Pasadena Sub Rosa

B.O. TAX POLICIES STINK

CalPolNews
America

is in deep trouble.  Thanks to the tax increase policies of Barack Obama we may lose Microsoft, then the whole computer industry.  As the CEO of Microsoft says, it would be cheaper to create and produce our products in a foreign country.  "Mr. Ballmer suggests that if the tax succeeds, Microsoft may begin a significant move out of the

U.S.

, taking with it tax revenue and jobs. He states, It makes

U.S.

jobs more expensive. We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the

U.S.

as opposed to keeping them inside the

U.S.

Click on "read more" and see the complete article.  Note it was not in the Times, Post or Bee--they won't tell you negative effects of BO policies.  They adorn him too much to tell the truth--as they go under.

In reality, Obama does not want the new taxes.  He wants to destroy by using tax policies.  Environmental and union policies lost the auto and steel industry.  Government regulations giving loans to illegal aliens and those who could not pay for their mortgages killed the banks.

Now, using tax policies, Obama is hoping to make American made products too expensive to produce--killing many more private sector jobs.

Obama is a socialist.  He should be proud of his views, whether you call them by their proper name or not.

Now, Microsoft understands the goals of Obama--too bad they were deaf to his pronouncements during the presidential race, if they had, they would not have donated to him, so he could destroy them.

Shame on all of us for being deaf--government is killing jobs and the economy, as planned.

Read More...

"ENVIRONMENTAL CREEP" HAS TAKEN OVER WATER IN CALIFORNIA

Pacific Legal Foundation
There's plenty of coverage on the web of NMFS's new biological opinion on how California state and federal water projects affect several marine species. Aquafornia has compiled a wide variety of analyses, while Legal Planet's Holly Doremus has a brief summary on the biop and what people are saying about it.

The biological opinion seems to confirm the odd state of control of California's water supply. One would think that, as managers of the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation would be the arbiters of the state's water flow. But this is not so: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service together have become the de facto authority on California's water. These federal agencies have used regulatory creep to jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands throughout the California. Their weapon is the Endangered Species Act.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got it partly right when he said (via the S.F. Chronicle) that "[t]his federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth-largest economy. The piling on of one federal court decision after another in a species-by-species approach is killing our economy and undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act."

At this point, this dire situation is less about federal court decisions and more about FWS and NMFS inserting themselves into each and every aspect of California water management. Reclamation is aware of what this means. From the Sacramento Bee:

"You're going to see less reliable water as it relates to farming in the Central Valley, and it will become more difficult to find replacement water for urban growth," said Donald Glaser, the Bureau of Reclamation's regional director.

What is left unsaid is how the Bureau, DWR, and the rest of California are now subservient to the ESA wishes of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Pacific Legal Foundation
There's plenty of coverage on the web of NMFS's new biological opinion on how California state and federal water projects affect several marine species. Aquafornia has compiled a wide variety of analyses, while Legal Planet's Holly Doremus has a brief summary on the biop and what people are saying about it.

The biological opinion seems to confirm the odd state of control of California's water supply. One would think that, as managers of the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation would be the arbiters of the state's water flow. But this is not so: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service together have become the de facto authority on California's water. These federal agencies have used regulatory creep to jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands throughout the California. Their weapon is the Endangered Species Act.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got it partly right when he said (via the S.F. Chronicle) that "[t]his federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth-largest economy. The piling on of one federal court decision after another in a species-by-species approach is killing our economy and undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act."

At this point, this dire situation is less about federal court decisions and more about FWS and NMFS inserting themselves into each and every aspect of California water management. Reclamation is aware of what this means. From the Sacramento Bee:

"You're going to see less reliable water as it relates to farming in the Central Valley, and it will become more difficult to find replacement water for urban growth," said Donald Glaser, the Bureau of Reclamation's regional director.

What is left unsaid is how the Bureau, DWR, and the rest of California are now subservient to the ESA wishes of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

BROOKSIDE GOLF COURSE TO STOP 40% RECHARGE OF GROUNDWATER

From sources which I believe to be reliable comes a report that Brookside Golf Course, which surrounds the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, is going to shift 40% of its green grass area to a groundcover of natural redwood chips for water conservation purposes.  This will result in 40% less recharge of the underlying Raymond Basin on which Pasadena depends for about 40% of its total potable water supplies.

CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPER THEOLOGY PORTRAYS PROP 13 AS THE DEVIL

Chris Reed - San Diego Union

According to the newsrooms and editorial boards of the L.A. Times and the Sacramento Bee -- heck, even according to the Bee's cartoonist -- Proposition 13 is the devil. The 1978 voter initiative limiting increases in property taxes has so reduced revenue that it has hollowed out vitally needed public services and played a key role in the state's descent into utter dysfunction, blah blah blah blah.

The Times and the Bee folks aren't just saying this as yet another rhetorical salvo in their never-ending push for higher taxes, right? Surely they have hard proof on their side, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Utterly wrong. Mind-bendingly wrong. So wrong as to be downright mendacious.

Remember, Prop. 13 is not a hard cap of property taxes. Levies are adjusted to current market value when property changes hands. And that happens all the time.

According to the latest info from the Board of Equalization -- look at it here -- total property taxes collected in 2006-07 were $43.16 billion.

The oldest property tax stats I could find were for 1980-81, from caltax.org. That year, property tax revenue was $6.36 billion.

So since shortly after Prop. 13's adoption, property tax revenue increased by 579 percent. That is not a typo. It went up 579 percent.

During the same span, population went from 24 million to 38 milion -- an increase of 58 percent.

As for inflation, as of January 1981, the rough midpoint of the 1980-81 fiscal year, the Consumer Price Index -- which gauges inflation -- was 88. As of January 2007, it was 202.4. That is a 133 percent increase.

So property tax revenue has increased by more than triple the combined rate of inflation and population growth -- 579 percent versus 191 percent.

ADDED PARAGRAPH AT 9 P.M.: Commenter Robert Greer says this is the wrong way to calculate this -- that the inflation rate should be multiplied by the population growth rate, not added together. That would yield, he says, a 268 percent comparison point for combined inflation and population growth. But even by his reckoning, property tax revenue still has gone up by more than double the combined rate of inflation and population growth. END ADD.

Oh, yeah, Prop. 13 is the devil. Prop. 13 is our biggest problem -- not the state's inability to live within its means. Why? Because we say it. Who cares what the numbers show? Numbers are for nerds.

All right, let's bring in some "context" -- the favorite claim of those who dismiss plain facts is that the numbers are not being discussed in "context." According to LAO's wonderful searchable budget database, in 1980-1981, the total of all general and special fund revenue for the state of California was $22.1 billion. For 2006-07, it was $120.7 billion. Here is an Excel spreadsheet documenting this. That is an increase of 555 percent.

You follow? PROPERTY TAX REVENUE WENT UP FASTER THAN OTHER SOURCES OF REVENUE!

If this doesn't bury the Prop.13-is-the-devil lie, nothing will.

But it won't. The L.A. Times and Sac Bee are committed to this narrative, come hell or high water. The former is what taxpayers face if they get their way.

PRESIDENT OBAMA KISSES NBC'S ASS BUT WILL BE KEEPING HIS DAY JOB

Robert Pingel - Pasadena

    On Tuesday night I watched the Tonight Show starring Conan Obrien.  The preliminary amusement featured NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in an exclusive interview with President Obama.  I wondered whether they were going to show some Presidential gaffe or candid moment.  Perish the thought. 

    Five or six million fellow Americans and I got to see our President fumble his way through a few rather unfunny lines, and provide an official endorsement for NBC’s new Tonight Show host.  It barely rose to the tepid mark on the humor meter, but what a coup, nonetheless. How wonderful that the leader of the free world would take time from his busy schedule to acknowledge Conan.

    This prompts a question.  To what depths in hell have we sunk when the President of the United States feels comfortable shamelessly plugging a piece of late-night puffery?  Did we elect him to be some supreme spokesmodel?  What next, a Preparation H commercial?  Am I being too touchy? 

    Well screw that.  I don't think that "Entertainment Whore" should be one of his many titles.  Shooting hoops and making basketball predictions is one thing, but serving as a spoon fed shill for one of the most mindless, inconsequential, money grubbing vehicles on television seems like another.  Or was this just a clever hedge against any future monologue jokes that might hit too close to home? 

    I suspect that Letterman and Kimmel were offended too, but for different reasons.

    Join me in a bit of compare and contrast.  Years ago there was a rumor in the biz that a very young Drew Barrymore might be headed for a TV series.  She had recently charmed audiences all over the world as the adorable little girl in the mega-successful motion picture “ET”.  When entertainment editors pressed “her people” to admit or deny such prime time speculation, “her people” responded with a brilliant seven word reply that placed everything in perspective;

    “Ms. Barrymore does not do episodic television.”

NOTE: Rob Pingel has it all wrong. President Obama will be doing commercials for GM - Government Motors - very soon. 

UNSOLD NEW HOUSING UNITS IN DOWNTOWN PASADENA BETTER STAY THAT WAY OR CITY WILL TRIGGER WATER RATE PENALTIES

From PSN Your View

I read an article that some cities like Pico Rivera and Whittier are unaffected by the Metropolitan Water District cutbacks because they are living within their allocation as a partial result of low population growth. That got me wondering why, along with mandatory rationing, the county and other area cities have not placed a moratorium on water connections for new or increased-use projects. I recognize that limiting development is not something anyone normally wants to do during a recession. However I believe some cities like Santa Barbara have done this during previous periods of extreme droughts and perhaps now is the time to consider such measures.

With the specter of on-going water shortages due to climate change and environmental constraints that may limit obtaining additional water in the foreseeable future, Southern California's population growth may have finally reached a pivotal limitation point. If that is true, then along with rationing and efficient water usage it is equally important that the state, and in particular local governments, develop and implement plans that realistically allow but restrict future development within the projected limits of long-term water availability.

Curtis Tucker
Monrovia

3rd LARGEST INSURANCE COMPANY BUYS $400 MILLION IN GOLD

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., the third-largest U.S. life insurer by 2008 sales, has bought gold for the first time the company’s 152-year history to hedge against further asset declines.

“Gold just seems to make sense; it’s a store of value,” Chief Executive Officer Edward Zore said in an interview following his comments at a conference hosted by Standard & Poor’s in Brooklyn. “In the Depression, gold did very, very well.”

Northwestern Mutual has accumulated about $400 million in gold, and Zore said the price could double or even rise fivefold if the economy continues to weaken. Gold gained 10 percent last month, the most since November. The commodity has more than tripled since 2000, rising for eight straight years. Gold futures for August delivery slipped $4.80 to $975.50 at 4:03 p.m. in New York.

“The downside risk is limited, but the upside is large,” Zore said. “We have stocks in our portfolio that lost 95 percent.” Gold “is not going down to $90.”

Policyholder-owned Northwestern Mutual, based in Milwaukee, ranks third by 2008 life insurance premiums according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The data excludes annuities.

50% WATER RATE INCREASE WRONG? TRY 500%

The Pasadena Star News headline this morning reports a 50% water rate increase that businesses are squawking about - "Pasadena Business Say Water Rate Increase Could Raise Bills by 50%." 

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_12495697

Paul Little, President of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, is reported as saying:

"The cost of these increases is not being apportioned properly. The residents ought to pay for a larger share of this"

Mr. Little is squawking about a 50% increase in water rates for business.  Well, if the Raymond Basin is depleted due to conserving water and thus not recharging the Basin the likely water rates for shifting entirely to imported water supplies might be in the range of a 500% to 1000% increase in water rates.

This writer contacted Mr. Little and asked if we could appear at a meeting on water rates before the Chamber and testify as to the emerging problem that water conservation would likely result in drying up the Raymond Basin. Mr. Little refused to allow us to appear except to shout something from the back row.  I can only guess the Chamber of Commerce is not concerned about the possible depletion of the Raymond Basin and a 500% water increase.



 

PSN LETTER OF THE DAY - L.A. PAID FOR NORTHERN CAL WATER

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/letters/ci_12498856

Los Angeles has word redefinition, but not a water shortage. L.A. paid for more than half of the Oroville Dam and channel distribution project.

The governor refused to turn on the motors, which would be too expensive for pumping over the mountains.

San Joaquin farmers get cheap water that L.A. taxes paid for completely. San Francisco is getting L.A.'s water. A federal judge is now giving the Sacramento/Delta/Oroville water away free to the small Delta smelt fish. L.A. owns all of the water that the environmentalists arranged to have given away to a long dead Mono Lake. Dry Lake Owens is being rehabilitated with L.A.'s water at a large cost for infrastructure to the taxpayers.

The Colorado River Aqueduct Capital Facilities were largely paid for by L.A., which must now pay for the water to the Municipal Water District, which took administrative control but has a zero tax base. The sham is in the details.

Politicians make many back room deals for many reasons, including glory, votes, environmental pressure, etc. L.A. voters get just what they paid for with socialist Democrats: higher taxes, higher water rates and less of the water that they already own.

R. Baras
Rosemead

UNAFFORDABLE AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Excerpted from PSN Your View

Re the Nehamiah Court project:

Tell me why did the the Pasadena City Council go temporarily insane and approve spending $4 million to build a building for 12 people?

Whether the finding came from local, state, or federal dollars is irrelevant.

The $4 million came from taxpayers, most from some put at the end of a rainbow - granted special needs people.

Also, no doubt it will need expensive modifications.

Regardless, spending $4 million for 12 people is ridiculous on its face.

William Suter

Pasadena

Note: Apparently the cost of the project is over $5 million. See here

http://dmh.lacounty.gov/cms1_115371.pdf