Monthly Archives: September, 2009
Learning green skills on the path to middle-class careers
New CPI study finds construction training programs key to economic recovery
CPI released a report today linking quality apprenticeship programs in the building trades to the future of California’s green economy and economic recovery.
The report, Construction Apprenticeship Programs: Career Training for California’s Recovery, demonstrates that apprenticeship training is most effective when run collaboratively by labor and management.
Fire in the hole
As large-scale fires become a regular phenomenon in San Diego, we need to test the strength of the umbrella of public institutions providing local fire-fighting resources. Over the past three decades, this protection has been damaged in multiple ways.
First, Proposition 13 halved the collections of property taxes, which most fire districts relied on. No longer able to float general obligation bonds to pay for needed fire facilities, fire agencies had to backfill by cutting service levels. Proposition 13 imposed an insurmountable two-thirds voter requirement for approval of taxes that specifically funded firefighting. This is remarkable since Proposition 13 itself did not meet the two-thirds threshold.
