It’s been said that after Al Capone was sentenced to prison for tax evasion in 1931, his chief financial and legal advisor, Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, told other mobsters how to avoid Big Al’s fate. They must keep two sets of books. One set, that could be made public, would show “honest income” from a legitimate business and would be maintained to satisfy the IRS and other government types. The other? Well, that would show the real income.

This story comes to mind now that new, strict Government Accounting Standards Board requirements have forced the revelation that the unfunded liability being carried by the California State Teachers Retirement Fund is more than double what was previously disclosed. The GASB rules compel state and local governments to stop hiding their pension costs in their financials and to report more realistic rates of return on investments.

What had been presented to the public as a $71 billion liability has been newly calculated to show that the teachers retirement fund’s net pension liability is $166.9 billion. No one is suggesting CALSTRS is involved in criminal activity, but like numerous other agencies, it has engaged in… Read More

The California Fair Political Practices Commission just ruled this week to require campaign committees to report to the State who they pay to post “favorable or unfavorable” content on blogs, social media or online videos, on their campaign finance statements.

The committees will also have to report the name of the website where the content appears.

The long arm of the government has found a chilling new way to intimidate new-media.

Political bloggers writing online will be subjected to new disclosure rules under state regulations the Fair Political Practices Commission approved Thursday.

Here’s how the State, under California Code Section 82013, defines a “committee”:

“Committee” means any person or combination of persons who directly or indirectly does any, of the following: (a) Receives contributions totaling one thousand dollars ($1,000) or more in a calendar year. (b) Makes independent expenditures totaling one thousand dollars ($1,000) or more in a calendar year; or (c) Makes contributions totaling ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or more in a calendar year to or at the behest of candidates or committees. A person or… Read More

The new San Diego central library is opening downtown with great fanfare. It’s a monument to learning and knowledge.

Well, that’s SUPPOSED to be what it represents. But in reality, this expensive new already-obsolete building is a monument to an era that is ending — a structure that in a few years will have little more utility value than a Pharaoh’s pyramid in Egypt. The only difference is that the library will have high operating costs — the pyramids need no such annual funding.

Almost NO ONE goes to the library to “do research” any more — except perhaps to use library computers. See my article below on how to better provide such computer access at a tiny fraction of the cost.

In a city of 1.3+ million people, maybe 5,000 people will sit down inside and use it in a month — and that figure may be high. Oh, there will be a much higher headcount, but many of these daily patrons are “library club” folks — repeat visitors who LOVE to hang around the library, read magazines and sit in plush chairs. Many others will drop by to check out books, videos, music, etc. — something… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: You CANNOT make this stuff up… Seriously. – Flash]

Happy Friday!

Yesterday I mentioned rumors that Nathan Fletcher has now officially haven taken positions AGAINST pension reform and managed competition and IN FAVOR of Project Labor Agreements and “card check,” i.e. forced unionization.

Turns out these positions were taken when Fletcher was trying to get the Labor Council endorsement a week or so ago. Moments after my email yesterday, “A Friend” sent me the questionnaire and I wanted you to be the first to see it for yourself.

I took the liberty of writing a memo to accompany the questionnaire to highlight exactly how severely his positions have changed in just 18 months. It’s incredible. Pathetic, really.

NO Republican or business person should be supporting this man. Ever. For anything.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

And yes, you may absolutely forward this email and link to others.

Have a great weekend. I will continue… Read More

UPDATE – November 5, 2013 – Horizon Planet has now filed a lawsuit against the City of Tracy challenging the approval of the Cordes Ranch project. See the lawsuit here: Horizon Planet v. City of Tracy.

As indicated in the September 3, 2013 meeting minutes of the Tracy City Council, Horizon Planet submitted CEQA objections to the Final Environmental Impact Report at the last minute during the Planning Commission’s consideration of the project (forcing staff to review new documents during a break in the meeting), subsequently refused to discuss concerns with city staff, and continued to insist that it didn’t have enough time to review the project. A city council member claimed that the Horizon Planet complaint was “more economic than environmental.”

Authorities have uncovered new evidence proving that… Read More

Like a few other industries, recyclers in California have found that our state laws can sometimes place law-abiding operators at a distinct competitive disadvantage. And it’s easy to see how. Simply put, a metal thief is not likely to take stolen material to a business operator that is going to take his picture and fingerprints, along with the other state mandates. He or she will undoubtedly take the material to a business which thumbs its nose at the state. Metal theft criminals know exactly which recyclers are willing to look the other way when it comes to making a profit. Hence, the uneven playing field.

But Governor Brown now has an opportunity to show California he is serious about reducing metal theft. While AB 841 was able to make it to his desk, it wasn’t with strong bi-partisan support. To the contrary, SB 485 made it to the Governor’s desk with only one no vote in the Assembly and without opposition in the Senate. The near unanimous approval of SB 485 did not come without concerns being expressed by industry leaders, particularly related to the cost of the enhanced inspections. However, the industry put their support behind SB 485, which will in fact help… Read More

By Larry Sand and Ed Ring

September 16, 2013

Although California is not a right-to-work state, public school teachers have the ability to receive a yearly rebate of $300 – $400 from the California Teachers Association.

Teachers have these options because the United States Supreme Court has held that a union can’t force a non-union member to pay for the union’s political and other activities unrelated to bargaining and representing workers.

A teacher’s ability to exercise these options is limited, however, and the necessary paperwork must be sent to CTA by November 15. (All teachers in LA Unified and those represented by the California Federation of Teachers have different rules and information is available on CaliforniaTeacherFreedom.com.)

First, if teachers are CTA members, they must leave the union. A generic resignation letter is available here. Teachers only have to opt out of CTA one… Read More

Not unlike it’s behemoth statewide counterparts, CalPERS and CalSTRS, the Orange County Public Employee Retirement System (OCERS) is facing an unfunded pension liability that is epic in size (for Orange County it’s approaching $6 billion, for the statewide groups its exponentially larger). In fact a study out of Stanford University pegs the aggregate unfunded liability statewide at just shy of half a trillion dollars. To illustrate the difficulty of trying to bring down these numbers, you need look no further than the very modest so-called Public Employees Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) which contained limited reforms championed in the 2012 legislative session by Governor Brown and legislative Democrats. For all of the hoopla and declarations of “meaningful pension reform” that new law addressed significantly less than… Read More