California Conference Committee on Water Charged with Solving States Water Woes
With only a matter of days left in the 2009 legislative year, lawmakers have formed a Legislative Conference Committee on Water. The conference committee is charged with creating a series of reforms that help reform and shape California’s antiquated water system and lead to a reliable supply of water for the state's water users.

California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner is making the media circuit right now. He’s getting peppered with questions about his evolving positions and political ideology.

 Is it ideological change or political expediency?

 Poizner is not making the political shift from Democrat to Republican; he is merely changing hard-core moderate positions to political positions more palatable to Conservatives:

• Pro tax on rich
• Moderate social, centrist Republican
• Anti-oil drilling
• Centrist married to a Democrat
• Large Donations to democrat candidates and the DNC

 He’s always played down the large donations to Al Gore and the Gore/Lieberman campaign and perhaps it’s merely because he can. Most people do not have the financial resources Poizner has; consequently we cannot play both sides of the aisle – the way nearly all of the very rich do.

 Poizner has explained that his wife wanted to attend a $10,000 Gore fundraiser; the reason for the largest donation. Most men will not only bow to their wife’s wishes, but will escort their wives in public. Is this so unusual?

 Has Poizner been over handled? As evidenced by the McCain/Palin campaign, handlers often do not have the stomach for strong positions and always steer the candidate right into wishy washy, moderation.

 We see this behavior in nearly all political newbies.

 Poizner has become increasingly staunch on conservative positions as he becomes experienced, yet still is reticent to take firm positions on offshore oil drilling, abortion, and taxing.

 His record with Proposition 39 and “Taxpayers for Accountability and Better Schools” and the subsequent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, raised taxes on millions of Californians – an attempt to solve an educational problem, but a naïve mistake.

Poizner has changed his “No offshore drilling” position to the answer to the state’s energy, economic end employment needs. What are we to make of this huge shift? And if he is so supportive of offshore drilling, what about other energy resources such as nuclear power? He claims to support nuclear power, but what will he do about it?

 With candidate Steve Poizner, there are more questions than answers at this juncture.

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http://www.sacramentocitizen.com/index.cfm

According to the latest Federal data, there are 3,320,977 small businesses in California. It’s not enough any more to have a unique idea or recognize an unmet need to start a small business. Coming up with enough capital is always a challenge, but possible for the determined. However, in Sacramento the challenges just keep getting lobbed.

If I want to start my own small manufacturing company in Sacramento, I must first deal with a staggering the twenty-one agencies for permits, licenses and regulatory controls:

• City of Sacramento City Finance, Revenue Department
• City of Sacramento Fire Department: Fire Prevention Inspection
• City of Sacramento Planning Department Land Use Permit/Zoning Clearance
• City and County Police Department Police Regulations/Public Safety Issues
• County Assessor Business Property Statement office
• County of Sacramento Treasurer Tax Collector's Office
• County of Sacramento Environmental Health Department Hazardous Materials/Waste
• Sacramento Metropolitian Air Quality Management District
• California Department of Industrial Relations Air Tanks Permit
• California Secretary of State Corporation, Company or Partnership Filings
• California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
• California Department of Toxic Substances Control Hazardous Waste Facility (two different permits)
• Cal Environmental Protection Agency Industrial Activities Storm Water General Permit
• California Department of Industrial Relations: (OSHA)
• California Employment Development Department (EDD)
• Franchise Tax Board
• US Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Services
• Department of Industrial Relations (Workers' Compensation)
• US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)

It is not enough that a small business owner must apply to and work with each of these agencies before starting a business; surprise inspections and unannounced visits regularly occur. Any business owner can enumerate from memory, the audits and inspections they are subjected to: Annual inspections by the Fire Department and/or Fire Marshall, OSHA, safety and liability inspections by Insurance carriers, EPA and Cal-EPA toxic substances inspections, and Sacramento Air Quality Management District for emissions tests, to name just a few. There are surprise spot checks for permits and licenses by the city, county and state, even if there are current permits and licenses in place, as well as highly disruptive unannounced inspections.

One manufacturing owner shared that recently he has been subjected to increased permitting, licensing mandates, pop inspections, and required to obtain additional insurance coverage (terrorism insurance?). The Fire Marshall recently decided that the annual inspections by the Fire Department are not enough, and has conducted several surprise inspections, consequently announcing that he needs to purchase additional permits for paper storage and propane tank usage, replace existing EXIT signs with larger EXIT signs, change the open/close direction of interior doors, stop using extension cords, and the like. The redundancy of their request with Sacramento County and State licensing and permitting is of no concern as long as fees are associated; it is as if orders are coming from the top down in all city agencies to step-up permitting, fines and fees collection. This is mafia-style extortion for hapless business owners to operate in certain areas of certain counties and cities – such as Sacramento.

Another business owner told me that during a recent unannounced insurance inspection to his business, the Insurance company Risk Assessment Manager “recommended” the company move large rolls of paper away from the printing presses, and to take sales reps off the road if they have any moving violations or spotty driving records. City of Sacramento Parking Enforcement department keeps ticketing his trucks… parked on his property.

This is all in addition to all of the annual audits conducted by the IRS, the Franchise Tax Board, the bank, State sales tax audits, Worker’s Compensation insurance audits, payroll audits, and EDD audits, all totaling hundreds of hours of employee time.

The business climate in California is treacherous and unfriendly. The City of Sacramento is no better and is bullying more and more business owners with no concern whatsoever for the cumulative impact of their demands. Existing businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water in an ever-increasing regulatory nightmare, not to mention a particularly hostile economy. Given this miserable climate, who would want to start a business in California, and equally important, who wants to continue doing business in this city and state?

Katy Grimes is a long-time political activist, writer and columnist.

But now the power of the people of California to change the law by gathering signatures and placing voter initiatives on the ballot is under siege by Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Recently, Jerry Brown engaged in both legal and semantic manipulation when he summarized my Vote SAFE initiative as "prohibiting citizens from voting."

In fact, Vote SAFE protects the rights of all registered voters including military voters. Vote SAFE expressly provides that no person shall be prohibited from voting for failure to display photo ID but shall receive a provisional ballot. The photo ID and provisional ballot requirement are based on an Indiana law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court (2008). Tellingly, when Bill Lockyer was attorney general, he summarized a similar initiative as a requirement that voters display a photo ID, not as a prohibition against citizens voting.

read the rest  HERE

read the rest HERE