CalWatchdog Morning Read – September 16

16 Sep, 2016 by CalWatchdog Staff

City College of SF ballot measure shows financial woes not gone yet
State proposes more water for fish, less for farms, cities
If pot is legalized, where would all that tax revenue go?
How will the expanded farmworker overtime law affect the industry?
FPPC slaps $55,000 fine on Commerce official who spent campaign funds on kitchen remodel

Good morning. TGIF. We’ve heard plenty recently about statewide ballot measures, but there’s a seemingly endless amount of local measures.

In fact, the City College of San Francisco is hoping to double down on a measure passed just a few years ago. In 2012, CCSF persuaded voters to adopt a $79 parcel tax to stave off bankruptcy.

Now the school — the largest based on enrollment in the California Community College system — is once again coming to voters for help, seeking to increase the annual parcel tax to $99 and move back its sunset from 2021 to 2032.

Measure B requires two-thirds’ voter support. If adopted, it would provide $19 million a year, up from the present $15 million.

The selling points for the measure build off the idea that the community college has turned the corner from its recent problems with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which has voiced concerns since 2011 that the college has few internal financial controls, has spent money in unfocused ways and has provided inadequate student services.

But Measure B critics offer evidence that undercuts the assertion that the college’s biggest problems are mostly behind it.

CalWatchdog has more.

In other news:

“In a move that foreshadows sweeping statewide reductions in the amount of river water available for human needs, California regulators on Thursday proposed a stark set of cutbacks to cities and farms that receive water from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. To protect endangered fish at critical parts of their life cycle, regulators proposed leaving hundreds of thousands of additional acre-feet of water in the San Joaquin River system.” The Sacramento Bee has more.
“If marijuana is legalized, where would $1 billion in pot money go?” The Orange County Register has the answer.
The Los Angeles Times has a decent deep dive into the debate over the impacts of the new law giving additional overtime pay for farmworkers. One report estimates that in “the worst-case scenarios … farmworker wages could fall by about $1.5 billion, jobs could decrease by 35,000 to 78,000 and agricultural production could see an almost $8 billion drop in a one-year period, assuming full implementation of the new law. In its best-case scenario, which assumes all farm operations are profitable and competitive enough to absorb the overtime costs, wage earnings could increase by about $2,200 per worker.”
“The Fair Political Practices Commission approved a $55,000 settlement deal Thursday with Tina Baca Del Rio, a Commerce councilwoman who failed to file numerous financial disclosure forms with the state and used her campaign fund to cover expenses for her kitchen remodel,” reports The Sacramento Bee.

Legislature: