to cover cash needs for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That compares with $7 billion borrowed in November for this year's operations.

The cash crunch springs from slowing revenue growth over the last 12 months following the worst housing market slump in 16 years. Schwarzenegger last year saw a budget surplus transformed into a $14 billion deficit. Fitch Ratings has warned that California's credit ratings on $49 billion of debt are in danger because of the cash shortage.

The worse our credit ratings, the more expensive it is for us to borrow, just like any other borrower. This is somewhat routine for the state, but it is a jarring number all the same.

Health Care Bill Delayed: Costs a Worry

Julia Rosen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:53:11 -0500

Today was the day the AB 1x1 was to be brought up in the Senate Health Committee. It didn't. Senator Don Perata asked to delay the vote until Monday since there were not enough votes to pass the bill. To complicate matters the Legislative Analyst came out with her report that had enough consternation about cost containment for the state that it made Senators nervous about moving forward. AP:

Given the Democrats' resistance, it seemed unlikely Perata could obtain the votes without changing the composition of the 11-member panel, although he has said he does not plan to do so. The committee's four Republican members have been opposed to the bill as an expensive and unnecessary expansion of government into the private health care system.

Democrats also sounded queasy about the potential expense, and they sought assurances that the state would not be saddled with new costs.

"It just seems to me that we go into it with a little more certainty of what the price might be," said Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "Otherwise we don't go forward."

There are many more reasons for legislators to say no to major health care reform than to say yes. That does not mean that the bill shouldn't pass or that it is impossible to pass reform, but rather that this was always an uphill battle. The state of the economy and the budget made the odds even worse. It is providing an easy out for Democratic legislators who might otherwise be supportive.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill fed their fears with a report that undermined the administration's insistence that California can extend medical coverage to millions of uninsured people without having to spend additional state money.

More likely, she said, the new health care program would become a drain on the state budget. Hill said she estimated conservatively that within five years, the program would cost the state between $300 million and $1.5 billion a year.

"What you have in front of you is by no means the worst-case analysis," Hill said.

There is no way to guarantee that the cost of insurance will not rise at a higher rate than they anticipated. There are outs for the state. It's not as if it would be on the hock for the plan no matter what. Safety measures were built in. Howevier, if the legislators feel like it is more likely than not that we will encounter a situation where the costs exceed the revenue in the near future then it is not worth it for them to support a plan that they believe is headed for failure.

There are hard choices ahead for Senator Perata. Does he want to pull Yee or Kuehl off of the committee, or let this die a quiet death?

The status quo of our health care system is unacceptable, but that does not automatically translate into passage of this plan, no matter how well constructed.

Health Care Reform on Thin Ice

Julia Rosen — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:05:26 -0500

Things are not looking very good for the prospect of health care reform in California at the moment. The bill AB 1x1 is going to come up in the health care committee tomorrow. Sen. Kuehl, the chair of the committee already indicated she would not support it. That meant if only one other Democratic Senator on the committee pulled their support the bill would not be able to advance on a straight vote. CapAlert has the goods.

On the eve of a hearing for landmark health legislation, a spokesman for Sen. Leland Yee said the San Francisco Democrat will oppose the health care measure. The move throws into limbo whether the legislation has the necessary votes to move forward.

“The costs are a big concern for him,” said Adam Keigwin, a spokesman for Yee, regarding the $14 billion health care price tag that coincides with a projected $14.5 billion budget hole.

We have not yet see the report from the Legislative Analyst that Perata requested. This seems to be an early indication that the report was not particularly favorable.

Meanwhile the It's Our Health Care coalition just sent out an email encouraging their members to contact their Senators.

If the Senate doesn't pass AB x1 1 this week -- first out of the Health Committee tomorrow, then, if it passes there, on the Senate floor shortly afterwards, health care reform in California will be dead for the year.

A golden opportunity will be wasted. Health care reform here in California and at the national level will be dealt a body blow. And millions of Californians who could have been helped will be left to suffer the consequences of a deteriorating and dysfunctional health care status quo.

If you want to change the status quo and support reform this year, call your Senator now!

Click here to look up your Senator's phone number and call them today!

Senate process allows for Perata to request that Kuehl pass the bill on without voting. However, it is unclear if he is interested in having her do that. Perata does also have the power to pull Lee from the committee and replace him with someone who will vote for the bill. However, Perata has been throwing considerable cold water on the whole thing and it does not seem like he is inclined to force the issue.

It is a real shame to see so much time and effort come down to this. California had a real shot at passing significant, historic health care reform. The odds have always been stacked against it, just like they are right now. Ever the eternal optimist, I still believe they could get this thing done. It is really up to Perata.

2008 Will Not Be the Year of Education

Julia Rosen — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:43:39 -0500

The governor has finally come around to reality. Reforming California's school system will require a huge investment in our children's future and we simply do not have the funds to do that this year. Arnold said this and more in an interview with the LAT editorial board.

But he also talked about investing more in some of the same government programs he once complained were bloated and inefficient.

The message has ceased to be that schools can do more with less.

Now, he said, properly reforming the state's education system could come with a hefty price tag.

Because of the need for funds, Schwarzenegger said, he would put off his plans for an ambitious overhaul of the state educational system until more money is available.

"We have to analyze and bring everyone in the education community together and look at all the reforms and look at if that means we need extra money to do all those things," the governor said.

"To say: 'The funding we leave off the table completely . . . because we don't have any money, but we want to do those reforms,' that is not the way it works."

He is sounding all the right notes at the moment with regards to his plans for his "Year of Education". The same cannot be said of his approach to the budget. He has already lined up the schools as a target for huge cuts.