Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“The California Legislature today passed the central piece of a budget plan pushed by Democrats to close a $9.6 billion deficit budget,” the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting.

“The Senate voted 23-15 to pass the plan and the Assembly approved it on a 51-26 party line vote.

“Today is the constitutional deadline for the Legislature to pass a balanced budget, and it is rare for lawmakers to actually meet the deadline.

“The Democrats’ plan is an alternative to the budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who was unable to win the two-thirds majority support needed for approval. Brown’s plan needed a two-thirds majority – votes from at least four GOP lawmakers – because it included plans to raise taxes.

“The new plan can be passed by a majority vote, as authorized by last November’s Prop. 25, and would require no GOP support. It does not include taxes but instead delays some payments to schools, makes further spending cuts and raises certain fees.”

The rest of the article is here.

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It doesn’t seem that our Congressman and Grass Valley City Hall officials — including the Council itself — or the county Contractors Association and others, for that matter, are on the same page when it comes to redevelopment agencies. No wonder we struggle with an economic development plan for our community. “After you, My Dear Alphonse.”:

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Last week I reported that San Jose Mercury news articles are now tied to Facebook for comments, stirring a debate.

Now online-only newspapers — and even ones with print and online components — are dropping their websites for Facebook.

Many of the newspapers are doing it to cut costs, because it’s cheaper than running a stand-alone site. But it’s a double-edged sword: While you get more readers, you can’t sell ads and lack control. Some background is below:

“A little over 100 days ago, a community news blog in Rockville, Md., took a big leap. Founder and Publisher Brad Rourke and Editor Cindy Cotte Griffiths moved the entire operation of Rockville Central to a Facebook page,” according to Poynter.org.

“‘Facebook is where people, by and large, have decided to go for their first-stop online community activities,” Rourke wrote in the announcement post. ‘Which begs the question: Why have a separate site, and try to drag people away from Facebook? Why not go where they are?’

“Most news organizations would never consider following the Facebook-only path of Rockville Central (though a few small ones have). They can’t sell ads on Facebook, and the lack of control and independence would be a deal-breaker. But even so, they can learn from what Rockville Central is doing.”

Another article about news organizations that have opted for Facebook is here:

“Other newspapers that have adopted this practice include Texas’ Castro County News, the Cavalier County Republican in North Dakota, the Booneville Sentinel in Kentucky, the Republican Valley Review in Nebraska, the Briscoe County News in Texas and the Bryant Dakotan in South Dakota. In March, online-only newspaper the Rockville Central became a Facebook-only paper when it moved its entire operation to the social media platform,” it states.

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“With no bipartisan deal in sight, legislative Democrats are poised to approve a majority-vote budget today that cuts deeper into universities, raises car registration fees and extends a quarter-cent sales tax,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“According to an Assembly budget aide authorized to brief the press, the spending plan closes a remaining $9.6 billion deficit through accounting maneuvers, cuts, additional fees, delayed payments and a revamped plan to sell state properties. Several solutions could face legal challenges that threaten their viability.

“Midnight tonight marks the state’s rarely met constitutional deadline for the Legislature to send the governor a budget. This year’s deadline comes with real consequences for lawmakers: They must forfeit their pay starting Thursday if they have not yet sent the governor a budget. Voters passed the new rule last year as part of a measure allowing a majority of lawmakers, rather than two-thirds, to approve the budget.”

The rest of the article is here.

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A report in the L.A. times confirms what we keep saying here: A housing shift is underway that means fewer homeowners and more renters across California.

As a result, the areas that were hit hardest by the housing bust — including the Central Valley — won’t get a construction boom to pull them out of the economic doldrums.

In our area, who’s going to buy all the new homes out at Loma Rica Ranch if the project goes forward — not to mention the ones that are vacant or in foreclosure. It’s going to take years to sell off that inventory.

We’ve been having an economic development discussion on Sierra Foothills Report about the need to diversify our local economy beyond construction and real estate. I’m not sure it’s sinking in yet, however.

Isn’t it time we “git-r-done”?

The L.A. Times housing report — front page news — is here:

“UCLA forecasters have seen the future of California’s housing market, and it looks like this: more apartments near the coast, fewer McMansions in the desert.

“That prediction is based on several factors, including expectations that rising fuel prices will encourage people to live closer to jobs along the Southland coast and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The state’s population is also skewing younger, meaning there will be more demand for urban rental units and less demand for suburban cul-de-sacs, according to the quarterly economic forecast released Wednesday by UCLA’s Anderson School of Business.

“‘The incremental demand for housing is moving more into multifamily housing,’ said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the forecast. “Many of the younger generation have been buffeted by the boom and bust in the housing market, and see value in living closer to work.

“That’s bad news for the state economy, however, for two reasons. One is that construction of multifamily homes requires less labor than construction of single-family homes. Second, areas such as the Inland Empire and Central Valley that were hit hardest by the housing bust won’t get a construction boom to help pull them out of the economic doldrums.”

The rest of the article is here.

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