Near the end of each year I like to do a feature on new California laws that will take effect the following January. Here are some noteworthy ones that have passed the legislature, been signed by Governor Brown and will come into force in 2016.
1. Right to Die. Patients who have less than six months to live as determined by two physicians will be able to ask for life-ending drugs. Open and private meetings are required, the patient must be capable of making an informed medical decision and of self-administering the drugs.
2. Vaccinations. All school-age children must have vaccinations in order to attend public school. Additionally, day care centers and homes must maintain records to show their staff members have been vaccinated for flu, pertussis and measles. Tuberculosis screening had already been required.
3. Antibiotics in Livestock. SB 27 will curb the use of low doses of antibiotics in livestock to promote faster growth. The practice is a major contributor to the evolution of drug resistant germs
4. Voter Registration. AB 1461 will direct the Department of Motor Vehicles to automatically register everyone who is an eligible citizen to vote when they come into contact with them. The person will be able to opt out if they wish.
5. Wage Theft: The State Labor Commissioner will have expanded authority to collect unpaid wages on behalf of workers who have been cheated by their employer, thanks to the passage of SB 588.
6. Ride-Sharing: State employees will be able to use ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft and rental services like Airbnb on state business.
7. Smokeless Tobacco: AB 768 bans possession or use of smokeless tobacco on professional baseball fields. AB 216 forbids the sale of vapor products to anyone under 18, even if they contain no nicotine.
8. Franchisee Rights: AB 525 will give franchise owners greater scope to resist mandates from their corporate franchisers
9. Concealed Weapons: SB 707 prohibits concealed weapons permit holders from bringing their weapons onto school property. Retired law enforcement is exempt, and police chiefs and school districts could set their own policies on this.
10. Disclosure: Under SB 21 nonprofit organizations have to disclose the names of donors who pay for travel gifts for elected officials.
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Friday, February 21, 2014
Valley Economic Development
My last post on water issues ( "Getting Real About Water," February 9, 2014) raised the discomfiting but inescapable prospect that the realities of water supply in our San Joaquin Valley region mean that some of the farming we now do will have to be scaled back. This raises the question of economic viability. Will the reduction in agriculture, the area's biggest industry, necessarily mean economic disaster?
The answer to that is an emphatic "NO!" It might instead be just the impetus that leads to the kinds of development that could revolutionize the economy for the better. A recent piece by a UCLA economist suggests four avenues of progress that could bring solid prosperity. Jerry Nickelsburg is Adjunct Professor of Economics and Senior Economist at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. His open letter to "inland Californians" was published in the Fresno Bee. Here are his ideas for transformation.
1) Education. There are two University of California schools (Davis and Merced) and four California State University campuses (Bakersfield, Chico, Fresno, Stanislaus( in the Central Valley. With an underserved worldwide demand for education, and California already a "magnet" for students, each facility could be expanded to enrollments of 50,000. An estimated 80% of the additional 200,000 students would be out-of-staters paying full tuition. This would fund many thousands of good jobs in teaching, administration and support services, adding $20 billion to the economy. It would also create spinoffs, filling the area with researchers, entrepreneurs and cultural assets and the related climate of innovation they would foster.
2) Nickelsburg suggests a new major airport in the region, connected by the high-speed rail system throughout California. He sees this as a way to connect the cities of the Central Valley to "the people and markets of vibrant Pacific Rim cities such as Shanghai, Singapore and Guangzhou," replicating what the Interstate Highway System did for the U.S. economy in the 1960s and 70s.
3) Become a retirement mecca. The region should take advantage of and market its warm climate to "snowbound Easterners" from "weather-challenged parts of the country" now that "a record number of Boomers are preparing to retire." It would require a workforce trained in senior care, which the community colleges could supply. The university environments would could offer music, art, drama and intellectual stimulation. There would also be needed infrastructure improvements, as in hospitals. The rail upgrade would be an enticement, bringing accessible day trips to the Sierra National Parks, Pacific beaches, and the urban attractions of San Francisco and Los Angeles easily within reach. Why not lure a few million retirees this way rather than see them go to Florida?
4) Monterey shale. Nickelsburg feels the development of this resource will be too enticing to stop. And when it happens, he sees it as a potential economic boon. The fields themselves won't sustain very many jobs once the initial drilling is done. But the region should still benefit from refining and chemical industries, as well as distribution services.
Nickelsburg draws a sharp lesson from the experience of Appalachians when the coal business declined. They blamed government and environmentalists and did nothing, sliding into permanent depression. The Central Valley can do the same thing when ag begins to decline, or it can make use of the other considerable assets it has to ensure future prosperity. His thoughts deserve careful consideration.
The answer to that is an emphatic "NO!" It might instead be just the impetus that leads to the kinds of development that could revolutionize the economy for the better. A recent piece by a UCLA economist suggests four avenues of progress that could bring solid prosperity. Jerry Nickelsburg is Adjunct Professor of Economics and Senior Economist at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. His open letter to "inland Californians" was published in the Fresno Bee. Here are his ideas for transformation.
1) Education. There are two University of California schools (Davis and Merced) and four California State University campuses (Bakersfield, Chico, Fresno, Stanislaus( in the Central Valley. With an underserved worldwide demand for education, and California already a "magnet" for students, each facility could be expanded to enrollments of 50,000. An estimated 80% of the additional 200,000 students would be out-of-staters paying full tuition. This would fund many thousands of good jobs in teaching, administration and support services, adding $20 billion to the economy. It would also create spinoffs, filling the area with researchers, entrepreneurs and cultural assets and the related climate of innovation they would foster.
2) Nickelsburg suggests a new major airport in the region, connected by the high-speed rail system throughout California. He sees this as a way to connect the cities of the Central Valley to "the people and markets of vibrant Pacific Rim cities such as Shanghai, Singapore and Guangzhou," replicating what the Interstate Highway System did for the U.S. economy in the 1960s and 70s.
3) Become a retirement mecca. The region should take advantage of and market its warm climate to "snowbound Easterners" from "weather-challenged parts of the country" now that "a record number of Boomers are preparing to retire." It would require a workforce trained in senior care, which the community colleges could supply. The university environments would could offer music, art, drama and intellectual stimulation. There would also be needed infrastructure improvements, as in hospitals. The rail upgrade would be an enticement, bringing accessible day trips to the Sierra National Parks, Pacific beaches, and the urban attractions of San Francisco and Los Angeles easily within reach. Why not lure a few million retirees this way rather than see them go to Florida?
4) Monterey shale. Nickelsburg feels the development of this resource will be too enticing to stop. And when it happens, he sees it as a potential economic boon. The fields themselves won't sustain very many jobs once the initial drilling is done. But the region should still benefit from refining and chemical industries, as well as distribution services.
Nickelsburg draws a sharp lesson from the experience of Appalachians when the coal business declined. They blamed government and environmentalists and did nothing, sliding into permanent depression. The Central Valley can do the same thing when ag begins to decline, or it can make use of the other considerable assets it has to ensure future prosperity. His thoughts deserve careful consideration.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Getting Real About Water
I recently went to a most enlightening presentation by Bill Tweed, retired Chief Naturalist at Sequoia National Park, on the long-term water situation in California, especially Central California. I must say it's drastically changed my views. The bottom line is that we will not be able to keep intensively farming the entire Central Valley. Year after year, the process uses more water than nature provides. It's fundamentally unsustainable. Here is an outline of his masterful presentation based on my notes.
Bill began with 10 facts about California water:
1. Water here is variable. Precipitation varies on average from 4 inches a year in Coalinga on the west side to 9 inches in Visalia on the east, to 50 inches at Lodgepole in Sequoia at 7,000 feet. Much more falls in Northern California than Central and Southern.
2. Yearly rainfall is unreliable. From year to year it varies by a factor of 5 times.
3. The economic basis of the Central Valley region, agriculture, depends on reliable water-which is not the norm.
4. Only one-third of our needs are met by the natural flow.
5. There is insufficient water to maintain current usage.
6. The deficit is made up by importing water.
7. There is an annual overdraft of ground and imported water (as through the California Aqueduct) of 3 million acre feet a year-equal to the combined entire annual flows of the Kings and San Joaquin Rivers. The former 20-foot-deep water table is now more than 300 feet. The deeper you have to pump, the more you pay in energy. At some point, the ground water will be gone.
8. Not all current farmland is "prime." There is much marginal hard pan, alkaline and saline irrigation runoff land, for instance.
9. It's going to get harder, not easier. The warming climate will result in a reduced winter snow pack. All climate models agree that the warming climate will produce even more annual unpredictability.
10. It's going to get warmer. It's already 2 degrees warmer than the 1960's, more at higher elevations. That means more evaporation from lakes, rivers and vegetation.
Additional Considerations:
Sacramento Delta: It's a "broken system, about to fail." It's already below sea level and polar ice melt means the sea level is rising. The earthen levees that protect it are deteriorating. If we pump more water out of it or reduce the flow into it sea water intrusion will happen even faster. Saving Central Valley farmland would thus entail sacrificing Delta farmland.
Water Storage: We have already built and dammed the best sites. New storage will come at a higher marginal cost. Silting at existing sites is beginning to appreciably reduce current storage capacity.
Growing Population: California added over 3.4 million people from the 2000 census to the 2010 census. Usually, city water needs in the end win out over rural ones. Cities are where the votes are.
Desalination: It costs $1.01 per thousand gallons compared to 10 to 20 cents per thousand gallons for surface or ground water.
Fracking of the Monterey Shale: It takes a lot of water, already our scarcest resource. Do we use our water to get oil? If so, what water uses are we willing to do without?
Concluding Choices:
We need to rethink what we want for the Valley long-term.
We cannot continue to farm the whole San Joaquin Valley.
On the West Side we have created an artificial industry which is not sustainable.
We have many competing interests: Individual versus society, short term versus long term.
We cannot do everything. The resources are not there.
All current suggestions for ending the problem amount to "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
The Basic Question:
"How, in a democratic society, do we limit ourselves?" Political leaders, to stay popular, must promise all things to all people. Because we demand them to, they promise plenty of inexpensive water for all interests, urban and rural. In the long term this is not deliverable.
If I may summarize, the situation calls for realism. Do we go on the way we are until the wells run dry, devastating the region all at once? Do we quintuple the price of water, making all farming uncompetitive here? Or do we limit use according to a fair, sustainable and rationally planned program? It will be one of the three, whether intentionally or not. As the old saying goes, "Not to decide is to decide."
Bill began with 10 facts about California water:
1. Water here is variable. Precipitation varies on average from 4 inches a year in Coalinga on the west side to 9 inches in Visalia on the east, to 50 inches at Lodgepole in Sequoia at 7,000 feet. Much more falls in Northern California than Central and Southern.
2. Yearly rainfall is unreliable. From year to year it varies by a factor of 5 times.
3. The economic basis of the Central Valley region, agriculture, depends on reliable water-which is not the norm.
4. Only one-third of our needs are met by the natural flow.
5. There is insufficient water to maintain current usage.
6. The deficit is made up by importing water.
7. There is an annual overdraft of ground and imported water (as through the California Aqueduct) of 3 million acre feet a year-equal to the combined entire annual flows of the Kings and San Joaquin Rivers. The former 20-foot-deep water table is now more than 300 feet. The deeper you have to pump, the more you pay in energy. At some point, the ground water will be gone.
8. Not all current farmland is "prime." There is much marginal hard pan, alkaline and saline irrigation runoff land, for instance.
9. It's going to get harder, not easier. The warming climate will result in a reduced winter snow pack. All climate models agree that the warming climate will produce even more annual unpredictability.
10. It's going to get warmer. It's already 2 degrees warmer than the 1960's, more at higher elevations. That means more evaporation from lakes, rivers and vegetation.
Additional Considerations:
Sacramento Delta: It's a "broken system, about to fail." It's already below sea level and polar ice melt means the sea level is rising. The earthen levees that protect it are deteriorating. If we pump more water out of it or reduce the flow into it sea water intrusion will happen even faster. Saving Central Valley farmland would thus entail sacrificing Delta farmland.
Water Storage: We have already built and dammed the best sites. New storage will come at a higher marginal cost. Silting at existing sites is beginning to appreciably reduce current storage capacity.
Growing Population: California added over 3.4 million people from the 2000 census to the 2010 census. Usually, city water needs in the end win out over rural ones. Cities are where the votes are.
Desalination: It costs $1.01 per thousand gallons compared to 10 to 20 cents per thousand gallons for surface or ground water.
Fracking of the Monterey Shale: It takes a lot of water, already our scarcest resource. Do we use our water to get oil? If so, what water uses are we willing to do without?
Concluding Choices:
We need to rethink what we want for the Valley long-term.
We cannot continue to farm the whole San Joaquin Valley.
On the West Side we have created an artificial industry which is not sustainable.
We have many competing interests: Individual versus society, short term versus long term.
We cannot do everything. The resources are not there.
All current suggestions for ending the problem amount to "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
The Basic Question:
"How, in a democratic society, do we limit ourselves?" Political leaders, to stay popular, must promise all things to all people. Because we demand them to, they promise plenty of inexpensive water for all interests, urban and rural. In the long term this is not deliverable.
If I may summarize, the situation calls for realism. Do we go on the way we are until the wells run dry, devastating the region all at once? Do we quintuple the price of water, making all farming uncompetitive here? Or do we limit use according to a fair, sustainable and rationally planned program? It will be one of the three, whether intentionally or not. As the old saying goes, "Not to decide is to decide."
Sunday, January 5, 2014
New California Laws for 2014
After spending the past week visiting family and vacationing in
Southern California, I'm back home and ready to alert you California
residents to some information you can use. Here are some of the new laws
passed in the Golden State last year that took effect on January 1.
I'm listing some I feel you might likely encounter in daily life.
Pocketbook Issues
• Minimum wages go up by $1 to $9 an hour on July 1 and by another $1 on Jan. 1 2016 to $10.
• Computer software, or “bots,” used to buy blocks of tickets before regular consumers get access will be outlawed, making it more difficult for scalpers to hoard the best seats.
• Domestic workers, such as in-home aides, housekeepers and nannies, will be eligible for overtime and other benefits.
• Starting July 1, workers will be able to use the current paid family leave program to care for a seriously ill grandparent, grandchild, sibling or in-law. • Workers in outside jobs will be guaranteed recovery periods to cool down or employers can be penalized. • Businesses must act to protect workers who are victims of domestic violence and cannot fire them.
On the Road
• Low-emission and zero-emission vehicles without a passenger may continue to use car pool lanes until 2019.
• Drivers who park at broken meters cannot be ticketed.
• Teenagers under the age of 18 may not text while driving, even if using “hands free" devices that use voice-command messages.
• Owners may order a special $50 “Snoopy” license plate to raise money for museums.
• Motorists must leave three feet of space when passing bicyclists.
Education
• Districts must adopt policies allowing transgender students to use the restrooms and locker facilities of their choosing, as well as play on the sports team that matches their gender identity. (There is a referendum gathering signatures in an attempt to overturn this law.)
• Veterans who served at least one year in California and file an affidavit declaring their intention to become permanent California residents will be exempt from higher out-of-state tuition when enrolling at a California State University.
• Schools may discipline students who use social media to harass others — called “cyberbullying” — even if it occurs off-campus.
Immigrant Rights
• Unauthorized immigrants will be eligible for a driver’s license by the end of the year or sooner, once DMV adopts the regulations.
• Local authorities can no longer turn unauthorized immigrants over to federal authorities for deportation if they are suspected of only minor crimes.
• Employers could be fined up to $10,000 and lose their business license if they report or threaten to report the nonlegal status of a worker who files a complaint over unsafe conditions or sexual harassment.
• Those without proof of legal status may practice law, under certain conditions.
• Non citizens may work at polling places if they are permanent legal residents.
Guns
• The Department of Justice will start keeping records of long-gun purchases. Previously those documents were destroyed within five days.
• Conversion kits can no longer be sold if they allow a gun to shoot more than 10 rounds.
• Purchasers of long guns will have to pass a written safety like the one now required for handguns.
• People found guilty of making violent threats will have to wait five years to own a firearm.
• Gun owners who do not keep their weapons securely stored can face criminal penalties if the gun is used in a shooting involving a child.
• Hunters cannot use lead ammunition. This goes into effect no later than July 1, 2019, but likely much earlier, as soon as Fish and Wildlife writes the regulations.
Pocketbook Issues
• Minimum wages go up by $1 to $9 an hour on July 1 and by another $1 on Jan. 1 2016 to $10.
• Computer software, or “bots,” used to buy blocks of tickets before regular consumers get access will be outlawed, making it more difficult for scalpers to hoard the best seats.
• Domestic workers, such as in-home aides, housekeepers and nannies, will be eligible for overtime and other benefits.
• Starting July 1, workers will be able to use the current paid family leave program to care for a seriously ill grandparent, grandchild, sibling or in-law. • Workers in outside jobs will be guaranteed recovery periods to cool down or employers can be penalized. • Businesses must act to protect workers who are victims of domestic violence and cannot fire them.
On the Road
• Low-emission and zero-emission vehicles without a passenger may continue to use car pool lanes until 2019.
• Drivers who park at broken meters cannot be ticketed.
• Teenagers under the age of 18 may not text while driving, even if using “hands free" devices that use voice-command messages.
• Owners may order a special $50 “Snoopy” license plate to raise money for museums.
• Motorists must leave three feet of space when passing bicyclists.
Education
• Districts must adopt policies allowing transgender students to use the restrooms and locker facilities of their choosing, as well as play on the sports team that matches their gender identity. (There is a referendum gathering signatures in an attempt to overturn this law.)
• Veterans who served at least one year in California and file an affidavit declaring their intention to become permanent California residents will be exempt from higher out-of-state tuition when enrolling at a California State University.
• Schools may discipline students who use social media to harass others — called “cyberbullying” — even if it occurs off-campus.
Immigrant Rights
• Unauthorized immigrants will be eligible for a driver’s license by the end of the year or sooner, once DMV adopts the regulations.
• Local authorities can no longer turn unauthorized immigrants over to federal authorities for deportation if they are suspected of only minor crimes.
• Employers could be fined up to $10,000 and lose their business license if they report or threaten to report the nonlegal status of a worker who files a complaint over unsafe conditions or sexual harassment.
• Those without proof of legal status may practice law, under certain conditions.
• Non citizens may work at polling places if they are permanent legal residents.
Guns
• The Department of Justice will start keeping records of long-gun purchases. Previously those documents were destroyed within five days.
• Conversion kits can no longer be sold if they allow a gun to shoot more than 10 rounds.
• Purchasers of long guns will have to pass a written safety like the one now required for handguns.
• People found guilty of making violent threats will have to wait five years to own a firearm.
• Gun owners who do not keep their weapons securely stored can face criminal penalties if the gun is used in a shooting involving a child.
• Hunters cannot use lead ammunition. This goes into effect no later than July 1, 2019, but likely much earlier, as soon as Fish and Wildlife writes the regulations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)