As the national savings rate is at its lowest point since the Great Depression and Americans are carrying record levels of debt, “KIDS Accounts will serve as the springboard for building a culture of savings and financial literacy for all young Californians” says Anne Stuhldreher, a fellow at the New America Foundation, which sponsored SB 752. “First, it will create a platform for lifelong savings for every Californian. Second, it will provide a powerful financial education tool that families can use to teach their children the power and importance of saving.”
The state would open each account with $500, and the children’s families could then contribute throughout childhood. No withdrawals could be made until the child turns 18, when the money could be used to pay for a two- or four-year college, technical, or trade school; for a down payment on a home; or for a retirement savings account. Take it out earlier or for any other purpose, and you’d have to pay $500 back to the state.
Great Britain launch a similar Child Trust Fund program in September 2002 for each of the 700,000 children born there each year. Since then, the percentage of those who electronically deposit monthly savings in bank accounts for children has since doubled, from 20 percent to 40 percent. A similar bill to implement such a program across the United States, the ASPIRE Act, was introduced in Congress in 2005; alas, neither of the lawmakers who carried it — U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn. — are still in office.
California’s bill puts the price tag for taxpayers at $270,000,000 per year; it notes that this is less than half of 1 percent of the state’s $100 billion annual budget. But it ain’t chicken feed, either. It’s hard to say whether lawmakers — especially Republicans — will be pleased by the idea of giving taxpayer money back to taxpayers’ kids, or irate at a $270 million-per-year budget hit. And at least a few are sure to have a problem with children of illegal immigrants getting the money.
On the plus side, having the next generation of Californians learn the importance of savings would be great; perhaps some of them will grow up, be elected to public office and get the state out of the fiscal bind we’ve put them in with budget deficits, bond debt and unfunded pension liabilities.
In a development that surprised no one, the police union today declared that contract negotiations with city officials had reached an impasse. The city hasn’t responded yet, but the dispute isn’t expected to be resolved for at least a year after arbitration.
That could put a serious crimp in Police Chief Wayne Tucker’s plan to radically reorganize the department in accordance with Mayor Ron Dellums’ demand for real community policing.
Even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wraps up his trip to Washington, D.C., today, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, are on their way there.
They’ll testify Thursday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works — chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — about what California is doing to combat global warming. Perata’s office says he’ll talk about the state’s progress; how the federal government can help lead the way in ending our addiction to fossil fuels; and why reducing greenhouses gases is good for the economy.
Perata yesterday had issued a statement applauding the govenor’s signing of a memorandum of understanding with four other Western states to create the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, a joint strategy to fight global warming.
“The Governor, Assembly Speaker and I are all in agreement that reducing greenhouse gas emissions and countering climate change must continue to be top priorities for the state of California,” Perata had said. “Treaties, MOUs, market mechanisms and long-range targets are all part of the equation, as AB 32 allows. But we must also take immediate steps in our own backyard to clean up our air, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, and push renewable energy and alternative fuels.”
“I hope the governor will consider Senate Democrats’ package of greenhouse gas reduction bills with the same open-mindedness and enthusiasm he has treaties with other states and countries. The challenge of climate change is so big it requires a full range of solutions.”
But as of last week, it didn’t sound as if the governor was feeling warmly about the Democrat’s proposed bills: Press Secretary Aaron McLear issued a statement saying California’s AB 32 “serves a model that other states are looking to replicate. We cannot abandon AB 32 just seven weeks after it became law. We should work together to reduce climate change by implementing AB 32, not undermining it.”
This week, we have fun little parody — a mashup of movie clips to create a trailer for our governor’s starring role as Hamlet. It’s a bit long, but satisfying nonetheless:
As Polonius said, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Words for any politician to live by, eh?
Yesterday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office and the office of Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, chairwoman of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, had issued press releases saying he and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle would hold a news conference at 6:15 p.m. EST today in the U.S. Capitol’s Hall of Columns right after their closed meeting on the funding priorities for California.
Then, early this morning, the governor’s office announced he wouldn’t make it to the news conference.
Then, just a few minutes ago, the governor’s office announced he’d be at the news conference after all.
Why the confusion?
“We were able to move his flight back a few minutes so we could participate,” said press secretary Aaron McLear.
“I am hopeful that today’s meeting represents the start of a successful partnership with the Governor and within California’s Congressional Delegation to work together on funding issues that benefit our state.
“In the meeting, Governor Schwarzenegger encouraged Members to work in a bipartisan manner in order to ensure that California gets its fair share of federal funds for current programs and is able to move forward on issues like the state’s innovative health care proposal. I also commend the Governor for his proactive comments on achieving an immigration program that works for our state.
“Rep. McNerney, whose professional background is as an alternative energy scientist, offered an insightful question for the Governor on his climate change proposal. It is apparent that the Governor is committed to effective action in this arena.
“When all Members of the largest Congressional Delegation in Congress work together, we are a strong, solid voice for California’s interests. This is just the beginning. I hope that we will see progress in the way our full Congressional Delegation works with each other and with the Governor for the benefit of all Californians.”
San Francisco-based Barnes Mosher Whitehurst Lauter and Partners — one of California’s foremost political consulting and lobbying firms — will spin off a separate, new company to deal only with managing ballot measure, Democratic candidate and independent expenditure campaigns. BMWL will continue focusing on lobbying, public affairs and issues management, while founding partner John Whitehurst launches the new firm, Whitehurst Campaigns.
“The partners have spent more than a year discussing the most effective way to organize the firm for the future to best serve the needs of our clients and also grow our business,” BMWL principal Sam Lauter said in a news release. “Creating a separate firm with largely separate disciplines will really allow us to do those two things.”
This is sort of a back-to-basics move for Whitehurst, who’d founded a firm called Whitehurst Campaigns in 1990 before forming BMWL in 2000. He got his start back in 1983 working on U.S. Sen. Gary Hart’s first presidential campaign in Iowa, Pennsylvania and California. After that, he became executive director of the Democratic Foundation of Orange County, managing fundraising and voter registration drives. Then he went to work for Clinton Reilly Campaigns in San Francisco, gaining experience in overall management, advertising and other areas for statewide campaigns.
In all, Whitehurst has run more than 100 campaigns and racked up an impressive record of wins; he’s particularly into public finance issues such as bond and tax measures for schools, transportation and hospitals. Among politicians he has helped elect are state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland; former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown; former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown; and Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
The Congressional Management Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan consulting and research outfit Washington, D.C., has singled out a few Bay Area lawmakers for having some of the best Web sites in Congress.
The 2006 Gold Mouse Report: Recognizing the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill evaluated the sites of 538 Senate and House Members, 64 committees, and 13 legislative leaders. Only 85 Web sites were singled out for recognition — 18 won Gold, 27 won Silver and 40 won Bronze Mouse Awards. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, earned Gold; Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, earned Silver; and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, earned Bronze.
Not winning any awards: U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who famously likened the Internet to “a series of tubes.”
The report and awards are part of the foundation’s broader research project, “Connecting to Congress,” funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. CMF partnered with researchers from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; the University of California, Riverside; and Ohio State University to study how members of Congress can use the Internet to improve communications with their constituents and to promote greater participation in the legislative process. Web sites were graded on how well they incorporate five basic building blocks that extensive research has identified as critical for effectiveness: audience, content, usability, interactivity, and innovation. Read the full report here.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association conference, visited President Bush at the White House today along with other Western governors, and delivered a letter describing his disappointment at Bush’s proposed budget cuts for California’s education, labor, Medicare and Medicaid, children’s health insurance, state and local emergency workers and incarceration of illegal immigrant criminals.
Schwarzenegger also spoke today at the National Press Club, making a plea for extending his “post-partisanship” philiosophy to the nation’s capital. In doing so, he ate some crow for 2005’s disastrous special election…
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t claim to be Gandhi. In 2005, I contributed to the polarization. I tried to push through some initiatives the wrong way — us versus them. I’m not a person to get all introspective about my failures, but I do know when something doesn’t work. Dividing people does not work.
Someone must start rebuilding trust and relationships in this town. There are very simple ways to begin. To the Democrats, I say stop running down the President, and just tell the people what you would do. To the Republicans, I say stop questioning the motives of the Democrats on the war and accept their right to believe what they want. To the president, I say get yourself a smoking tent. And to all, I would say remember that the majority of people in this country are in the center.
“An Inconvenient Truth,” the film depicting Al Gore’s crusade against global warming, won the documentary-feature Oscar yesterday. Earlier in the show, Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio shared the podium, and vamped on rumors that Gore might announce his 2008 presidential candidacy. For those who missed it, and for anyone who still thinks Gore has no sense of humor, here it is:
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, stood today with local workers who say they’ve faced retaliation from employers for trying to unionize their workplaces. An event at the Oakland Public Library’s Dimond branch highlighted the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, introduced by Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Martinez, to reform the union election process and prevent workers’ intimidation or harassment. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton; Assembly members Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, and Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley; and Oakland City Council member Jean Quan also attended.
Even as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wraps up his trip to Washington, D.C., today, state Senate President Pro Tem 
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