Valley Solutions

Bullet-train’s tax grab

Fresno Bee. High-Speed Rail says it could save $2B on Central Valley route. 
Synopsis: The CA High-Speed Rail Authority is finally discussing how it intends to finance the bullet train: Take tax money from other entities -- like the city and county of Fresno. “To stay on schedule and realize the possible savings, the agency says it will need the state government to grant it more power over land and money,” reads the story. The Legislative Analyst’s Office explains it like this: “The agency is also now pitching some new high-speed rail financing strategies … including the use of surplus dollars from CA’s General Fund and also tax dollars captured from local sales and property value increases near its stations.” Interestingly, the agency offers a chart showing how it would “save” $1 billion on the Merced-to-Bakersfield portion of the project. After telling the Merced city council that moving the proposed train station out of downtown to an empty field 4 or 5 miles south of town would “save $1 billion” in costs, the chart shows a savings of only $59 million. And that is on all the stations from Bakersfield to Merced.

Merced Sun-Star. High-Speed Rail wants to capture taxes, control development around Merced station. 
Synopsis: The CA High-Speed Rail Authority has asked that the train station planned for downtown Merced be moved south of town. While that seems inconvenient to riders, it makes perfect business sense to rail officials. They are planning to “capture” property taxes and sales tax revenues generated in the area around the new station. So, they want control of what gets built around the station and how it is valued. But if the CHSRA is taking those tax revenues, what does the city and county get? The League of CA Cities says this kind of tax-diversion scheme is flat-out unconstitutional. Merced councilmember Darin DuPont was more succinct: “I do not trust the High-Speed Rail Authority one bit.” Jerry Perezchica of Strong Towns Merced said any scheme to skim “revenue right off the top” would leave Merced “insolvent” and put even greater burdens on city residents who would have to make up the difference and pay for services extended beyond the city to its new train station.
MAD Take: The level of skepticism over CHSRA’s scheme is palpable – thanks to Strong Towns, DuPont, Mayor Matt Serratto and others. It’s enough to make you want to take the bus.

Red-light cameras turned on

Modesto Bee. Red-light cameras go live in Modesto.
Synopsis: The city of Modesto turned on the first of its 10 new red-light cameras that will spot and cite those who run red lights in busy intersections. For the first 30 days, as each camera is activated, scofflaws will receive a notice. After that, they’ll be sent a citation and bill for $485. The 10 intersections are all over the city, starting with Briggsmore at Coffee then Sylvan and Coffee. Deterrence is the point. Modesto has one of the highest injury-crash rates in the state, often due to excessive speed. “Anything we can do to slow us down, to help us recognize that there are consequences for our actions” will help, said councilmember Jeremiah Williams. “It’s not about the dollars; it’s about saving lives.”

House politics: Checking out

Wall Street Journal. Why so many lawmakers are quitting Congress. 
Synopsis: Retirements from the House of Representatives are piling up, with more than four dozen elected leaders saying they won’t be back. That includes those who are retiring and those leaving for health reasons and those who see the proverbial writing on the wall. What makes this year different is that so many are deciding so late, meaning their parties haven’t had time to recruit electable replacements. Polling says voters are furious this year and ready to turn out a record number of representatives. The story offers an interesting venn diagram of all the reasons reps are providing for their departures – from health to family-time to disagreeing with the president. One Democrat said he is leaving because he fears “political violence.” Interestingly, of the Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump six years ago, only David Valadao is seeking to remain in Congress.

SF Chronicle. Tech entrepreneur challenges Ro Khanna as billionaire tax fight heats up.
Synopsis: Santa Clara Democrat Ro Khanna has angered many of his Silicon Valley backers, and now they’ve recruited a challenger: Ethan Agarwal. Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie have been at the forefront of the Epstein investigation. But Khanna’s support for the billionaire tax has angered his tech bros.

Top Dem: Time to bow out

LA Times. Fearing GOP win, CA’s Democratic leader urges unviable party candidates to drop out. 
Synopsis: Rusty Hicks, the head of the CA Democratic Party, sent a letter to several candidates suggesting that they fold their tents. Friday is the deadline for dropping out of the primary and off the June 2 ballot. His seemingly sensible suggestion has angered some. Xavier Becerra told Equality California: “Isn’t it interesting that the candidates they are asking get out of the race are the candidates of color?” The problem is math. In an open primary, only the top two vote-getters advance to November’s general election, regardless of party. There are two viable Republicans splitting roughly 40% of the total vote, but nine Democrats splitting 60%. Democrats could be left without a candidate.

Impacts of plant’s closure

Modesto Focus. Shock waves of Del Monte plant closure: growers to lose $550 million in peaches alone. 
Synopsis: Garth Stapley writes extensively about the impact of the closure of the Del Monte fruit-processing factory in Modesto. It has left peach growers like Richard Lial without a place to sell his fruit. So Lial is no longer cultivating the crop since he has nowhere to sell it. “It’s a horrible thing,” he said. The impacts go far beyond farmers and even past the 1,800 now former employees. Sadly, it continues a trend: the Modesto region has lost 20,000 food-processing jobs in the past 25 years. And that doesn’t include affiliated occupations like trucking, maintenance, engineering, etc.

‘GoFan’ harvested kids’ data

GV Wire. To attend a prom or football game, CA students had to surrender personal data. 
Synopsis: GV Wire is the first to publish Cal Matters’ story about problems with the ticketing platform “GoFan.” It is used by 1,400 high schools to issue tickets to high school sporting events, performances and proms from San Diego to Modoc counties. To get a ticket to a game or dance, students had to provide the company with their personal data, which the parent company – PlayOn – then sold to commercial interests. That violates the CA Privacy Protection Act, and now PlayOn has been fined $1.1 million. The company also owns MaxPreps and NFHS Network, which also collects data. The state has fined several companies in the past year for similar violations – Tractor Supply, Honda and clothing maker Todd Snyder.

Good news for Tuolumne salmon

Active NorCal. State invests $10 million in salmon restoration projects across Northern CA. 
Synopsis: The CA Wildlife Conservation Board approved nearly $60 million for 27 conservation projects in 18 counties. Five of those are directly connected to the CA Salmon Strategy and involve restoring floodplains and improving in-stream habitat. Among the projects was $3.7 million to help restore sections of the Tuolumne River near La Grange, connecting the river to former floodplain habitat for chinook and steelhead.

Courthouse News. Conservation groups sue feds to save fish from CA water flows. 
Synopsis: SF Baykeeper, the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the River are suing the Bureau of Reclamation saying its pumps harm salmon, sturgeon and steelhead. “If the Trump administration continues to pump as much water as it can out of the Delta ecosystem, we may lose these native fish forever.”
MAD Take: Not sure Baykeeper et al have noticed, but over the past three years salmon populations have been rebounding across dozens of Northern California streams and rivers. At the same time, significant water has flowed south from the Delta into San Luis Reservoir and the state’s canal systems. Could it be that the moratorium on salmon fishing, combined with ongoing floodplain restoration, has had more to do with saving salmon than just regulating flows?

$8M for long-stalled units

Fresno Bee. Fresno city council OKs $8M loan for long-stalled market-rate downtown apartments.
Synopsis: The city has approved an $8 million loan to Uptown LP, a firm belonging to Lance Kashian & Co., for the construction of the Uptown Apartments at Van Ness and Stanislaus. The money comes from the city’s revolving loan fund for builders. The project will have 174 units for mixed-income residents next to Chukchansi Park. The project has been at some level of planning since 2015.

A ton of meth confiscated

Modesto Bee. Multi-agency raid tied to Modesto, Turlock, seizes 2,700 pounds of meth.
Synopsis: Over the weekend, officers from Calaveras, Stanislaus, Turlock, Modesto, the DEA and the CHP served warrants that resulted in seizure of 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,900 marijuana plants, 107 pounds of processed cannabis and 12 firearms. Homes in Modesto, Turlock and Valley Springs were targeted with one of those arrested said to be on the National Terrorist Watch List. Investigators called it “Operation Trash Panda.” The US Attorney’s office in Sacramento is reviewing the case, and the investigation is ongoing.

ICE grabs molester in Madera

Fox26. ICE agents in Madera on Friday, capture convicted child molester; removed to Mexico.
Synopsis: The Madera police department said it was notified in advance of ICE agents stopping an undocumented immigrant they said was guilty of child molesting. ICE also notified Madera PD when its operation had concluded and the man was in custody. ICE told Fox26 it arrested Carlos Valdez-Mireles, who had a conviction for molestation of a child in Mexico. He has already been returned.

Will it be golden eggs or pâté?

Cal Matters. LA and Bay Area voters will decide whether to hike already high sales taxes. 
Synopsis: Columnist Dan Walters writes about sales-tax measures on the ballot in CA’s two largest cities and the implications they have for the rest of the state. In LA, officials want another half-cent on top of the current 10% sales tax to cover healthcare spending. In four Bay Area counties, voters are being asked to approve either 0.5% or 1% to fund BART. Whatever happened to the state law limiting add-on sales taxes to 2% over the statewide base rate of 7.25%? Oh, both cities got waivers from the legislature.
MAD Take: Did you hear the story about the goose that laid golden eggs? Poor thing. He died when the owner decided he preferred pâté.

Lion dancers for good luck

Fresnoland. Lion dancers bring prosperity, good fortune during Fresno’s Chinese New Year celebration.
Synopsis: The big red lion visited businesses in the Chinatown area of downtown Fresno, accompanied by drums, cymbals tons of people taking video and photos, and firecrackers. Shopkeepers in the know hung a head of lettuce in the doorway, which the lion “ate” while strategically dropping leaves throughout the entry to the store – a symbol of more “lettuce” to come. Business owners offer the dancers and their retinue red envelopes filled with money. Those envelopes are collected at the end of the day and their contents used to fund scholarships for Chinese-American students.