Meet The Bee’s new politics reporters + Will inflation bill do what it says? + Suspense file
Good morning, and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
WELCOMING NEW FACES TO THE BEE
The Bee’s politics team is growing with the addition of two new enterprise reporters: Ari Plachta and Stephen Hobbs. We’ll have more news on the hiring front in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, please welcome our new reporters.
Stephen Hobbs
Good morning, my name is Stephen Hobbs and I’m a new political enterprise reporter at The Sacramento Bee. I’m originally from the Bay Area but I spent the last eight years working for newspapers in Colorado, Florida and South Carolina. I’m excited to be back in California. Please feel free to send story ideas, observations and questions to shobbs@sacbee.com.
Ari Plachta
Hi! I’m Ari Plachta, a new enterprise reporter covering California politics and policy.
What’s enterprise, you ask? I can’t say I have a perfect definition but I think enterprise is at the heart of what all journalists do, scratching far below the surface of a press release to find revealing and sometimes unexpected stories about how state government impacts our lives and the many issues we face.
I’m a product of California public schools, born and raised in the San Fernando Valley in northern Los Angeles and a graduate of both UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. I’m also a Jewish American mutt of sorts, with family roots in Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Poland, Russia and Montana. I got my start in journalism while living in Tel Aviv, working at Haaretz newspaper and freelancing for outlets like USA Today and Public Radio International.
I came home to report on the Los Angeles Unified School District and homelessness for the LA Daily News, witnessing the breadth of our state’s widening inequality. Most recently, I spent a summer covering the drought for the Los Angeles Times where I dug into the archaic water rights system and saw the toll climate change is taking on our water supply.
I’m most interested in issues related to climate and the environment, but my core goal is to demystify goings on in the state capitol and delve into how people experience major decisions coming out of it — from the most vulnerable among us to the most powerful. I really want to hear from you! Reach out if you think a story could have been done better or if you have something you think the public ought to know. I’m at aplachta@sacbee.com or @AriPlachta on Twitter.
WILL DEMS’ BIG BILL MAKE A DENT IN INFLATION?
via David Lightman
President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are touting the “Inflation Reduction Act” as their big election year triumph, a major way of getting soaring prices to come down.
But don’t look for any radical plunge in prices anytime soon. In the future, probably, but not now.
The bill passed the Senate on Sunday, and the House is expected to approve this week a Democratic-authored spending and tax package called the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
The act includes spending to promote climate change, reduce health care costs and provide consumers with incentives to make their homes more energy efficient. It also includes tax increases on some corporations.
The bill, said Biden, “will cut your cost of living and reduce inflation.” “It’s as plain as the nose on your face that this will reduce inflation,” Senate Majority Chuck Schumer, D-New York, told reporters Friday.
That could be true, said the experts, though not right away.
“It appears that this bill would have very little, if any, immediate impact on inflation. If there is to be any effect on inflation, it would be on a much longer time horizon,” said Hannah Gabriel, assistant professor of economics at California State University, Sacramento.
Other mainstream economists concurred. “We find almost zero effect in the short run,” said Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model. In the long run, he said, there could be a slight reduction in the rate of inflation.
Read more from our David Lightman’s report in The Bee today.
THE RETURN OF THE SUSPENSE FILE
The California Legislature this week will quietly kill a large chunks of bills by placing them in a shadowy place known as the “suspense file.”
Twice a year, the Senate and Assembly Appropriations committees hear large numbers of bills in one day and decide to either advance them down the legislative pipeline or hold them up for the remainder of the session.
The Los Angeles Times’ Laurel Rosenhall has written extensively about the suspense file and even produced a handy flow chart outlining the process.
As her diagram and CalMatters story show, bills that will cost the state more than $150,000 or are politically controversial can get sent to the suspense file with no public vote.
The Legislature holds suspense file hearings ahead of the final days for fiscal committees to advance bills to Assembly and Senate floors. Appropriations committees already held one suspense hearing in May, ahead of an earlier deadline.
The Senate will hold its suspense hearing today, and the Assembly will hold its hearing on Wednesday, ahead of the Friday fiscal committee deadline.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Why do I do it? I do it because I need the money. I need to see my check to pay my bills.”
- Angelica Hernandez, a longtime Los Angeles McDonald’s worker who endured challenging job conditions and is lobbying for an Assembly bill that would create a fast food council to regulate the industry, via The Sacramento Bee.
Best of the Bee:
California ‘the state everyone can’t wait to leave behind,’ Kevin Kiley tells CPAC audience, via David Lightman
- Should California set wages in fast-food restaurants? State bill would make it happen, via Mathew Miranda.
California’s COVID-19 case count tops 10 million. This is how the latest surge is trending, via Michael McGough.
Residents of California county will be asked to consider secession on November ballot, via Daniella Segura.
California family creates drinking water out of thin air. Should more households try this tech? via John Holland.