State of California

Commentary: Democrats Do Need to Get Serious on Pension Reform

calpers-buildingA few days ago, Republican Senators Bill Emmerson (Hemet), Tom Berryhill (Modesto), Anthony Cannella (Ceres) and Tom Harman (Huntington Beach) wrote an op-ed in the LA Times, pushing for their public employee pension reform legislation.

They discussed Senate Constitutional Amendment 13, which “resulted from last year’s failed negotiations with Gov. Jerry Brown over the reforms we sought and that  California desperately needs — including pension reform.”

Harris’ Settlement Brings Big Response But Many Questions

oc-woodland-1Occupy Movement Blasts the Deal and Calls For Moratorium on Foreclosure

Kamala Harris last week had a day many politicians dream of: a headline-making announcement that delivers a large amount of money to constituents.  Symbolically, the attorney general’s foreclosure settlement announcement and her role in shaping the out-of-court mortgage-abuse settlement with five huge home loan banks – Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial – marked a huge victory for the little guy in a sea of turmoil and unsettledness.

On the other hand, there are more questions than answers at this point.  As Peter Schrag, the venerable columnist now writing for the California Progress Report noted, “California Attorney General Kamala Harris deserves at least some of the self-congratulation she heaped on herself when the big national mortgage foreclosure deal was announced last week.”

Redistricting: Lesson in Being Careful What You Ask For

redistrictingA few years ago, Republicans, believing that legislative districts had been unfairly drawn, joined with the “good government” folks who believe that partisanship is bad to create a citizens redistricting committee to replace what they saw as partisan cronyism.

The problem was that the lines shockingly still gave the Democrats an advantage, in fact, perhaps an even greater advantage than they had previously.

Governor Brown Unveils Pension Reform Plans

Jerry-BrownAngry Response From Public Employees to the Governor’s Plan

On Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown unveiled the statutory and constitutional language to implement the 12-point pension reform plan he presented last October.

“These major reforms for state and local pension systems will improve their long-term sustainability while providing employees a fair retirement,” the governor wrote.  “These reforms also will end system-wide abuses and reduce taxpayer costs by billions of dollars over the long term.”

CalSTRS Reduces Earning Forecast Rates to 7.5 Percent

pension-reform-stockMove Puts Further Pressure on CalPERS to Do Likewise

In a move with huge implications, the governing board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the pension fund for teachers, lowered their investment return assumption from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent.

According to a release on Thursday, “The change is part of a four-year experience analysis that sets the parameters for determining the financial health of the system.”

Governor’s Tax Plan Gains Key Support from CTA

Brown-sos-2012However Other Groups Continuing to Back Millionaire’s Tax

Governor Brown has had to fight not only the right on his tax initiative, but his own base in the form of at least two competing measures.  This week, however, the governor gained key support as the California Teacher’s Association’s State Council of Education, comprised of 800 elected educators from across the state, endorsed the governor’s tax plan at their quarterly meeting in Los Angeles on Sunday.

“Educators know that California cannot continue to cut its way out of ongoing budget problems. We also know that not everyone in California is paying their fair share, and that’s why we are supporting the governor’s tax proposal, which taxes the wealthiest Californians in order to bring additional revenue to our schools, colleges and other essential public services,” Dean Vogel, president of the CTA and a Davis resident said in a statement on Sunday.

Schools Drive Support for Governor Brown’s Tax Measure

sacramento-state-capitolThere is little doubt that Governor Jerry Brown, who has struggled to get a handle on the budget, will applaud the findings in a recent PPIC (Public Policy Institute of California) poll that shows 68 percent of likely voters (and 72 percent of all adults) favor the his tax proposal.

How strong is that support?  Even Republicans are found to be slightly more likely to favor (53%) than oppose it (46%).

Governor Pushes for Tax Plan to Save Schools and Invest in Infrastructure

Senator Wolk: Opposes Peripheral Canal in Delta Plan

Brown-sos-2012

“California is on the mend,” Governor Brown began his State of the State address, arguing that because of last year’s actions, “we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people. The result is a problem one-fourth as large as the one we confronted last year.”

“California has problems but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated,” the governor said.

Education Could Be Restored or Hammered Under Budget Proposal

schoolA Look at Education in Governor Brown’s Budget Proposal

The Vanguard is going to, over the next week or so, analyze several critical areas of the budget.  We begin where we have been for the last several years – looking at K-12 education.   No area of the budget has been hammered harder than education.

On a local level, the continuing education cuts have meant that the school district has had to implement two additional parcel tax measures in 2008 and 2011 in order to keep funding relatively stable.

Split Court Decision Allows For the Elimination of Redevelopment but Not Compromise Bill

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In what has been billed a significant victory for the Jerry Brown administration, the California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state could eliminate redevelopment agencies, thus paving the way for the state to divert money from local redevelopment agencies in an effort to balance the current budget.

The court would rule that the actions taken by the legislation represent “a proper exercise of the legislative power vested in the Legislature by the state Constitution.”

Mixed Reviews on Pension Reform Plan From Governor

Jerry-BrownA piece of legislation that may have the most impact on the fiscal solvency of cities like Davis is Governor Jerry Brown’s public pension reform plan.  Earlier this week, analysis from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) showed a mixed review.

The LAO called the Governor’s Proposal a “bold, excellent starting point” that “would help increase public confidence in California’s retirement systems.”

Wolk and Yamada Continue to Oppose Water Bond

Wolk-Yamada

By Dan Aiello

The Department of Fish and Game’s announcement this month of a remarkable turnaround in the populations of the Bay-Delta estuary’s endangered Smelt and Salmon species spelled more trouble for proponents of the state’s 2012 water bond measure.

Delta legislators and environmentalists were delighted by news of the recovering populations within the Delta but, assured an epic election battle where they expect to be heavily outspent by water interest groups, continue to promote science, conservation and regional sustainability over what they claim is a monolithic funding measure that’s bloated with unnecessarily expensive statewide solutions to what amount to regional water woes.

Nursing Home Nightmares Recur As California Enables More Customers

assemblymember-mariko-yamada35,000 poor, frail elders slated to lose adult daycare benefit December 1

By Assemblymember Mariko Yamada

Recent front-page Sacramento Bee headlines about tragedies in California nursing homes should be glaring reminders about the reasons California pioneered the Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) alternative to nursing home care forty years ago.   If you are old, or are planning to be – pay attention – because this system is about to vanish.

Facing severe budget pressures, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is currently dismantling the ADHC program in California.  This proven cost-effective program that has worked well to keep Californians out of nursing homes for the past four decades has fallen victim to an annual game of “budget chicken”.

A Commentary on Reader Comments

reader-comments

Two years ago this site had a pretty bad reputation for being a tough place in terms of the comment section.  People told me they would avoid the comment section altogether, and some people did not even like going to the site because of what they called vitriol.

As I look at other sites around the web, I question whether the Davis Vanguard comment section was ever that bad, but following one particularly contentious election I knew there had to be changes made.

Republicans To Challenge Redistricting Boundaries

redistrictingThe Sacramento Bee and other media outlets are reporting this morning that Republicans have announced that they will support a signature drive to overturn the newly-drawn Senate Districts, prior to their taking effect.

Republican strategist David Gilliard is leading the way.  He argued on Monday, “This is not an attack on the process – it’s an attack on the product.”

News Goes From Bad To Worse: Schools Face More Cuts With Sluggish Economic Recovery

sacramento-state-capitolWill 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.

Now, as the July numbers come out, showing dropping revenue, fears on Tuesday were raised that deeper cuts to education would be needed.

All-Mail Ballot Local Elections Coming to Yolo County

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Critics Complain About Possibility of Voter Fraud, But Studies Show Few Instances of Confirmed Voter Fraud in Absentee Voting –

In May, the Davis School District held an all-mail election for the parcel tax.  For all of the acrimony generated mainly by one columnist for a local paper, the election came off without a hitch, as it has in numerous other communities and, indeed, in entire states.

By holding an all-mail election, the election generated a somewhat higher turnout than similar off-year elections in past years.  The November 2007 elections that featured school board candidates and the Measure Q parcel tax had just a 32.8 percent turnout, and in 2009 Measure P had a 33 percent turnout. For the May 2011 Measure A vote, the turnout was 38%.