NC Media Watch

Prop 23 Update: Silicon Valley's smart people having doubts, VC confidence drops

Russ Steele

During the Prop 23 debate or local left tried to convince us that Silicon Valley would save the California
economy, even though AB32 would continue to put more job killing regulation in place to reduce CO2.

Now the smart people in Silicon Valley are not so sure about creating those jobs, according to an article
in the  Silicon Valley Business Journal:  Silicon Valley VC confidence drops

Silicon Valley venture capitalists confidence dropped significantly in the second quarter, according
to a report released Friday.

The survey of 35 venture investors dropped to 3.66 on a five-point scale, down from 3.91
in the first quarter. A reading of five represents high confidence and 1 is low confidence.

It is 30th quarter that Mark V. Cannice, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University
of San Francisco (USF) School of Management,has done the survey.

"While many of the participating venture capitalists continued to be confident in the future prospects
of the high-growth entrepreneurial environment, an increasing number found reason for caution due
to worrisome macro economic trends, seemingly inflated valuations, uneven capital availability,
and regulatory constraints in the life science arena," Cannice wrote in his report.

You can read the rest of the report here.  Now what?

Obama using Atlas Shrugged as manual for Obamacare waivers

Russ Steele

I spotted this on Glenn Reynolds Instapudit blog

Dan Mithchell: Corrupt Obamacare Waiver Process Is Like a Scene from Atlas Shrugged, The novel that was meant as a cautionary tale, but that has been adopted as a manual.

ooo

Then I realized that there was plagiarism, but the politicians in Washington were the guilty parties. As can be seen in this passage from Atlas Shrugged, the Obama Administration is copying from what Ayn Rand wrote – as dystopian parody – in the 1950s.

Nobody professed to understand the question of the frozen railroad bonds, perhaps, because everybody understood it too well. At first, there had been signs of a panic among the bondholders and of a dangerous indignation among the public. Then, Wesley Mouch had issued another directive, which ruled that people could get their bonds “defrozen” upon a plea of “essential need”: the government would purchase the bonds, if it found proof of the need satisfactory. there were three questions that no one answered or asked: “What constituted proof?” “What constituted need?” “Essential-to whom?” …One was not supposed to speak about the men who, having been refused, sold their bonds for one-third of the value to other men who possessed needs which, miraculously, made thirty-three frozen cents melt into a whole dollar, or about a new profession practiced by bright young boys just out of college, who called themselves “defreezers” and offered their services “to help you draft your application in the proper modern terms.” The boys had friends in Washington.

This isn’t the first time the Obama Administration has inadvertently brought Atlas Shrugged to life. The Administration’s top lawyer already semi-endorsed “going Galt” when he said people could choose to earn less money to avoid certain Obamacare impositions.

While I am on the subject of Atlas Shrugged, I recently discovered The Rio Norte Line blog. Enjoy!

Potentially bad news for NC Transportation Commission, or maybe an opportunity

Russ Steele

In 2004 western Nevada County was designated as an ozone non-attainment area under the Federal 8-hours standard. In receiving that designation it was recognized that the air quality in western  Nevada County was severely impacted by transport of ozone from the Sacramento and Bay Area.  About 90% of the County Ozone was estimated to be transported from outside sources.

Now the EPA has decided to prohibit Nevada County from using ozone reductions from upwind areas in demonstrating progress toward reaching the adopted 8 hour ozone standard. This would mean that Nevada County must demonstrate progress toward achieving the attainment standards based entirely upon reductions from within the non-attainment area.

With 90 percent of all ozone coming from outside Nevada County, there is no way to meet the standard, even if we parked every car in the County and shut down all ozone generating ozone industries in the County. The 8 hour threshold is often broken between 8 PM and 10 PM. Most Nevada County commuting is over and the cars are in the garage for the night. 

CARB has sent a letter to the EPA requesting that they make provisions for case-by-case evaluations. Gretchen Bennitt, Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District Executive Manager has arranged a meeting with the CARB Staff on 11 May 2011 to gain additional information about the EPA Proposal. Supervisors Scofield and Owens have been invited to attend the meeting, as air quality issues have the potential to significantly impact transportation projects and funding in the County.

Good for WalMart, then it must be good for the government also.

Russ Steele

The Sac Bee Capital Alert has the story:

The bill, Senate Bill 469 by Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, would require proposed "superstore" projects to undergo an "economic impact report" before approval by local governments. It's the latest in a long-string of anti-big box bills; predecessors were vetoed by former Govs. Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I am all for economic impact reports, especially if they are done by a trustworthy third party.  I think that economic impact reports should be required on all government business regulations, large and small business.

I would like to know, and all voters to know, how many jobs a regulation killed in the private sector and how many it created in the public sector to enforce the specific regulation.

For example, how many jobs did AB32 kill and how may tax payer funded government jobs were created to enforce compliance with the provisions of AB32? 

If the useful idiots in Sacramento are going to demand "economic impact report" for WalMart Stores then I think the Tea Party should demand that all future government business regulations have an "economic impact report" competed before the Governor signs the bill.  This would  help the Governor decide if he wants to sign the bill.  He will know how many jobs were saved, or killed, and a representative cost of enforcement.  It would also give the voters a chance to see how many jobs the useful idiots in Sacramento killed and it can become a rallying cry for Tea Party candidates running against the incumbent Democrat who sponsored the job killing regulation.

Exit Question: Will we ever see economic impact reports on govenment regulaions?

The Unintended Consequences of feel good decisions

Russ Steele

I hate low-flow flush toilets!  Ellen and I have a travel trailer and visit campground across the nation. Although we have a bathroom on board, it is some times more convenient to use the public campground facility.  Cuts down on the number times we have to use the dump station. Many of the RV parks have upgraded their facilities with low-flow flush toilets and more often than you would expect they are plugged, close to over flowing.  In my experience, your have to flush a low-flow flush toilet multiple times to get the waste product to disappear down the drain.  This seem to be contrary to the intended purpose of saving water.

Now we learn of another unintended consequences of those low flush toilets from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.  

San Francisco‘s big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite – better known as bleach – to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city’s treated water before it’s dumped into the bay.

I wonder of anyone ever thought about the unintended consequences of less water in the sewer system before mandating low-flush toilets?  If one of our standard flush toilets break, I am going the junk yard and find replacement. No low-flow toilets for our house! We do not need any unintended consequences.

Prop 23 Update: Last year 400,000 small businesses closed in CA due to regulations

Russ Steele

Katy Grimes writes at Fox and Hounds: Cuts Ahead For State’s Many Regulations

According to Loren Kaye, a Little Hoover Commissioner, California has failed to use set practices of rule making when developing regulations. Because there are no standard of protocols, agencies are developing their own regulatory standards, with no economic analysis used in the process to determine cost effectiveness.

John Kabateck, the National Federation of Independent Business Executive Director, said that 97 percent of all employers in the state are small business owners. And last year, according to Kabateck, 400,000 small businesses closed down in the state, not just due to the tough economy, but because of strangling regulations.

Kabateck said that it costs small businesses more than $48.00 per hour to pay for California regulations, and most businesses don’t even know when additional regulations have been imposed until an inspector shows up at the business, or they receive a violation notice in the mail.
“There is a need for establishing the costs of regulations,” said Bob Raymer, of the California Building Industry Association, “and whether proposed regulations will have an impact on business.”

Raymer said that regulations used to pay for themselves, and California needs to get back to that practice. Currently, instead of acknowledging that businesses are faltering under the weight of regulations, state government continues to impose more and more regulations.

According to Raymer, AB 32 and the push to limit greenhouse gas emissions is one law that is hurting businesses in the state. “The California Energy Commission is currently seeking to economically qualify more GHG regulations on a per house basis.”

Lets hope that we can put AB32 behind us and eliminate more job killing regulation. I highlighted the text above, as I have writen about his many times. In the 1990s where was a major push by CABPRO, the NC Contractors Association and the GV/NC Chamber of Commerce to establish a process for establishing the cost of County regulations. The very liberal Gange of Four would have none of it. The last thing they wanted the public to know was how much the new zoning regulations were going to cost citizens. Now we are paying the price for many of those zoning changes.