[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank Pecarich

Bad investments may lead California cities other than Vallejo into dire financial straits. As we see below, Ventura's problem is different from Vallejo’s -- not labor contracts -- and the handwriting is not on the wall yet regarding the final outcome of their “investment”. But it is a wake up call to us and potentially other cities about their investment policies and procedures.

A few weeks ago after saying they believed they only had a minor problem with revenue this year, the City of Ventura came out with a revised position which said the City budget was in crisis. Well, they put it a bit differently in their March 19th press release with this euphemistic title, “City of Ventura Executes Immediate Steps to Preserve Fiscal Sustainability” With all due deference to the recent popularity of the term ‘sustainability’, after reading the press release I prefer my description of the situation as a ‘crisis’. I know that if I had this much jeopardy in my household budget, I’d call it a crisis.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Even the conservative U.S. Supreme Court has sided -- for now -- with the City of San Francisco's requirement that employers chip in to provide health care. Republicans in the legislature, egged on by uber-right San Diego Union Tribune blogger Chris Reed, had said that any employer requirement was in violation of federal law. GOP Leader Mike Villines even called for hearings on it as part of their attack on the Democratic health care bill, AB 1x.
 
But the Supreme Court has derailed an attempt by San Francisco restaurant owners to stop the program in the tracks. Read the Chronicle story for details.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Attention conservative bloggers and the single-payer "all-or-nothing" crowd: another court has thrown a wrench into your argument that the Nunez/Perata/Schwarzenegger health care plan may violate fedeal law.
 
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the powerful Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals has given a green light to the City of San Francisco's health care plan. (Read the decision here.)
 
Opponents of the Assembly-passed plan had been using this case as a reason the Legislature shouldn't move forward on what would be the largest expansion of health insurance coverage in the United States. So much for that.