While the state has reduced the major threat to the Riverside County fiscal year 2017-18 budget, the 6.5-percent cuts across all departments were essentially unchanged when the Board of Supervisors approved a preliminary budget last week. “By holding the 6.5-percent cuts across the departments, our goal is to bring the budget into structural balance,” new…

Gov. Jerry Brown and State Attorney General Kamala Harris have appealed the Superior Court ruling that the state laws on teacher tenure and seniority are unconstitutional. In the one-page appeal, Harris provided three reasons. The first was the state Constitution requires a higher court, either the Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court, to…

The state attorney general has interceded in the recent court decision concerning water rate tiers. While Attorney General Kamala Harris is not appealing the actual ruling, her letter argues that there are occasions when rates higher than actual costs are constitutional and necessary for conservation purposes. In the June 5 letter on behalf of the…

For many years, residents of the Anza valley have struggled with the question of water adequacy and ownership. Residents of the largely undeveloped valley acknowledge that further development and population growth are predicated on knowing how much water is available. The 2005 Anza Valley Vision and Goals Statement developed by the community in a yearlong…