Budget and Finance

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Education waste: a textbook case

APRIL 29, 2010 By LLOYD BILLINGSLEY State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, seeks to block California from adapting textbooks from Texas, currently revising its curriculum along what Yee and other critics view as right-wing lines. The senator has not submitted

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Liberal group's (PPIC) loaded questions

Big surprise: A liberal-leaning think tank releases a study showing that Californians want more government spending on public education. As the Public Policy Institute of California explains in a newly released study, “As California once again confronts a multibillion dollar budget

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Critics slam state property sale

APRIL 28, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Recently, Department of General Services (DGS) Director Ron Diedrich removed several of the oversight appointees from building authorities in San Francisco and Los Angeles  for making waves about the 11 state properties for sale, replacing the critics

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Prisoner-transfer bans rejected

APRIL 27, 2010 By KATY GRIMES In a sometimes contentious Public Safety Committee hearing earlier this month, Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, presented SB1078 dealing with the transfer of California’s prison inmates to out-of-state prisons, as well as prisons out of the

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Bill could sunset state agencies

APRIL 26, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Should all state agencies be subject to possible dissolution after 12 years, following a review by The Little Hoover Commission and the Legislature? State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, thinks they should and proposed SB887 creating

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Governor Supporting Pension Reform

APRIL 22, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murietta, announced that they’re supporting pension reform for state employees. The governor stated that while it is a compromise from his earlier hard line approach, something must

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Snake Oil Legislators

APRIL 21, 2010 Nearly every person I talk to is either feeling the crush of the bad economy or knows people who are really suffering. Which leads me to believe that most California legislators don’t run in the same circles

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California’s Debt Bondage

APRIL 20, 2010 By JOHN SEILER In my previous article on finding ways to suspend some state spending for a year to help solve the $20 billion deficit problem, “Initiatives tax state budget,” I looked at initiatives voters passed that

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Moving California forward?

APRIL 20, 2010 By KATY GRIMES In one of the most relevant legislative hearings held recently, the Assembly Budget Committee heard testimony from members of California Forward, the group proposing the controversial voting threshold change from the current two-thirds vote

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A plea to liberals for pension reform

APRIL 19, 2010 You know the pension tsunami is getting close to the shore when the mainstream media are filled with hard-hitting stories about the coming crisis, such as the front-page Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee article last Sunday documenting

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