CalWatchdog Morning Read – August 9

• Recreational pot in trouble?
• Promised parks never built
• Bullet train project over budget
• Pension payouts
• Groups back out of housing talks 

Good morning and happy Tuesday. Today we have lots of interesting bits of news, including about how there are signs suggesting the effort to legalize recreational marijuana may not be the slam dunk that it appears to be. 

On social media, the assumption is that come November, California is going to be the latest and the biggest state to allow recreational adult marijuana use. Advocates of Proposition 64, the California Marijuana Legalization Initiative, certainly appear optimistic.

However, this optimism may be premature. Polls show younger voters, including Republicans, are strongly predisposed to support proposals such as the Nov. 8 ballot measure. But voters who haven’t made up their minds may be dismayed upon learning what’s happened in Colorado since voters there approved pot legalization in 2012.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “A decade after California voters were promised $400 million worth of parks in some of the state’s poorest neighborhoods, an Associated Press review finds fewer than half of the 126 projects that received the money have been built, as Democratic lawmakers push to add another $1 billion to the program,” writes the AP.
• “Relocation of Highway 99 in Fresno, a key part of the bullet train project, is over budget, behind schedule and will cost millions of dollars more to complete,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
• “Back in 2005, just 1,841 retirees pulled down more than $100,000 a year in pension checks from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. A decade later, membership in the so-called $100K Club had swelled by nearly 20,000 souls,” reports The Orange County Register.
• “Major labor, environmental and tenants groups have walked away from negotiations over Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to streamline approval for housing developments that include setting aside a percentage of units for low-income Californians, further imperiling the plan’s chances of passing this year,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

Assembly:

• A few hearings.

Senate:

• Hearing on deal casino compacts negotiated by the Brown administration, reports The Sacramento Bee. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced. 

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