California budget

SCHWARZENEGGER ORDERS MINIMUM WAGE FOR STATE WORKERS

Four unions that agreed to slash pensions exempted from order

“I find it wrong for a Governor worth $40 million to be telling a state worker earning $40,000 that you are only worth $7.25 an hour.” – Lace Watkins, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
 

July 1, 2010 (Sacramento) – State workers won’t be celebrating this holiday weekend. Late today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the State Controlled to reduce pay for state workers to minimum wage , $7.25 an hour, until the Legislature passes a state budget. The announcement has left thousands of workers worried over how to cover their families’ living expenses with wages slashed to the bone.


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INITIATIVE TO ALLOW STATE BUDGET PASSAGE WITH SIMPLE MAJORITY VOTE QUALIFIES FOR NOVEMBER BALLOT


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STATE FUNDING CUTS FORCE SEVERE SUMMER COURSE REDUCTIONS

 

 

Nearly 5,000 students on waiting lists due to 50% cutback in classes;
veterans on G.I. bill and students on financial aid risk losing funds


East County News Service

June 21, 2010 (El Cajon) – Higher education funding cuts due to the California state budget crisis have forced Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District to severely reduce summer course sections, despite growing demands for classes from students seeking to retrain for new careers and complete general education requirements to transfer to four-year universities and colleges.

 

Despite efforts to keep budget cuts from harming students, the colleges have been forced to slash summer offerings by 50%.


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A TALE OF 3 BUDGETS: STATE LEGISLATURE GRAPPLES OVER DUELING PROPOSALS

May 27, 2010 (Sacramento) – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senate and Assembly Democratic leaders have proposed three separate budgets with drastically different approaches to closing a $20 billion gap.  Should California completely eliminate safety nets for children, poor families and the elderly? 

 

That's what the Governor has proposed -- and what Republican leaders in both houses support. Or should corporate tax breaks be delayed to help balance the budget, as Senate Democrats propose?  Or should a compromise measure from Senate Assembly leaders, that includes both cuts and a tax on oil companies, plus outsourcing management of bottle bill revenues, be considered?  

 

Those are among the touch choices facing state legislators.  


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WILL POWER REPORT: LIAR'S POKER


Nothing but the Truth!

May 20, 2010 (San Diego) -- The Annual California Budget Mess has started -again! Arnold "Terminator" Swartzenegger has proposed a budget which guts welfare, healthcare. and schools, and aid to the mentally ill. Swartzenegger refuses to tax Big Oil, while California Republicans continue to block a Democratic budget reform which might actually tax businesses. A 10% oil severance tax, which California refuses (unlike all other US states), would easily pay for many of these cuts in state service.

 

California has been unable to pass a budget for years, thanks to a "Minority Rules" quirk in the State Constitution. Under current rules, a small minority of Republicans is able to block a budget which needs a 2/3 vote to pass new taxes or reform the Governor's Budget.


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NAVA CALLS ON GOVERNOR TO SUPPORT OIL SEVERANCE TAX

 

California is the Only Top Ten Producing State Without a Tax
Texas Taxes = $14.33/barrel; California only gets $4.22/barrel

May 17,2010 (Sacramento) – Last week, as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released an updated California Budget with massive cuts in services, Assemblymember Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) called on the Governor to support his  Assembly Bill 1604, the Oil Industry Fair Share Act. The bill would create an 10 percent oil severance tax on each barrel of oil produced in California and generate over $1.5 billion in revenues to fund public safety, education, human services, and other vital programs.

“At a time when classrooms are becoming more crowded, when more and more people are losing their health insurance due to unemployment, and numerous programs affecting seniors, and the disabled are facing increased cuts, we cannot allow the oil industry to get a free ride in California,” said Nava, who is also a candidate for Attorney General. “These resources belong to the people of California and therefore should be used for the benefit of all our hardworking families.”


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GOVERNOR PROPOSES TERMINATION OF WELFARE-TO-WORK AND DRASTIC CUTS IN SERVICES FOR SENIORS, DISABLED, & CHILDREN

 

Majority Vote Budget Initiative qualifies for ballot

How would you balance the budget? Take the Next10 budget challenge

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 14, 2010 (Sacramento) – Facing a budget deficit of over $20 billion, today Governor Schwarzenegger proposed deep new budget cuts.  The Governor proposes the complete elimination of the CAL-Works program (which will impact over 80,000 low-income parents and their children in San Diego County), slash in-home care for seniors and the disabled (including 23,000 seniors and disabled persons in San Diego County), and sharply cut funds for the Healthy Families program, among other drastic measures.

 

Hoping to end budget gridlock, teachers, firefighters and nurses last week joined together to submit more than 1.1 million signatures and qualify a Majority Vote Budget Initiative for the November 2, 2010 election.  “Late budgets hurt all Californians and the budget crisis is continuing to be the top issue in the state,” said Kay McVay, President Emeritus of the California Nurses Association, “This initiative will not end all of the gridlock, but it is a step in the right direction.”


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LEGISLATIVE LEADERS INTRODUCE PACKAGE OF BILLS TO CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOPHOLES

 

Bills’ supporters say budget shortfalls will hurt economy, lead to crowded schools and disintegration of safety-net
 

 

May 10, 2010 (Sacramento) -- Legislators held a State Capitol News Conference to announce the introduction of a package of bills to close “fat cat tax” loopholes.


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COURT OKS STATE TO RAID LOCAL REDEVELOPMENT FUNDS TO BALANCE BUDGET & HELP SCHOOLS; DECISION IRES SOME OFFICIALS

 

May 6, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – A Sacramento County Superior Court ruled last week in favor of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to raid more than $2 billion from local redevelopment funds. The Governor wants to transfer those monies to school operations.
 

“La Mesa will take a hit of $1,200,000.00,” La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid told East County Magazine in an e-mail.


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GROSSMONT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT FACES PAINFUL BUDGET CUTS

 

January 28, 2008 (El Cajon) – “Tonight is a most difficult meeting,” GUHSD Superintendent Bob Collins told those present this evening at a special governing board budget workshop. Citing funding cuts from the state plaguing school districts throughout the state, he warned of a growing budget gap.

 

“The current district surplus will be fully consumed in solving this crisis—and it will not be enough.” He predicted, “It will be gone by the end of the year—and things are going to get worse.”


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CALIFORNIA’S FIREFIGHTING CAPACITY IS STRESSED AND FIREFIGHTERS STRETCHED THIN BY BUDGET CUTS, FIRE CHIEFS WARN LEGISLATIVE PANEL IN SAN DIEGO

 

State Fire Experts Urge Adoption of Emergency Response Initiative (ERI) 

 

By Miriam Raftery

September 23, 2009 (San Diego) - With major wildfires burning in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and red flag warnings locally due to high fire danger, State Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) chaired a joint legislative committee hearing on emergency management in San Diego today. Fire chiefs and legislators presented grim warnings that California’s fire and emergency preparedness has been stretched too thin by budget cuts, placing area residents in jeopardy. Here are a few samples of the dire concerns raised:

”It’s October. The winds are kicking up, and we are really challenged…There are blackouts, brownouts, and reduced strike teams.“ – San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarmon

“Our members, they’ve all said that constraints of the budgets at state and county levels are wearing our firefighters out.” – Lou Paulson, President, California Professional Firefighers

“The system is stressed…There is zero margin for error…50 engines have dropped off the grid since the Cedar Fire…San Francisco ran out of engines. There are brownouts and blackouts at fire districts around the state…We handled the Station Fire in Los Angeles because it was the only fire…Heaven forbid if we had had three or four fires in Southern California and they were wind-driven.” – Chief Sheldon Gilbert, Co-Chair, Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force and Fire Chief, Alameda County

Our fire prevention budget is shamefully low..Firefighting costs have increased 100% in the last five years…I want to see more put in at the front end.” – Senator Christine Kehoe


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ANDERSON IOU BILL CLEARS COMMITTEE

 

September 1, 2009 (Sacramento) – Residents, business owners, charities and other organizations from around the state flooded the office of Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) with over 1,500 letters in support of AB 1506. The bill, authored by Anderson, would require California to accept its own IOUs as payment for taxes or fees owed to the state.

 


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FIXING WHAT’S BROKEN: CALL BROADENS TO HOLD A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IN CALIFORNIA


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BUDGET PASSED - ”BUT CALIFORNIA'S FINANCIAL SITUATION REMAINS "PRECARIOUS"; STATE REPUBLICANS BLOCK REELECTION FUNDS FOR GOP MEMBERS WHO VOTED FOR TAX HIKES


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