Cities that provide generous health care and other perks to their employee — sometimes nearly twice the amount of base salaries and largely unknown to taxpayers — were slapped Tuesday in an analysis released by the nonprofit group Transparent California.
Transportation: There is no plan to pay for a $57 billion backlog in repairs to California’s crumbling state highway system, despite Brown’s plea earlier this year for lawmakers to “bite the bullet” and approve taxes or fees for it.
The state’s new budget, which is awaiting Brown’s signature after the Legislature’s approval Wednesday, includes nothing for the vehicle subsidies or other efforts to make heavy-duty trucks more environmentally friendly. Meantime, the clean-car programs are pushing people to waiting lists.
. . . extending the Prop. 30 tax extensions effectively bails out California State Democrat politicians for their inability to take any steps to curb spending and prepare for the expiration of the Prop. 30 tax increases. . . But once the Prop. 30 tax revenues came flooding in California Democrat Legislators have done nothing but spend and expand permanent government programs without regard for the stated “temporary” nature of the tax increases.
The budget package negotiated by Brown and the Democrat-controlled Legislature expects $255 million in lost income from tax returns that include claims with the state’s version of the earned-income tax credit, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. That is down a third from the $380 million budgeted for the current year and what Brown proposed in January for 2016-17.
The agreement includes a $10 per year increase in the vehicle registration fee that funds the Department of Motor Vehicles and California Highway Patrol. It’s effective April 1, 2017.
A tentative labor contract for California’s state craft and maintenance workers hikes costs to taxpayers more than any deal bargained by the union in at least 11 years, according to a new report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. . . The pact with International Union of Operating Engineers Bargaining Unit 12, adds a total $473 million over four years to the state’s pay and benefits costs, the analyst’s office estimates.
May state revenues fell short of projections in Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget proposal by $154.3 million, weighed down by corporation tax refunds far higher than expected, State Controller Betty T. Yee reported today.
Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature have reached agreement on a budget for the coming fiscal year that repeals a long-criticized rule limiting welfare payments for people who have more children, as well as making an optional $2 billion deposit into the state’s rainy-day reserve.
The angry tone of that 2013 rally, during which Walker pointed to the Capitol and shouted, “This is our house!” was fueled by years of furloughs and stagnant wages. Walker and other union leaders said that Brown had relied on union muscle to pass a 2012 ballot measure to temporarily increase taxes and should have shown gratitude with a better contract.
An appointed citizen panel voted Wednesday to give Gov. Jerry Brown and other top elected officials 4 percent pay raises, marking the fourth year in a row that their salaries have been increased after cuts were made at the height of the recession.
In a recent court hearing, one young man after another claimed that former Franklin High football coach Jaime Jimenez befriended them during summer practice before 9th grade, then sexually abused them. But it’s not the allegations against Jimenez that are at the center of a lawsuit filed this month against the Los Angeles Unified School District. It’s about whether school officials once again missed — or ignored — warning signs about Jimenez that prolonged the alleged abuse. The nation’s second-largest school system has been plagued in recent years by a series of cases in which officials missed indications of teacher misconduct, and in some instances, continued to employ teachers who were under a cloud, or ignored or overlooked direct complaints
The dispute began about a year ago, when the union demanded a 5% pay raise for professors and other faculty members. Cal State said it could only afford a 2% raise. . . The compromise plan allows for a larger pay increase, but spreads out the cost over three fiscal years. . . A final bump on July 1, 2017, will bring the total increase to about 10.5%. . . So far, administrators have identified about $68 million to cover the salary increases going into July and are hopeful they will secure additional funding from the state by the end of the next budget cycle.
Why aren’t teacher salaries rising? . . . It’s not for lack of money. Even after adjusting for inflation and rising student enrollment, total school spending is up by about 29 percent over the last 20 years. . . This puzzle can be explained by three trends eating into teachers’ takehome pay: rising health care costs, declining student/teacher ratios, and rising retirement costs. . . Today, states are paying an average of 12 percent of each teacher’s salary just for debt costs.
Democrats have sweetened welfare and Medicaid benefits as well as grants for college students. And, of course, government workers have received fat raises. The state Legislative Analyst Office estimates that the prison guards’ new contract will cost the state $588 million in 2018. Mr. Brown’s budget includes an extra $734 million for home health-care workers (many represented by the SEIU). Pension costs have jumped by nearly three-quarters to $8.1 billion since 2011. The $15 an hour minimum wage that Mr. Brown recently signed will cost $3.4 billion when fully phased in for state workers.