How will new tax rules affect US companies? The history of superdelegates; and CEO Phillip A. Washington explains his strategy to transform Los Angeles into a public transportation-friendly city.
A primer on Treasury Dept’s new tax inversion rules
The Panama Papers leak have laid bare the secretive practice used by the wealthy to hide their money through the use of offshore tax havens.
Hours after that story broke, the US Treasury Department has come out with tough new rules to discourage stateside companies from engaging in another tax avoidance tactic: corporate inversions. An inversion takes place when a US company buys a smaller, foreign entity and moves its headquarters overseas to lower their US taxes.
Though controversial, the practice is technically legal. One of the deals these new rules might jeopardize is the proposed merger between US big pharma Pfizer and the Ireland-based Allergan.
What are the new Treasury rules? What impact would they have on corporate inversions?
Guests:
Edward Kleinbard, a professor of law and business at USC, who focuses on domestic and international tax issues. He is also former Chief of Staff of the US Congress’s nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation
Kevin G. Hall, chief economics correspondent for the McClatchy Newspapers. He has co-written a piece looking at a few of the American names that have shown up in the so-called Panama Papers
Examining the role of Superdelegates in selecting a Democratic nominee
Senator Bernie Sanders has been casting himself more and more as the most electable Democrat in the general election, an effort targeted at wooing superdelegates, the party insiders who play a big role in picking the nominee. As it stands now, Hillary Clinton holds a commanding lead among superdelegates (AKA “unpledged delegates”), and that tally is being portrayed differently depending on the source.
A commentary piece in “USA Today” states:
Hillary Clinton holds a commanding 669 delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, 1739 to 1070 as estimated by The Green Papers. But most of her lead comes from the 473 theoretically unpledged super delegates who have lined up behind her. Take them out of the equation and the race is much tighter. Switch them to Sanders and he is the front-runner.
And from a Roll Call column:
Clinton will probably beat Sanders by every relevant metric when all is said and done, rendering the concern about superdelegates’ power moot — at least for this election cycle.
What should be the role of superdelegates? If it is determining electability and the best representation of the Democratic party, what factors determine a candidate’s electability and faith? How are superdelegates selected? How do you want California superdelegates to fulfill their function?
Guest:
Eric Walker, Deputy Communications Director, Democratic Party
Digital First Media talks future of newsgathering in OC, Inland Empire after key acquisitions
With the acquisitions of the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Telegram, Digital First Media has further expanded its footprint in the news business in Southern California.
The Colorado-based Digital First Media is the nation’s second largest newspaper company by circulation, boasting a slate of over 60 dailies in 18 states. In Southern California, the group owns 11 daily newspapers and a number of weeklies. It was announced last month that those properties will be operated under a new division, Southern California News Group, headed by president and publisher Ron Hasse.
Hasse joins Larry Mantle for an interview.
Interview Highlights
You've already laid off 70 employees, how many of those were on the editorial side for the two papers?
Hasse: Not many at all-- and we didn't necessarily lay them off. What we did was decide who we were going to hire for the new company. I understand semantics, but we did buy the newspapers out of bankruptcy, so there are going to be some financial challenges that we're going to face right out of the gate.
The Orange County Register has been losing big amounts of money, the Press-Enterprise is lightly profitable, what are your plans for making both properties viable?
Hasse: We have a successful track record of doing that. Our daily newspapers know how to make local news meaningful and profitable. So, we're going to find ways --primarily on growing revenue. One of the things that has not been done at the two properties is growing digital revenue. We're very good at that, as our name says, Digital First Media. We're going to look for ways to adjust some of our expenses that are non-payroll, because there were a lot of deals that were struck that can be altered and changed.
I have to challenge you on the digital side. I have to say, I find your papers' websites extremely difficult to deal with. Your digital presence just doesn't match up to a lot of other publications, so what are you going to do to raise delivery?
Hasse: I can understand why you say that. We're proud of the progress that we've made, but we've got a long way to go. What you have to understand is that "Digital First" in our name is a commitment. We've been investing heavily in that regard, I think you're going to see some great improvements over the course of the next year in all of the Digital First publications, on both the digital front as well as the other platforms.
Digital First's strategy-- both with the LA News Group and the Bay Area News Group-- has cut back on community news coverage. There's a focus on the larger region and sharing of reporting between the different papers and centralizing costs. Up in the Bay Area, it's all being consolidated into two different publications-- one for the South Bay and one for the East Bay. Is that what we're going to be seeing with the Orange County Register the Riverside Press-Enterprise?
Hasse: No, that's not what you're going to be seeing. I'm aware of what happened in the Bay Area and I think they did what was right for their particular market. Though we're owned by a parent company, they understand that each market is digital and unique and we'll do what's right for the Southern California market, irrespective of any other decisions that were made in Digital First properties.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.
This story has been updated.
Guest:
Ron Hasse, president and publisher of the newly renamed Southern California News Group, which owns the LA Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and the new acquisitions, The Orange County Register, and The Riverside Press-Enterprise; he tweets from
Metro CEO on his plan to transform transportation in Los Angeles
He hasn’t been in office for very long, but already Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Phillip Washington is rolling out ambitious plans for the future of transportation in Los Angeles.
At a March 24th board meeting, Washington unveiled a $120 billion plan that would involve putting a measure on the November ballot that would increase the countywide sales tax by a half cent and keep an already existing tax in existence for 18 more years. Metro says the revenue from this would help fund a smattering of public transit and highway projects that would be built over the next 40 years. There would also be billions spent on improving and expanding pedestrian and bike paths across the city.
Within the first 15 years, projects slated for completion would include a rail tunnel through the Sepulveda Pass, new rail routes through Van Nuys, Westwood, Artesia, and Claremont, and creating toll lanes out of carpool lanes on the 105 and 405 freeways. You can see a full list
However, they’ll need broad support from virtually every corner of the county if they hope to get the two-thirds threshold needed to pass the measure.
Guest:
Phillip A. Washington, CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro)
Lindsey Horvath, Mayor of West Hollywood
West Hollywood wants a Metro station and the mayor has an idea for where it should go
Living in L.A. means you’ve probably said to yourself at least once, "I wish I could take Metro to (insert Metro-less location here)." Often, that blank is filled by West Hollywood, one of L.A.’s hippest cultural centers that remains inaccessible to regular Metro riders.
West Hollywood has been calling for light rail within its borders for years. Now, the city is making a serious push to actually get a Metro stop.
The city's mayor, Lindsey Horvath, says the plan would involve extending the in-progress Crenshaw Line north along San Vicente Blvd., which would connect it to the city of West Hollywood as well as LAX, and end it with a connector at the Hollywood/Highland Red Line station.
“This would allow us to connect directly to desirable destinations like the Beverly Center and Cedars Sinai,” says Horvath. “We know that Metro is making sure that the connections take us to arts and cultural destinations as well as health centers, and Cedars really helps to justify that alignment. In fact, that alignment would increase ridership on every line of Metro.”
Looking at the proposed map of the project, one might think that the plan would add extra time for riders going between West Hollywood and LAX. Mayor Horvath says the additional time isn’t significant enough to make a difference. She also believes that the overall benefit of having access to places like the Hollywood Bowl and Universal Studios outweighs other concerns.
Currently, West Hollywood operates CityLine X, a shuttle service that takes riders from WeHo to the Hollywood/Highland Metro station. Horvath says West Hollywood has been orienting its development around transit. The city will continue this service and likely add shuttles to the Purple Line as that develops.
“We voted overwhelmingly for Measure R and have been expecting that rail would be coming to our community. We are the exact kind of community that needs to be served by rail, so we will always do whatever we can on our end to make those important transit connections, but we also are advocating and building our community to bring rail directly to our community as well.”
West Hollywood City Councilmember John Duran has proposed a sales tax hike to help pay for the new rail lines that could hit ballots as early as the June primary. However, if passed, West Hollywood would have a 9.5 percent sales tax, backing up against the 10 percent state cap. That means Metro would likely have to negotiate with the city for a share of the money. But Mayor Horvath says she’s not worried about backlash.
“I think that we all have different ways of getting there, but ultimately we know that Metro’s priorities for Measure R need to be fulfilled, and we see Crenshaw and the Northern extension as a fulfillment of those promises. So we want to do everything that we can as a community to be prepared to support Metro’s efforts in making that extension happen.”
Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington responded by saying that the West Hollywood extension is part of Metro’s overarching plan to improve transportation in L.A.
“There’s a possibility to accelerate that as well,” Washington said. “When we talk about doing that in phases, maybe there’s a phase to Wilshire and then later on going all the way to Hollywood, or maybe if we move with a 45 or 50 year plan, there’s a possibility to do the whole thing at once and accelerate. That would be our preference.”