CalWatchdog Morning Read – December 9

• Poll: State higher education is too darn expensive
• Obama sides with Boxer against Feinstein in water rift
• Rural Republicans bracing for CA’s lurch left
• Party money loophole key to Democrats’ electoral success 
• Malibu property owners fined millions for denying public beach access

Good morning! TGIF. Californians are concerned over the cost of the state’s public colleges and universities, just as two of the state’s three higher-education systems are considering tuition increases.

In fact, only 13 percent of Californians say it’s not a problem, while 57 percent say it’s a big problem, according to a poll released Thursday night by the Public Policy Institute of California. 

Just below half of Californians think affordability is the biggest issue facing California’s higher-education systems, while only 15 percent think quality is the top problem. 

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “President Obama has decided to side with Sen. Barbara Boxer and California environmentalists in their battle with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Republicans over Golden State water policy,” writes CalWatchdog. 

• “Following the election, Baird, a leader of a longstanding and improbable effort by several Northern California counties to secede from California, warned fellow property owners about water-related environmental policies he feared ‘are going to heat up’ in the spring. Meanwhile, Baird was preparing to sue the state over its dearth of lawmakers representing rural, sparsely populated counties. The effort is a longshot, but the sentiment underpinning it reflects lingering discord between California’s heavily Democratic population centers and more conservative, rural areas of the state. As California marches on Trump, Republicans in the state’s interior are hunkering down.” Politico has more. 

• “Monday’s legislative swearing-in ceremonies made it official: Democrats had restored their two-thirds supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature. The achievement rested heavily on millions of special-interest dollars moving to and from political party campaign committees, state filings show, effectively avoiding candidate contribution limits and obscuring the true source of the money.” The Sacramento Bee has more. 

• “For decades, some Malibu property owners have made it hard for the public to reach public beaches. On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission fined two of those property owners more than $5.1 million for denying surfers, sand castle builders, kite flyers, sun bathers, yoga enthusiasts and other beachgoers access to the sand that is theirs by state law.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events scheduled. 

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