Laws: January, 2003 - Number #04

The San Joaquin Valley has a teen birth rate that is double the state average, 95 births per thousand 15- to 19-year old girls in 2000, compared to 48 statewide, a result of poverty, boredom and isolation. One expert said: "If it's between having a baby and working in a packing plant, motherhood sounds pretty good to these girls." In smaller San Joaquin cities, it can be hard for girls to anonymously get contraceptives and counseling in health clinics. Tulare and Kings counties have the highest teen birthrates in California. Senator Dean Florez (D-Shafter) said the "number one commodity" of the San Joaquin Valley was babies born to teens: "We're so focused on economic development issues in the Valley, but as much money as we raise for the state, it goes out the back door when it comes to the amount of teen pregnancy." Nearly half of the children living in the Central Valley live below the federal poverty line, unemployment averages double the state rate, and in some areas the high school dropout rate is 40 percent. The California Senate's Ending Poverty in California committee held a hearing in Fresno in May 2003, and heard that only massive government intervention could head off the creation of an "Appalachia of the West." In Fresno County, 27 percent of the county's adults are on public assistance and 36 percent of county children live in families with below-poverty-level incomes. Fresno county has 15 cities, and 11 have double-digit unemployment rates. Unemployment rates have been rising, from an average annual rate of 10 to 11 percent in 1987-89 to an average annual rate of 14 percent since 2000. During the 1990s, the share of farm wage and salary workers in total employment fell from 20 to 15 percent, while government employment rose from 18 to 21 percent of Fresno MSA employment. One explanation for rising unemployment rates despite a shift of employment from seasonal agriculture to more stable government is that many service-providing employers and workers have adapted to agricultural employment patterns, that is, lay off workers when they are not needed and assume that they will be available again when needed. The 1,500-resident Malaga area of Fresno county wants to become the county's sixteenth incorporated city, but an economic study concluded that, if it incorporates, Malaga would run a chronic deficit. The Westside Economic Development Project aims to reduce chronically high unemployment in western Fresno county, which attracted residents after federal irrigation water led to farming in the 1960s. The Westside area now faces farm land retirement as water supplies are reduced. The cities of Coalinga, Huron, Mendota, Firebaugh, San Joaquin and Kerman, and the unincorporated communities of Tranquility, Biola, El Porvenir and Cantua Creek, are seeking industries that would create jobs to reduce their average 25 percent unemployment rate in March 2002. In Mendota, a city of 8,000, per capita income is $7,000 and 42 percent of residents live in poverty. The Indian casinos opening in the San Joaquin Valley are major employers, in part because they operate around the clock. Most casinos employ 1,200 to 1,500 workers at the minimum wage or more, and most offer fringe benefits that other employers of unskilled service workers do not provide. The California Budget Project released a report in May 2003 that found a stable number of families with at least one adult working at least 20 hours a week and having an income of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line ($36,000 a year for a family of four) during the 1990s. There were 1.8 million "working poor" families in 1993, and 1.9 million in 2001. These working poor are often immigrants: 60 percent of working families with incomes below the poverty level, and nearly half of families with workers and incomes between 100 percent and 200 percent of poverty, had at least one non-US citizen adult. The question is what happened to the working poor who were in California before the newcomers arrived- did they move up the income ladder, drop out of the labor force, or move out of state? Between July 1997 and December 2002, California's welfare rolls shrank from 776,000 to 482,000 families, and 48 percent of those receiving cash payments also did some work, up from 31 percent in 1993. Between 1997 and 2001, California added 2.2 million residents to its population and 1.2 million workers to the labor force; the number of working poor families increased by 100,000. Air. The American Lung Association reported that the major agricultural counties of the San Joaquin Valley, with 3.3 million residents, have some of the nation's worst air. Fresno, Kern and Tulare were among the five US counties with the worst air in the US, and some experts say that the dirty air is hindering economic development, with firms refusing to locate in the San Joaquin Valley because of smog. The San Joaquin Valley is expected to add three million people by 2025. Most San Joaquin Valley residents are Republicans, but Democrats dominate statewide politics. In a sign of the changing political winds in the San Joaquin Valley, the Fresno City Council in May 2003 voted to support clean-air bills that target the state's farms, over the objections of farmers who say more study is needed before they may be required to obtain permits to operate irrigation pumps and similar equipment that emits pollution. San Joaquin Valley Democrat Senator Dean Florez, who hopes to run for statewide office, introduced 10 bills to clean up San Joaquin Valley air in February 2003. The bills, SB 700-709 would end the exemption of farmers from the Federal Clean Air Act, as required by the Environmental Protection Agency, so that farmers would have to obtain air pollution permits for diesel-powered irrigation pumps and for confined-animal feeding operations such as dairies; the bills would also phase out the burning of agricultural wastes by 2010. If the San Joaquin Valley does not produce an acceptable plan to clean up San Joaquin Valley air by July 31, 2004, the EPA will take over the clean-up effort. Housing. California, the largest US state in farm sales since 1950, is a highly urbanized state- over 90 percent of residents live in urban areas, and 95 percent of the state's farm sales of $28 billion a year are from metro counties. During the 1990s, housing prices rose faster than wages for most workers, and the wage-cost crunch was especially severe for seasonal farm workers, so that, in many cases two or three farm worker families lived in one house. Some seasonal workers live in informal housing, including in vehicles and by camping near the fields. Farmers do not have to provide housing for their workers. In the past they did, and some still do, in order to attract and keep good workers. As federal, state, and local governments tightened housing standards for farm workers, many farm employers stopped providing housing, which they could do as illegal immigration added to the supply of farm workers. There has been an effort in many counties and cities to provide more farm worker housing, especially as additional state funds were made available for farm worker housing. San Diego county has farm sales of $1.2 billion a year, but also very expensive housing, which results in many farm workers living in makeshift plywood housing that is periodically razed by county authorities. Around Carlsbad, many of the homeless workers are employed by Leslie Farms and Mellano & Co. Area residents generally favor more housing for the migrants, but not near their homes. A June 2003 proposal for a 150-bed shelter for male migrants near Carlsbad drew public opposition, as residents argued that migrant housing would bring danger to their children and lower home prices. Most of Carlsbad's cropland is expected to disappear within five to ten years because of residential and commercial development, so farmers who currently lease it are unwilling to provide housing for workers. The Davis area has 75 380-square-foot state-funded migrant housing units at County Roads 36 and 105. They are being replaced by 62 new 960-square-foot units in a $4.5 million upgrade, or $72,600 a unit. Other migrant centers in Dixon and Madison house a total of 170 migrant families. In 2003, rent in state migrant centers will rise from $7.50 to $9.50 a day for a two-bedroom unit; the state centers are open six months a year. Napa county opened a $3.4 million 60-bed ($56,600 a bed) River Ranch farm worker center in June 2003 on eight acres of donated land; it has two dormitories and a dining/recreation hall. In March 2002, Napa county voters approved Measure L by a more than 2-to-1 margin to allow up to 300 more beds for farm worker housing to be built on farm land. The county has three other migrant centers that offer a combined 197 beds and charge $11.50 a day for room and board. Napa grape growers subsidize farm worker housing through a $7.57 per acre tax on vineyards; $340,490 was raised in 2002. There are about 100 seasonal beds in private labor camps for farm workers in Napa county. Oxnard began building a $5.9 million housing complex in June 2003. Rents in the 27 units set aside for farm workers are limited to 30 percent of the resident's income, and the 100 residents will have access to nearby health services. Ventura county hopes to build 500 units of farm worker housing in the next five years. In 1985, the 14,000-resident Ventura county city of Fillmore became the first US city to declare English to be its official language. In 1999, the official English policy was abandoned; about two-thirds of residents are Latino. In 1986, California voters passed a constitutional amendment making English the official language statewide. Riverside county cracked down on "trailer parks" that housed farm workers, prompting some to move onto Indian-owned land in the Coachella Valley- local officials may not be able to regulate housing on Indian-owned land. One such place, Duroville, housed 500 families in July 2003. The 111-square-mile Delta area, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers empty into the San Francisco Bay, produces pears, asparagus, cherries and grapes. Under current Sacramento county zoning rules, farmers need only a building permit to construct housing for as many farm workers as they want. In at least one case, four family members inherited a farm and planned to subdivide it and build housing for themselves as "farm workers," prompting a review of the rule so that it is not abused by so-called "gentlemen farmers." Budget. The state of California is struggling to close a budget deficit estimated to be $38 billion over two years. In order to spend $96 billion in 2003-04, the state will borrow $11 billion that will be repaid with a 0.5 percent sales tax increase- the borrowed money will be used to avoid deeper cuts to schools and welfare programs. The state will spend $6,900 per K-12 pupil in 2003-04, and school spending will be $29 billion, or 40 percent of general fund spending. Simultaneously, 900,000 signatures were gathered to force recall vote for Governor Gray Davis, who has the lowest approval rating on record for a governor. The vote is planned October 7. Much of the budget debate in summer 2003 focused on exactly what to cut from the budget, and how much to borrow in bonds to maintain programs versus raise taxes to cover their costs. Legislators agreed to provide fewer benefits under some programs, including Medi-Cal (Medicaid), which provides benefits to 6.5 million poor California residents a year at a cost of $27 billion. Payments to doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients are to fall by 15 percent. Federal rules require that states provide basic health benefits for poor residents, but there are 34 "optional" benefits that, if provided, have costs shared 50-50 between federal and state governments. California provides most of these optional benefits. Proposition 13, California's property tax-cutting initiative approved on a 65-35 percent vote in 1978, had its 25th anniversary in June 2003. Proposition 13 limits property tax bills to one percent of a house's 1975 value, and limits annual increases in the assessment to two percent a year. However, if a house is sold, the house is reassessed at the sales price. Proposition 13 caused a dramatic swing in power from local governments to the state capitol and, according to many experts, decreased interest in local elections, since local officials have less power over taxes and spending. Counties, which provide safety net health and welfare services, have had their budgets squeezed. US residents must report and pay taxes on their income. Persons not authorized to be in the US cannot get Social Security Numbers, but they can get Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). A San Joaquin Valley man was convicted of using false Mexican voter registration cards to complete W-7 forms and obtain ITINs, which were then used to obtain tax refunds averaging $1,300 each. Business. California has a unique consumer protection law. Section 17200 of the state's business and protection code allows anyone to sue a business for unlawful, fraudulent or unfair business practices, even if the defendant has not been personally injured. The Trevor Law Group of Beverly Hills sued thousands of immigrant-owned businesses for violations, and offered to settle the suits for several thousand dollars; in summer 2003, the lawyers involved resigned from the bar. Lawyers are divided on the merits of Section 17200. Some say that it is necessary so that they can sue on behalf of immigrant victims who want to remain anonymous; others say that suing on behalf of anonymous victims exposes immigrant businesses not familiar with the US legal system to blackmail. Fred Alvarez, "Innovative Oxnard apartment project is a first step in providing housing for farm workers," Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2003. Carla Rivera, "Troubling Boom in Babies," Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2003. Donald E. Coleman, "Project targets west side economy," Fresno Bee, May 15, 2003.