California budget may just be a short-term fix, after all
California has a budget, but how long will it last? And what will be done about the pension time bomb? Don Facciano of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association believes the legislature will be back considering more cuts in a few months. Others think it may be a mid-year correction. Meanwhile there is the question of Read More →
In memory of Lompoc Mayor Dick DeWees
The news that Lompoc Mayor Dick DeWees had died came to me completely out of the blue. I literally picked the news out of the fax machine when Tom Pfeifer of U.S. Rep Elton Gallegly’s office sent out a message of condolence. I had no idea Dick was ill or had a medical condition that Read More →
In honor of a business news leader
We’ll take a few words to honor Ray Shaw, a journalist and entrepreneur who died suddenly this month at age 75. Beginning in the late 1980s, Shaw led Charlotte, N.C.-based American City Business Journals, the nation’s foremost owner of weekly financial news publications. As a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Shaw rose through the ranks Read More →
Perils and promise for an ugly budget deal
As this newspaper was going to press, the California budget was little more than a thumbnail sketch produced for the media and the credit markets. Nonetheless, the compromise had the required impact — headlines for the press and a dramatic decline in the interest rate on Golden State bonds. Although the heavy lifting on the Read More →
Coastal Commission needs to get a grip
Once again the California Coastal Commission has proven why the state’s balkanized power structure needs to be reordered and simplified. In the latest instance, the Coastal Commission denied a request by Santa Barbara County, the city of Goleta and a number of organizations to replenish the beach near Goleta pier. In doing so, it overrode Read More →
California slips as others catch up
As July heads past the mid-point, California still does not have a budget. This inability to get simple things accomplished underscores how far the Golden State has slipped behind its chief political rival, Texas. The July 11 edition of the Economist elaborates on the California-Texas rivalry, pointing out that among other things, Texas seems to Read More →
101 traffic upgrade goes before the public
One of the unintended consequences of the current economic meltdown may be public acceptance for widening Highway 101 through the Montecito area of Santa Barbara County. Caltrans, Santa Barbara city and county, the city of Carpineria and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments all have lined up in support of the plan to put Read More →
