Another California budget windfall + Wiener endorses SF recall + Ad seeks to ‘unmask’ CJAC

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

EVEN MORE MONEY COMING TO CALIFORNIA

Gov. Gavin Newsom last month looked on the budget horizon and saw rosy days ahead. He projected another “historic budge surplus” during an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd at the Milken Institute’s 24th Global Conference.

That would follow the gangbusters $75 billion surplus accounted for in the 2021-22 budget he signed into law this year.

Newsom’s administration now can bank on a few billion dollars more from President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Democrats finally pushed through the House of Representatives late Friday.

Newsom’s office sent out a press release Saturday ticking off the funds coming to California when Biden signs the bill into law:

• $25.3 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs and $4.2 billion for bridge replacement and repairs over five years.
• $9.45 billion over five years to improve public transportation options across the state.
• $384 million over five years to support the expansion of an electric vehicle charging network in the state.
• A minimum of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state.
• $84 million over five years to protect against wildfires.
• $40 million to protect against cyber attacks.
• $3.5 billion over five years to improve water infrastructure across the state and ensure clean, safe drinking water for California communities.
• $1.5 billion for infrastructure development for airports over five years.

“President Biden understands the need to build a climate-resilient future, and the infrastructure package passed by Congress builds on California’s unprecedented investments to maintain and modernize the state,” Newsom said in a statement.

“This historic infrastructure package stands to accelerate investments in our clean transportation infrastructure, help mitigate some of the worst impacts of climate change and accelerate new projects that will create thousands of jobs,” he said.

WIENER ENDORSES SF EDUCATION BOARD RECALL

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, weighed into local politics last week when he endorsed the recall of three members of the San Francisco Board of Education — Board President Gabriela López, Board Vice President Faauuga Moliga, and Alison Collins.

“Our Board of Education is in dire need of change. Families are pulling their children from our schools, and enrollment is at its lowest level in decades. These three Board of Education members have consistently focused on politics instead of students. Last year, the Board of Education should have been singularly focused on safely reopening our schools. Instead, they voted against hiring a consultant to help with that process. The district faces dire financial challenges and needs strong and responsible leadership to right the ship. We need leadership that prioritizes and uplifts all of our students and that is fully focused on their well-being over personal political priorities,” Wiener said in a statement.

Wiener’s office alleged that the board members contributed to a significant decline in enrollment, that they prioritized and then mismanaged the renaming of several schools despite them being closed with no plan to reopen, and that they nearly drove the district superintendent to retire, with him agreeing to stay on only with a new contract that required board members to “govern in a dignified and professional manner, treating everyone with civility and respect.”

“The fact that these contractual provisions were needed speaks volumes,” Wiener’s office said in a statement.

In addition, Wiener pointed to a series of tweets Collins wrote in 2016, one of which in which she likened Asian Americans to a racist slur for Black people. That tweet has since been removed for violating Twitter’s terms of service.

“After those tweets publicly surfaced, she was stripped of her role as Vice President of the Board and removed from her position on various committees. In response, Commissioner Collins sued the already financially drained district and her fellow commissioners for $87 million. Commissioner Collins put her own needs ahead of the financial viability of the school district. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge,” Wiener’s office said.

NEW AD CAMPAIGN LOOKS TO ‘UNMASK’ CJAC

The Civil Justice Association of California has been around since 1979, billing itself as “the only statewide association dedicated solely to improving California’s civil liability system, in the legislature, the regulatory arena, and the courts.”

“Our membership base consists of businesses and associations from a broad cross-section of California industries,” the “about CJAC” page reads.

The Consumer Attorneys of California is taking aim at CJAC’s membership, in a new ad campaign titled, “Unmasking CJAC.”

“Who’s behind attacks on justice in California? Meet the Civil Justice Association of California. Big Oil, Big Tobacco and other powerful corporations who want to make it harder for us to hold them accountable in court. Don’t powerful corporations have enough power?” the 15-second spot from CAOC says.

A website set up for the new campaign points to Cal-Access documents, showing that CJAC’s political action committee is funded by companies such as Monsanto, Chevron Corporation, AT&T, and Altria.

“Californians deserve to know exactly who is behind one shadowy organization’s attempts to restrict consumers’ access to justice, and roll back historic worker protection laws,” said Nancy Drabble, CEO of CAOC, in a statement.

Specifically, the attorneys association is taking aim at CJAC’s championing of a proposed ballot initiative that would limit lawyer contingency fees to no more than 20% of the amount their clients recover.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“A red wave could be coming in 2022. What’s needed most of all is a wave of common sense and basic decency.”

- Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• California state parks director to Latinos: ‘These are their parks and they are welcome’, via Nadia Lopez

• Kamala Harris’ Senate replacement has picked his issue. How Alex Padilla is spending his time, via Gillian Brassill

• Middle- and upper-income Californians stand to save lots of money on their federal income tax next year under new congressional plans allowing them to deduct more state and local taxes, via David Lightman

• California’s labor shortage, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is the main driver of why federal agents are encountering more unauthorized immigrants attempting to illegally cross the border from Mexico to California, according to Kevin R. Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law, via Kim Bojórquez.