SACRAMENTO, June 7 (UPI) -- The fate of a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research was clouded with some 1 million votes yet to be counted from California's Tuesday primary.
As of Wednesday, the measure trailed by at least 63,000 votes, although some officials said as many as 1 million ballots had yet to be tallied, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The possible defeat of Proposition 29 comes just months after opinion polls indicated broad support and coincided with an onslaught of opposition ads that were part of a $47 million opposition campaign underwritten by tobacco giants Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the Times said.
One ad in which a California doctor warned that not 1 cent from the tax would go toward cancer research has tax supporters crying foul.
"They were desperately trying to make Prop. 29 about something other than cancer and tobacco," said Chris Lehman, campaign manager for Yes on 29. "With a lot of voters, they had success in doing that."
If Prop. 29 is defeated, Californians will have rejected every tax increase proposal since 2004, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
"Californians are not anti-government," Coupal told the Times. "But they want value for their tax dollars, and they perceive correctly that they are not getting that in Sacramento."
The outcome, whatever it is, likely won't bode well for a vital part of California Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to extract the state from its financial morass -- a proposed November ballot measure that would raise the state sales tax and income levies on the wealthy.
Source: www.upi.com
Two California cities voters embrace pension cuts - Bluefield Daily Telegraph
SAN DIEGO — Voters in two major California cities overwhelmingly approved cuts to retirement benefits for city workers in what supporters said was a mandate that may lead to similar ballot initiatives in other states and cities buried under mounting pension obligations.
Public employee unions that aggressively fought the measures weren’t able to overcome the simple message supporters used to attract voters in San Diego and San Jose: Pensions for city workers are unaffordable and more generous than many private companies offer. The result is reduced public services in the form of such things as limited hours at public libraries and unfilled potholes.
“The public is frustrated,” said San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican who staked his mayoral bid on the pension measure and advanced to a November runoff in Tuesday’s election to lead the nation’s eighth-largest city.
In San Diego, two-thirds of voters favored Proposition B while the landslide was even greater in San Jose, the nation’s 10th-largest city. With all precincts counted, 70 percent were in favor of Measure B.
“The voters get it, they understand what needs to be done,” said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a Democrat who has called pension reform his highest priority.
Shrinking tax revenues during the recession are also responsible for service cuts in San Diego and San Jose, but pensions were an easy target. San Diego’s payments to the city’s retirement fund soared from $43 million in 1999 to $231.2 million this year, equal to 20 percent of the city’s general fund budget, which pays for day-to-day operations.
As the pension payments grew, San Diego’s 1.3 million residents saw roads deteriorate and libraries and recreation centers cut hours. For a while, some fire stations had to share engines and trucks. The city has cut its workforce 14 percent to 10,100 employees since Mayor Jerry Sanders took office in 2005.
San Jose’s pension payments jumped from $73 million in 2001 to $245 million this year, equal to 27 percent of its general fund budget. Voters there approved construction bonds at the beginning of the last decade, but four new libraries and a police station have never opened because the city cannot afford to operate them. The city of 960,000 cut its workforce 27 percent to 5,400 over the last 10 years.
Tuesday’s votes set the stage for potentially lengthy legal challenges by public employee unions. The measures are unusual because they address pensions for current employees, not just new hires.
Opponents say the measures deprive workers of benefits they were counting on when they got hired. Some workers decided against potentially more lucrative jobs with private companies, figuring their retirement was relatively safe.
Those arguments failed to resonate with voters.
“A lot of employees are disheartened,” said Yolanda Cruz, president of the San Jose Municipal Employees Federation, who called the outcome disappointing. “We’ve been made the full problem of what’s been going on.”
The ballot measures differ on specifics. San Diego’s imposes a six-year freeze on pay levels used to determine pension benefits unless a two-thirds majority of the City Council votes to override it. It also puts new hires, except for police officers, into 401(k)-style plans.
More than 100,000 residents signed petitions to put the San Diego measure on the ballot.
Under San Jose’s measure, current workers have to pay up to 16 percent of their salaries to keep their retirement plan or accept more modest benefits. New hires would get less generous benefits.
Reed joined an 8-3 City Council majority to put the measure on the ballot. He said after Tuesday’s vote that he expected other cities in financial binds to pursue similar measures.
“It’s novel but it’s certainly not radical,” he said. “Mayors across the country are very interested. We’re at the leading edge but we’re not alone.”
Source: bdtonline.com
Argus expands coverage of California, US renewables trading - Yahoo Finance
WASHINGTON, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has launched a series of new market assessments for renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon markets in California, the western US and elsewhere.
Argus' expanded California coverage includes California renewable energy certificates and enhancements to its coverage of California carbon allowances. Expanded California carbon coverage includes daily volume-weighted average data for December 2013 delivery. Other additions include Green-e voluntary RECs for the Western Electricity Co-ordinating Council area, plus Maryland Tier 1 and Ohio's in-state, non-solar assessments.
The new data will be published in Argus Air Daily, which already offers the most extensive renewable energy market price data, of any publisher, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, plus the national Green-e voluntary market.
The new California and additional Green-e instruments will make available key market data for power generators in California and throughout the western US. Last month, Argus began publishing carbon-adjusted marginal heat rates, spark spreads and the carbon cost per MWh of running power plants at the SP-15 power zone in southern California during peak times.
In other North American carbon markets, Argus already publishes volume-weighted average indexes for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative states, as well as price assessments for Alberta Carbon Offsets and carbon offsets issued by the Climate Action Reserve.
"The increased trading and interest in North American renewables markets has been dramatic," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. "We are happy to add these assessments and increase transparency for these growing markets."
Argus prices are used globally in indexation and are the industry reference for North American emissions market activity. In the US, Argus is the primary index for Acid Rain (SO2) allowances and is used extensively in NOx and CO2 allowance trading, term contract and derivative market transactions.
Request more information on Argus' North American emissions coverage.
Or contact:
In Washington — Michael Ball
P: +202 349 2861
E: airdaily@argusmedia.com
In Houston — Gabriela Alcocer
P: +1 713 429 6308
E: gabriela.alcocer@argusmedia.com
About Argus
Argus Media is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence, market data, consultancy and conferences on the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer and transportation industries. Argus energy and fertilizer prices are widely used by leading companies, governments and international agencies as benchmarks in supply contracts, risk management and planning.
Argus is headquartered in London and has more than 400 staff in offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Santiago, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Dubai, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Porto, Brussels, Johannesburg and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.
Visit: www.argusmedia.com
Source: finance.yahoo.com
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