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California got into this pickle because in 2001, when the UIF had a $6.5 billion reserve, the Legislature and then-Gov. Gray Davis decided to boost benefits sharply – nearly doubling them, in fact – without raising payroll taxes to pay for them. The extra benefits reduced the fund balance, leaving it unable to cope with sharp increases in claims for benefits when recession hit the state six years later. It was irresponsible, akin to the big increases in public employee pensions that Davis and legislators also decreed without a plan to pay for them, which also has created a big debt.

She plans to amend and revive stalled legislation guaranteeing double Thanksgiving pay so it would only apply to workers at large retail businesses that have more than 500 employees in California.

During this decade, however, a slow recovery from recession and a temporary hike in taxes approved by voters in 2012 have boosted general fund revenues from scarcely $80 billion when Jerry Brown began his second governorship in 2011 to an estimated $116 billion today.

The state will end the current fiscal year in June with $3.5 billion more in revenue than lawmakers expected when they approved the budget for the current year last June. And the state would have reserves of $11.5 billion in June 2017, the end of the 2016-17 budget year, barring any new budget commitments.

Moreover, says the report from the National Resource Network, California’s distressed cities are more than a quarter of the 297 U.S. cities over 40,000 population that fall into that category. The organization is affiliated with the White House Council on Strong Cities.

While those on the economic ladder’s top rungs are doing very well, the report continued, “many other Californians, however, are not thriving and continue to experience significant levels of unemployment, steeply rising housing and higher education costs, and stagnant wages and incomes.”

Now, after Local 1000 recently reached impasse with 135 of its administrative and support staff represented by United Auto Workers Local 2350, the last offer put on the table is going out for a vote. The deal offers a modest raise but rolls back retiree health benefits. Members have rejected similar agreements before.

Senate Bill 863, backed by employers and labor unions, affected many specific aspects of the system but was aimed largely at reducing medical costs and redirecting savings into cash benefit increases for disabled workers. . . The medical care portions of the bill appear to be having the desired effect, a new study by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau concludes.

The state’s cap-and-trade system requires businesses to purchase allowances for their climate-altering emissions, and it has generated some $2.8 billion for climate related programs to date. The Air Resources Board is selling off potentially more than 75,000 additional permits today, promising even more funding to be directed by elected officials who still haven’t decided how to divvy up the existing pot.

With the recession over, Sacramento-area freeways and roads are crowded again. Some say more than ever.

Whether or not El Niño turns out to be a drought-buster, this parched period has highlighted California’s larger need to get smarter about its water supply as the population grows and future droughts loom.

A huge growth in the over-65 population, from about 4.5 million today to more than 11 million by 2050 – nearly a quarter of the state’s residents then – will disrupt labor markets as it imposes major new costs on taxpayers for health care and other services.

However, the staff recommendation before the state school board is to eliminate the API and “identify the obsolete and outdated references to the API that need to be removed” as part of its repeal, implying that the parent trigger law should also die.

One million more skilled workers, to close a growing degree shortage driven by shifts in technology and educational expectations among industries. One million more homes for middle-income families, as soaring costs once again put buying out of reach for most Californians. And one million more acre-feet of water per year, representing a push for sustainable management of the state’s dwindling supplies.

About 14.3 percent of Californians between 65 and 75 worked full time in 2014, up from 7.5 percent in 2000. As baby boomers become seniors, that translates into almost 440,000 senior citizens working full time last year in California, more than double the number from 2000.