Last night, Governor Jerry Brown laid down the gauntlet against Republican lawmakers, accusing them of an “unconstitutional delegation of power.”
Will Water Policies Further Imperil Funding to Local Schools?An already bad month is about to get worse, and we are only a third of the way through August. It seemed like, just a few months ago, a rebounding economy was triggering less deep cuts to education and other state programs.
I have fought hard to fight costs at other levels of government because my belief is that education spending is an investment in the future. Sadly, I fear these priorities will go out the window, as rising costs for water and other city government costs, along with a persistent stagnant economy, threaten to undermine education’s base.
The legislature did on Tuesday what Judge David Rosenberg had admonished Davis Enterprise Columnist Rich Rifkin about, saying it could not be done, when they moved about 300 million dollars from the court construction fund to the general fund.
Back in mid-April, Davis Enterprise columnist Rich Rifkin challenged the new Yolo County courthouse project, arguing “One area where the state might save some money without too much pain is with its ambitious plan to build 35 new courthouses and to renovate six old ones. In 2008, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 1407. It provides five billion dollars for these 41 projects.”
The budget is on time for the first time in a long time, but there is no joy in Mudville. The goals of the administration are quashed and the only reason the budget was passed was the voters last November allowed a majority budget to be passed so long as there were no tax increases.
Last fall we argued that if Jerry Brown could not fix the system, no one could. At the end of the day, no one can.
It was in a lot of ways an amazing turn of events, as Governor Jerry Brown gave up any hope of striking a bipartisan budget deal on taxes, abandoned the idea of placing tax extensions on the ballot, and instead announced they would push through a plan that would rely solely on the support of Democrats in the legislature.
The Governor’s announcement was unveiled in a joint news conference with Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg and Speaker of the Assembly John Perez.
Governor Jerry Brown may have angered his own party by vetoing their flawed budget last week, but it was clear from the start that his true target was Republicans, whom the Governor is rapidly losing patience with.
Last week, despite the veto, he called the efforts of the Democrats in the Legislature “valiant,” suggesting that the $11 billion in painful cuts was a noteworthy accomplishment. “I commend them for their tremendous efforts to balance the budget in the absence of Republican cooperation,” the Governor said
Those who do not believe that Governor Jerry Brown is a different kind of Governor might want to look at his quick veto of his own party’s budget.
In a video release on Thursday, the Governor delivered a quick message that he would not not sign Senate Bill 69 and Assembly Bill 98, which together comprise the state budget passed by the Legislature on June 15, 2011.
Redevelopment is one of the Programs Slashed – On Wednesday Democrats send Governor Brown a budget package that claimed to close nearly ten billion in the budget deficit, although it includes several tricks and maneuvers that the Governor has said he does not want.
A published report in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee suggested that the state has no idea how it will reduce 144 thousand inmates down to 133 thousand within five months.
Matthew Cate, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Tuesday “We are out of time and we’re out of room. We’ve got to get this done.”
71 teachers and other protesters were arrested May 9 after about 200 of them gathered in the rotunda of the Capitol around 5 pm. The CHP told them the building was closed around 6:15 or so and began arrests a few minutes later.
As we have noted for some time, pensions really are not a crisis at the state level. Nevertheless, the biggest push has been to fix them at the state level as though pensions were what was driving the current budget crisis.
We have pointed out numerous times that the current budget crisis is actually a revenue crisis caused by what some are now calling the Great Recession. State spending is actually at its lower level in real dollars in decades. Yet we retain around a $15 billion deficit, give or take for the latest adjustments.
I have long since ceased to care about people’s personal infidelity as it comes to politics. I understand people like to relate character to elected officials. Certainly when it comes to issues of public trust, like corruption in politics, character matters.
But I am less than convinced that character as a whole makes any difference as to whether a person is capable of carrying out faithfully the obligations of office. And so, if I have to choose between two people I agree with on the issues, I may choose the better person for the purposes of breaking a tie.
Part of the Governor’s plan for pension reform is to study a hybrid plan which would typically consister of a smaller defined benefit pension plan, which is currently utilized, combined with some sort of defined contribution plan, normally associated with 401(k)s.
In defined contribution plans, employers do not incur unfunded pension liabilities, since the contribution portion is defined rather than the output or the benefit. There is an advantage, thus, to the employer but it increases the risk to the employee.
By E. Roberts Musser –
There is no question legislators can be very short-sighted when it comes to budgetary decision making. Such is the case with adult day health care in California. There has been a move this year and previously, to eliminate adult day health care as a cost saving measure. In reality, to eliminate adult day health care would end up costing the state more money, not less. And it would disproportionately affect the disabled and low income, contrary to well settled law.
Davis passed its parcel tax on May 4 with a bare supermajority of 67.2 percent of the vote. They were not alone, as Dan Walters reports this morning, “Earlier this month, voters in 13 Northern California school districts passed judgment on proposed ‘parcel taxes’ – a form of property taxes not based on value.”
Mr. Walters continues, “The outcomes were not surprising. All of the districts were in relatively affluent communities that tend toward liberal politics. Their voters decided that enhancing education for their children, grandchildren and neighbors was worth taxing themselves.”
Local official are bracing for the May revise to the state’s budget. The Governor was able to close a portion of the more than twenty-five billion dollar deficit through an initial round of cuts. However, his plan was to extend the tax increases to deal with most of the remainder of the budget deficit.
Politics have derailed this effort and it appears increasingly likely that the budget gap will be closed through an all-cuts budget, despite a strong majority of the public who prefer the opportunity to at least vote on the Governor’s tax extension package.
One of my chief complaints about the management of the budget deficit in the City of Davis was the state of denial the former city manager was in, and thus by extension the rest of the city, most particularly city employees and to some extent the broader community.
As we look to a new city manager, we must keep in mind the fact that, just because things are not as bad here as elsewhere does not mean we are not on the brink. The brink being looking down the barrel of huge increases in the cost of pensions and retiree insurance, based on huge and growing unfunded liabilities.
Governor Brown’s Plan is in Trouble, Based on Legislative Counsel’s Opinion and Legislative Action – Another key provision of the his plan was the elimination of redevelopment and the transfer of those funds to state purposes. Last week, the Legislative Counsel declared the Governor’s redevelopment plan unconstitutional.
The website strongly criticizes eight figures who they say are leading the charge to change public pensions. These include Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform; Marcia Fritz, executive director of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility; and an “anonymous out-of-state billionaire.”
