California politics update

The anti-smoking state

It's heartening to hear that the results of a state survey, released in December, show that adults in California are less likely to smoke than adults almost anywhere else in the nation. About 13% of Californians smoke, compared with 21% across the country. (Only Utah's smoking rate is lower.)

This didn't happen by accident. California has led the nation in the kinds of policy shifts that discourage smoking and protect nonsmoking passersby. Smoking is prohibited in public buildings, most workplaces and at many parks and beaches. Adults can't smoke in cars when children are present.

It's time to retire utilities' 'bulletproof' pension system

Edison is seeking a 7.5% rate increase for 2012. In a recent notice to customers, the company cited the usual reasons for higher bills — improvements to the power grid, technical upgrades, things like that.

But it also said a rate hike is needed "to make a substantial contribution to the employee and retiree pension fund to address the losses in financial markets over the past few years."

As I wrote: Since when is it the responsibility of ratepayers to cover a utility's bad investments? Nobody's stepping in to bolster the 401(k) accounts of all those of us without the relative security of a pension plan.

Russ Worden, Edison's director of regulatory affairs, said the company's pension fund is part of its overall compensation program. "It's what we use to attract and retain employees," he said. For that reason, Worden said, Edison is justified in asking ratepayers to pay the tab for market setbacks.

So what does the California Public Utilities Commission say?

"It's typical for utilities to have customers pick up the cost of pensions," said Mark Pocta, a program manager at the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, the commission's watchdog arm. "That's traditionally how it's been done."

Dissident L.A. teachers want more from their union

In fact, many of the teachers who attended the Jan. 8 meeting emphasized that they're not anti-union. They simply believe their union would be far more productive if it quit wasting so much time on contractual and political issues and resisting change out of hand and more time actively supporting teachers in the classroom while becoming a leading voice on reforms that benefit teachers and students.

Teachers who care "have got to keep fighting" for those changes, said Navarro, "because the kids deserve it."

The budget perils of mixing government and politics

Gov. Jerry Brown asks cities to help fix California budget

A blizzard of 747 new laws affect California residents, and the state’s attorneys