CalWatchdog Morning Read – April 27

27 Apr, 2016 by CalWatchdog Staff

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Senate Republicans’ affordability agenda
Who told the truth at the Senate debate
L.A. County supes to stick Big Pharma on syringes
Assemblyman pitches taxi deregulation
Locals not surprised by SFPD texts

Good morning! Senate Republicans pitched their best policy proposals on Tuesday, which are aimed at making California more affordable. The package was largely tax incentives focused on education, savings and homeownership.

Highlighting the high cost of living in CA, Senate Republican Leader Jean Fuller of Bakersfield cited damning stats: CNBC ranked California the 5th most expensive state to live in the country in 2015, average monthly rent is 50 percent higher here than in the rest of the country, 40 percent of Californians are living at or near the poverty line and Californians have one of the highest tax burdens in the country.

And earlier this month, the American Legislative Exchange Council gave California one of the worst economic outlooks in the country.

Despite the high cost of living, Republicans face the Sisyphean task of ushering these bills through the Democratically-controlled Legislature. They also declined to be specific on how the package would be paid for, arguing it was a matter of “priorities” instead.

CalWatchdog has more.

In other news:

Who was telling the truth at Monday night’s U.S. Senate debate? The Sacramento Bee fact checked it for us. The Bee also reports that candidate Loretta Sanchez, a Democratic Congresswoman from Orange County, says she’s open to relaxing federal regulations on endangered species if it means more water for Californians.
“Next month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appears poised to require pharmaceutical companies to oversee and pay for the collection and disposal of syringes and unused prescription drugs,” an effort to mitigate the health risks posed to trash handlers and others, according to CalWatchdog.
A Democratic assemblyman is looking to deregulate the taxi industry in order to make it more competitive with ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, reports the Los Angeles Times.
While a second batch of racist and homophobic text messages sent by a San Francisco police officer seems to be at odds with “the image of a rainbow-flagged city that prides itself on diversity,” many who have had run-ins with the police are not surprised, writes SF Gate/AP.