Posts Tagged ‘Wayne Lusvardi’No Prop. 13 tax dodge by Dell if Miramar Hotel had net leaseMonday, May 20th, 2013 May 20, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi The last thing billionaire Michael Dell would have done if he wanted to avoid paying property taxes on his purchase of the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica in 2005 was to buy a share of the operating company instead of the real estate. But that is not how the Los... Boxer’s Delta levee bill is real estate pork barrelFriday, May 17th, 2013 May 17, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi “I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry,” go the famous lyrics to singer Don McClean’s 1971 hit song, “American Pie.” The California Dream of home ownership and speculative riches in land development died in 2008 in Natomas, the last u... Electricity rate shock more likely than blackouts this summerWednesday, May 15th, 2013 May 15, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi There have been many forecasts of possible rolling blackouts in California this summer due to a shortage of power from the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and the instability of a green power grid due to hourly weather fluctuations. But the most... Are school parcel taxes social status symbols?Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 May 7, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Question: Are working-class communities smarter than wealthier school districts by not putting increased school parcel taxes on local election ballots? This is not the conclusion suggested in a new study released May 2013 by EdSource, a non-profit education re... Feinstein, Boxer stymie water, power & wildlife for Lake McClureSaturday, May 4th, 2013 May 4, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi New York Times journalist Peter Passell once wrote: “California’s water system might have been invented by a Soviet bureaucrat on an LSD trip.” And as the 1960s hippies would have put it, the trip would have been a bummer. San Joaquin Valley farmers must ... Legitimacy, not consensus, is key to Delta modernizationFriday, May 3rd, 2013May 3, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Do we care whether there is a consensus about what to do with the so-called natural resources of the Sacramento Delta among scientists and interest group “stakeholders” in California? The Public Policy Institute of California thinks so with a new study funde... Could Obama also privatize the Central Valley Water Project?Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 May 1, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Almost out of nowhere, the Obama Administration has opened up discussions for possibly privatizing the model asset of the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority, to bring in revenues to the federal government and reduce the long-term national debt. Part of Pre... CA Delta water war being won by legitimacy, not moneyTuesday, April 30th, 2013April 30, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi The most memorable proverb about California water is: “Water runs uphill towards money.” But water doesn’t flow uphill towards money only. If it did, Southern California -- which has two-thirds of the state population -- would have unilaterally won ... Flawed study tries to link smog with childhood cancerFriday, April 26th, 2013April 26, 2013 By Wayne Lusvardi Anyone who remembers the choking smog of 1960s Los Angeles knows of the great advances since then in cleaning the air. But as Nobel economist Milton Friedman once quipped, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." To keep "temporary"... |