Prudent Blogger

Oakland City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, candidates in the mayoral race, were unable Thursday to prompt amendments to the citys campaign finance laws before the November 2 election. The proposed changes targeted fellow candidate Don Perata, whose campaign has already exceeded the $379,000 spending cap.

The issue was first brought to light when the Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee, announced that it had donated $95,000 to Peratas campaign. Under current city election law, this donation triggered the lifting of the spending cap for all mayoral candidates.

The revisions Quan and Kaplan were seeking Thursday, as they brought the issue to the councils rules and legislation committee, would have included a requirement that candidates sign documents pledging in advance — under penalty of perjury — not to coordinate with committees to raise the spending cap, as Quan suspects Perata has.

Evan Wagstaff brings you the full story on Oakland North.

Become a friend of Oakland North on Twitter and Facebook.

Posted By: Oakland North (Email, Facebook) | October 01 2010 at 04:09 PM

article source

Comments Off

European Union finance chiefs are
seeking an agreement on voting rights at the International
Monetary Fund before discussing proposed changes to the
institution’s board to better represent emerging economies.

European officials “are open” to discussing changes to
the composition of the IMF’s 24-member board, Belgian Finance
Minister Didier Reynders, whose government currently holds the
rotating EU presidency, told a press conference in Brussels
today after a two-day meeting also attended by IMF Managing
Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. “But first a revision of the
quotas,” or voting rights.

At stake is the governance of an institution that doesn’t
fully reflect the rising economic clout of countries such India
and China, which this year surpassed Japan as the world’s No. 2
economy. The US, which blocked a proposal to maintain the IMF
board in its current 24-seat form, has said it is seeking
stronger representation of emerging economies to bolster the
fund’s legitimacy.

“We will offer to reduce the representation of European
countries at the executive board by as many as two seats through
rotation with emerging countries in the voting groups,” German
Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen told reporters in
Brussels. The European nations, including Germany, are seeking
to keep the total number of seats at 24.

Separate Negotiations

Europeans want to tie the board-representation issues to
separate negotiations among IMF members on the weight of
emerging nations’ votes. Quotas determine voting shares and
access to IMF loans as well as members’ financial obligations to
the institution.

Group of 20 leaders pledged last year to enhance the voting
power of China and others and planned to have details ironed out
by a summit in November in Seoul. China has a 3.65 percent
voting share, compared with Japan’s 6.01 percent.

Germany, France and the UK each has its own seat, along
with the US and Japan. Countries such as Switzerland and
Belgium have executive directors who represent groups of
nations. Strauss-Kahn earlier this week said it would be
“fair” to give emerging countries more say on the board,
naming Turkey as an example.

The Netherlands, which represents a group of countries on
the IMF board, finds “it far too early to start on a specific
solution as long as you don’t know which step by Europe is
needed,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said in
Brussels yesterday. “The reason we don’t want to speak about
specific countries is because we want to know from the US what
will be enough, what we have to do.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Jurjen van de Pol in Brussels at
jvandepol@bloomberg.net;
Christian Vits in Brussels at
cvits@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
John Fraher at jfraher@bloomberg.net.

article source

Comments Off

A day after the Schools for Fair Funding group spoke of suing the Kansas Legislature for not fully funding education, Kansas state Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican, put forth a public education finance plan to get the state off the hook.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Siegfreidamp;rsquo;s idea of amp;shared responsibilityamp; by districts is still just thatamp;a plan. No bill has been written. So estimating its impact is difficult, said Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner of the Kansas Department of Education. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;The plan, however, already is being assailed by Democrats, including Tom Holland, the partyamp;rsquo;s candidate for governor. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, has asked the Education Department to draw up an analysis amp;amp; despite the planamp;rsquo;s premature stage amp;amp; to show its negative potential. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Hensley predicted the plan will create higher property taxes and education inequality among districts. Both opponents likened it to the type of education they think US Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican candidate for governor, will back.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;Brownback is talking about giving local school districts more flexibility,amp; Hensley said, amp;which to me is a keyword to blowing the lid off the local option budget and having a formula that is disequalizing.amp; lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Holland dubbed the proposal the amp;Brownback/Siegfreid plan.amp; lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Siegfreid, who has worked on the plan since February, denied that Brownback had any part in it. He said the plan, which he recently presented to a legislative committee, is his. He hopes to draft a bill by December. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;For now, Siegfreid is getting by with more informal ideas.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;The Siegfreid planlt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;The plan would set a permanent baseline amount of state funding, let districts raise property taxes to any rate to pay for whatever it wonamp;rsquo;t cover and help poorer districtsamp;which would struggle to produce as much from property taxesamp; with state money.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Along with this amp;shared responsibility,amp; Siegfreid is also pushing for an end to extra funding for at-risk, bilingual and special education students. Currently, schools with more students in these categories receive more funding. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;In Kansas, funding schools has always been primarily a state responsibility, Dennis said. All districts have a amp;general fund,amp; which is largely state money based on student numbers, with extra funding for students with special needs. They also have a amp;local option budget,amp; which comes from property taxes set by the district.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;To ensure equality, districts have a limit on what they can raise with these property taxes amp;amp; 30 percent of their general fund, or 31 percent with a district vote. But Siegfreid proposes to eliminate this cap.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Opponents worry this would lead to inequality in education around the state. Siegfreid denies this possibility, saying the state would support districts in need under his plan to keep them from falling behind.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;The last part of Siegfreidamp;rsquo;s plan is to define a amp;suitable provision of financeamp; in the Kansas Constitution. Article 6 states it is something the state must give schools, but prior legislative attempts to interpret it concretely have never reached a consensus, Hensley said. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Whatever the definition of the clause is, Schools for Fair Funding is questioning whether the Kansas Legislature has violated it. Deputy Attorney General Patrick Hurley recently said the coalition may sue the Legislature for not fulfilling its duty to fund schools. The lawsuit, he said, may come this month. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;State liabilitylt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Schools for Fair Funding amp;amp; a coalition of more than 70 Kansas school districts amp;amp; sued the state on the same grounds once before and won in the Kansas Supreme Court in 2005. The amp;statutory base budgetamp; per pupil spiked to $4,492. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;But since then, the economic crisis has caused the state to slash more than $300 million in school costs in the last two years. The budget now is at $4,012 per pupil. And districts face the difficult burden of making up the difference or suffering losses in programs and staff.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Siegfreid said if the coalition sues successfully a second time, the state could be looking at an obligation to pay, in debt to schools, amp;over $800 millionamp; it doesnamp;rsquo;t have. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;If we continue down this path, we are either not going to statutorily fund school finance programs, or weamp;rsquo;re going to bankrupt the state because we donamp;rsquo;t have the money right now,amp; Siegfreid said. amp;Thatamp;rsquo;s why I brought this proposal forward.amp;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;But Hensley said the inequality he thinks Siegfreidamp;rsquo;s proposal would create would be even more of a legal liability.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;What Representative Siegfreid is advocating is taking the cap off of the local option budget,amp; he said. amp;That is an invitation for future litigation because it is pitting the amp;lsquo;haves versus the have-nots.amp;rsquo;amp;ensp;amp; lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Hensley is hopeful that the recent tax increase for schools, which Siegfreid opposed, will prevent more cuts to education. And he is optimistic that the economy will improve and that the state can restore the amp;statutory base budgetamp; per pupil of $4,492 in three to four years. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Right now, he just wishes Schools for Fair Funding would notice the Legislatureamp;rsquo;s efforts to address the stateamp;rsquo;s education needs and share his patience. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;I think if we can show a good-faith effort as a legislature that we have it as a priority reaching the statutory base budget per pupil, that would help give us some time to do the right thing, instead of going through with the lawsuit,amp; he said.

article source

Comments Off

By CARA MATTHEWS
Gannett Albany Bureau

ALBANY – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has $19.9 million on hand with four weeks to go before Election Day, according to his campaign.

Carl Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo businessman, has been loaning himself large chunks of money during the campaign and had $209,407 on hand as of Friday, when the 32-day pre-general election financial disclosure was due.

Cuomo, who had $23 million in mid-July, reported receiving $3.4 million in contributions since then and spending $7.2 million. The financial-disclosure report hadnt been filed with the state Board of Elections as of Friday evening.

Paladino, who won a GOP primary Sept. 14, has had to file more reports than Cuomo, who did not have a primary.

Loans Paladino has made to his campaign that are outstanding total $1.6 million, according to his financial disclosure form. He has pledged to spend at least $10 million of his own money on the campaign.

Paladino raised $274,368 during the reporting period of late September. That does not include any personal loans. He spent about $90,000.

Since mid-March, Paladino for the People has paid Caputo Public Relations, owned by campaign manager Michael Caputo, a total of $448,000, or nearly $70,000 a month.

Although Cuomo has nearly $20 million, he has not out-raised some previous gubernatorial candidates, the New York Public Interest Research Group found. Forty-seven months into the four-year election cycle eight years ago, now-former Gov. George Pataki had raised $42.4 million. Four years later, now-former Gov. Eliot Spitzer had brought in $40.3 million. Cuomos total is $31.3 million, and Paladinos is $3.5 million, NYPIRG said.

In the race for attorney general, Democrat Eric Schneidermans campaign has raised a total of more than $5 million, including about $312,000 in the past week. Schneiderman, a state senator from Manhattan, won a five-way Democratic primary.

Schneiderman has more than $1 million in the bank. He also has $646,665 in outstanding liabilities/loans, including $550,000 he loaned to the campaign. He received $50,000 from the Democratic Attorneys General Association, a national group.

Eric has attracted far more support and resources than his opponents to date, and despite undergoing a competitive five-way primary for most of the year, he enters the final month with plenty of resources to win this race, said James Freedland, a spokesman for Schneiderman.

His Republican opponent, Dan Donovan, reported that he raised $416,292 since July and has $444,621 on hand. Campaign spokeswoman Virginia Lam said the campaign has raised nearly $1.1 million since June.

Donovan has $111,380 in outstanding liabilities/loans, including $32,000 for polling, $15,824 for literature, and $50,000 to Moving Pictures Inc. of Staten Island for production.

Some of the high-profile contributors to Donovan, Staten Island district attorney, are former US Sen. Al DAmato, who gave $10,000, and Donald Trump, who donated $5,000.

This campaign started on Sept. 15 and despite Team Schneidermans victory lap, our fundraising in the past two weeks has been nearly even, she said.

Lam noted that 60 percent of voters in the primary didnt cast their votes for Schneiderman. And recent polls show this race to be dead even – despite the fact that the state senator has been up on air and campaigning for twice as long, she said.
In the race for state comptroller, Republican Harry Wilson has a financial edge of about $1 million over Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, a Democrat, going into the final weeks of the campaign.

Wilson raised $1.2 million and spent $1.3 million during the reporting period, which began in mid-July. Wilson spent more than $850,000 on television ads and about $185,000 on consultants. He ended the period with $2.6 million in his campaign coffers.

Wilson loaned himself millions of dollars between January and September, and he has outstanding loans of $2.75 million, his report said. The most recent loan was $500,000 Sept. 23.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, started the reporting period in mid-July with $1.8 million. He raised $364,607 and spent $752,486 million, so he has $1.4 million in his campaign coffers.

DiNapoli, a former Assembly member, was appointed to the position by the state Legislature after former Comptroller Alan Hevesi resigned. Hevesi pleaded guilty to a felony for having state workers chauffeur his wife.

Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, Cuomos running mate for lieutenant governor, started with about $3,500 in his campaign, took in $29,500 and spent $18,755, leaving him with $14,230. Most of the money he spent during the reporting period was for airfare and other travel, hotels and campaign meetings

He launched his campaign committee in June with a $15,000 transfer from Friends of Bob Duffy, his mayoral committee. He has since transferred another $20,000.

Gannett ContentOne – Albany, NY

article source

Comments Off

Key part of finance reform law could be at risk

Regulators tell lawmakers they are working to implement the overhaul. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may be in jeopardy if a director is not named soon.

article source

Comments Off

Luxury car major Mercedes-Benz India will extend its financial arm, Daimler Financial Services (DFS), to India. A few approvals were needed from the authorities before it could begin operations, said Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, here today.

Generally, DFS provides finance and leasing, dealer financing, fleet management, insurance and banking services. In India, the emphasis will be on finance and leasing, dealer financing and insurance to private customers, dealers and groups. DFS will be a separate Daimler entity in India.

article source

Comments Off

* Mexico joins developed economies in Citigroup bond index

* Asian funds invested in bonds before index entrance

* Japanese investors cautious on Mexican debt
(Adds quotes, byline)

By Jean Luis Arce and Chikafumi Hodo

MEXICO CITY/TOYKO, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Asian investors poured
about $9 billion into Mexican bonds this year ahead of Mexicos
inclusion in a major global bond index, Mexican Finance
Minister Ernesto Cordero said on Friday.

Mexico formally entered Citigroups World Government Bond
Index, or WGBI, on Friday, becoming the first Latin American
country to be added to the index. More than $100 billion of
debt from Mexico, Latin Americas second largest economy, will
make up 0.65 percent of the index.

The index, which is mostly made up of debt from developed
economies, is used by some investors to divide up investments
across countries.

Incorporation in this index has made Mexico more
attractive for investors, Cordero said at a press conference.

Investment into the currency market from WGBI investors –
or by speculators betting on those flows — helped drive
Mexicos peso to a three-month high against the dollar this
week.

Flows from Asian markets were particularly important,
Cordero said.

Asian investors have traditionally been less active in
Latin American debt markets than their American and European
counterparts, according to analysts. Mexico has been testing
the market for a sale of yen-denominated bonds later this
year.

JAPANESE CAUTION

Some Japanese funds said they were still cautious about
buying Mexican assets.

Junko Ikeda, chief fund manager at the fixed income
investment section of STB Asset Management, an arm of Japans
Sumitomo Trust and Banking (8403.T), said STB had no immediate
plans to include Mexican government bonds in its actively
managed bond portfolio.

The Mexican economy is still closely linked to that of the
US economy, which means that the economic outlook is
unclear, said Ikeda. We also want to avoid volatility in the
peso.

article source

Comments Off

 More Images »  Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero addresses the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 20, 2010.Photograph by: Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images

UNITED NATIONS — France and Spain pressed Monday for a tax on global capitalism, each telling the opening day of the UN’s development-review summit that the recession has made &"innovative financing&" essential to help the world’s poor.

The tax should be imposed on all financial transactions, insisted French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during their speeches before leaders and representatives of almost 140 countries.

They spoke after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the world’s rich countries to &"not balance budgets on the backs of the poor.&"

Canadian activists said Ban’s request applies directly to the Canadian government’s intention to freeze foreign aid next fiscal year as a deficit-reducing measure.

While the leaders of several developed countries have pressed the idea of launching a global finance tax before, speaking about it anew at such a widely attended summit gives it added weight.

The idea has also garnered growing attention as numerous developed countries, such as Canada, have announced plans to limit upcoming foreign aid transfers against the backdrop of the global recession.

&"We can decide right here; why wait?&" said Sarkozy. &"Finance has globalized, so why should we not ask finance to participate in stabilizing the world by taking a tax on each financial transaction?&"

Zapatero said alternative financing was needed that is &"not as vulnerable&" as rich-country budgets during a recession.

&"My government is committed to defending the new tax, and making it a reality . . .&" he said. &"It appears sensible, just, and logical that we ask (for this) minimum effort to take millions of people out of misery.&"

Zapatero’s government cut its development aid in the face of the financial crisis. By contrast, Canada’s aid budget for the new fiscal year is — at $5.165 billion — at a record level ahead of the announced freeze next year.

The three-day conference aims to review the world’s progress in achieving eight development goals meant to halve levels of poverty and dramatically increase living standards among the world’s poor by 2015.

Amid the global economic recovery, new aid pledges are likely to be scarce, but Sarkozy said France would boost its contribution to the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in poor countries.

He said France would, over three years, give an additional 20 per cent of the current annual payment of $391 million, and challenged countries to make a similar gesture.

Insiders have suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was scheduled to arrive Tuesday to deliver Canada’s address, will announce an increase in Canada’s contribution to the Global Fund.

But Canada joins the United States in being cool to the idea of launching a financial transaction tax.

In his address, Ban acknowledged there has been progress in trying to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which emerged from pledges world governments made at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

But he called the advances &"fragile,&" and argued that the &"clock is ticking&" if countries are to remain &"true&" to the initial goals.

&"Being true means supporting the vulnerable despite the economic crisis,&" he said. &"We should not balance budgets on the backs of the poor. We must not draw back from official development assistance — a lifeline of billions, for billions.&"

Ban will also this week call on rich countries to spend $169 billion on a UN plan he says will save the lives of 15.6 million women and children by improving their access to health care.

Progress of the MDG target of achieving a 75 per cent reduction in the number of maternal deaths during pregnancy is among the slowest, statistics show.

With so many countries attending the summit, proposals for achieving the MDGs varied widely. Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is vehemently anti-capitalist, said all the world’s resources should be nationalized so the &"dividends they generate will remain&" in the respective countries.

Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Thinley proposed adding &"happiness&" as a ninth MDG.

&"Since happiness is the ultimate desire of every citizen, it must be the purpose of development to create enabling conditions for happiness,&" he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the summit Wednesday, using the occasion to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to the Millennium goals, say aides.

They add that the Obama administration is determined to eventually boost the U.S. aid budget to $52 billion from about $25 billion.

But Obama also faces taxpayer frustration over the U.S. economy and unemployment ahead of congressional elections November 2.

As such, he is expected to try to show that U.S. aid dollars are being well spent by using his address to press for new strategies that would see recipient countries commit to becoming more accountable and increasing efforts against corruption.

France has been among the leading advocates of looking to new sources of financing for development, and was the first country to introduce a tax on airline tickets to pay for aid.

In addition to Spain, countries such as Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Norway also support the idea, while Britain under the former Labour government was for it.

Business leaders say imposing such a new tax would dry up world financial flows and, therefore, end up slowing efforts to achieve worldwide economic development.

Aid groups said Monday that a World Bank announcement it would increase spending on education by $750 million was not enough.

The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, said leaders would fail to slash poverty unless both rich and poor countries implement policies that restore global growth.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News   

article source

Comments Off