Business-friendly bill or not?

Jan. 11, 2010 By KATY GRIMES In what appeared to be the first good news of the new year, the Assembly Committee on Jobs and Economic Development voted unanimously to ease the permitting process for start-up and expanding businesses in

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Where's Marty?

Just sat in on a 3:30 pm conference call sponsored by the Governor’s Office of External Affairs. Brand new Finance Director Ana Matosantos was there, as was Labor Department Director Vicky Bradshaw. Matosantos spoke quickly, throwing out a lot of

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Arnold's budget: More cuts needed

I’m working on a longer piece on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2010-11 budget proposal [pdf]. My preliminary thoughts: It’s a start on reducing a projected $19.9 billion deficit. It cuts spending an additional $8.5 billion, shifts $4.5 billion in spending, and

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Budget: state employees to contribute additional 5 percent

From the governor’s office: State Employee Compensation Savings: To achieve $1.4 billion in General Fund savings, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed 15 percent reduction in state personnel costs achieved by modifying employee compensation and reducing our workforce budget. The changes to employee

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'Community groups' or union fronts?

National Public Radio’s KPCC reported today that “community groups” are planning to protest the governor’s plan to slash pay for government employees. It’s interesting to me that grassroots groups that ostensibly are there to help the poor are taking to

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Cuts in state pay, benefits proposed

The Bee reported this morning that the governor “will propose ending fulroughs for state workers at the end of June but seek permanent pay cuts an dhigher employee retirement contributions in their place … .” Check out state salaries here.

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Debra Saunders: Arnold a flop

One of my favorite columnists is Debra Saunders of Chronicle. She’s survived the ongoing demise of newspapers, at least so far. Her take on Arnold’s State of the State address is similar to mine (which was published yesterday in our

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