This story was reported for San Diego News Network on January 5, 2010.
Angry students, angry commentators, companies leaving California, a request for federal funds and delays on using federal funds – here’s the first California Budget Crisis Diaries entry for 2010.
Ongoing student protests: Halfway into the 2009-2010 school year, students are still displeased with budget cuts made to California’s weakening education system.
On Monday, San Diego City College students spent a day at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s San Diego office with three “demands” of the state government. They’ve asked for changes in the approval of bills process and the tax system.
Meanwhile, a couple hours north of San Diego, roughly 100 UC Irvine students protested in front of its campus Administration Building.
According to the Orange County Register, the protesters were a diverse bunch, each with their own concerns.
“The crowd of students, alumnae, and union protesters chanted, marched, waved signs and hosted speakers in the center of UCI’s Ring Road. The event was organized by a diverse coalition of student and labor groups, and although they met to protest the new fees, each group emphasized their own pet cause.
While most demonstrators focused on the new costs, some students held signs and wore T-shirts advocating the unionization of a subcontracted group of campus custodians, others demanded an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some even proposed a free Palestine.”
Despite the number of disgruntled students and rallies – one person is telling them to chill out. Lisa Carter, writing for the Los Angeles Examiner, offers her thoughts.
Buh-bye California: Businesses are slowly leaving the Golden State and the most recent one that’s transferring is Northrop Grumman Corp.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the aerospace company is moving its Los Angeles headquarters to Washington D.C. but will “still have more than 20,000 employees” in California.
But Northrop isn’t the only company that’s departing from the West Coast, reports the Journal.
“Still, Northrop’s move underscores a broader struggle for Los Angeles: It is the nation’s second-largest city with 13 million people in its metropolitan area, but has suffered a growing exodus of corporations. In addition to defense and aerospace industries, there has been a steady erosion of its other iconic trade, the movie business, as states lure away film productions with rich tax incentives.
Other corporations based in Los Angeles have pulled up stakes recently. Hilton Hotels Corp. left Beverly Hills, Calif., last year for Washington, D.C. The area’s once-prominent mortgage-finance industry imploded during the housing bust, with companies such as Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide Financial Corp. sold to Bank of America Corp.”
Although it’s noted that the effects of major companies leaving California is still unknown, an economist tells the Journal, “This is symptomatic of a lot of what we think of as the demise of California as a great state.”
Oh, hello Mr. President: State legislators are going to turn up the heat on their federal counterparts and request a little assistance.
According to The San Francisco Gate, Schwarzenegger and other leaders are paying D.C. some visits.
“Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he plans to head to the nation’s capital ‘early and often’ seeking federal assistance. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has put the federal government on notice that he wants billions he says the state is owed. And outgoing Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), said she would head east as soon as this month.”
But the state government is asking for more than just some monetary aid.
“It is not just cash that California wants. Schwarzenegger is calling for permanent changes to the formula that determines the amount of money the federal government contributes to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, noting that the state is among the lowest in the country in reimbursement rates. He also wants money for the costs of providing special education in schools and incarcerating illegal immigrants, both unfunded federal mandates.”
Thanks for the stimulus, but hang on: Dozens of construction projects funded with federal stimulus monies are being delayed in California because the office that oversees historic preservation is overwhelmed with applications, the state’s stimulus watchdog said Monday.
In a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger, Inspector General Laura Chick asked that more staff be made available to accelerate the review process. She wrote that the backlog will grow because the bulk of stimulus money for public works projects is just beginning to flow to states.
“This is trying to get the problem from getting worse,” Chick said in an interview.
At stake are desperately needed jobs for Californians that would be created through new construction and retrofits, she wrote in her letter.
The state Office of Historic Preservation, an entity of the National Park Service that is an administrative unit of the state Department of Parks and Recreation, is just one of many agencies that must sign off on construction projects before they can begin.
For example, if an alternative energy company is proposing a solar project, the office must make sure the land does not include Native-American artifacts. Similarly, modifying a building that is a registered historic landmark cannot undermine its architecturally-significant features.
Chick said many of the delayed projects are small, such as installing a new heating and air conditioning unit. Others are larger infrastructure projects, from a Highway 101 bypass in Mendocino County to rehabilitation of the Pasadena Civic Center, according to lists provided by the inspector general’s office.
California is expected to receive more than $50 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of that, more than $12 billion is dedicated to transportation, energy, water and housing projects.
Associated Press writer Tom Verdin contributed to this report. Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.