Budget and Finance
Back to homepageBudget Negotiations Getting Combative
MARCH 18, 2011 By KATY GRIMES The Legislature Thursday passed the main budget bill, with nearly $14 billion in spending reductions. Budgets would be slashed for libraries, higher education, parks, programs for the poor, universities and colleges, state parks and
Read MoreFamilies, Not Relief, Still Safety Net
MARCH 18, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI With implications for California budget discussions, a new study shows that unemployment benefits delay the time the jobless find work. The study comes out at a time when California’s unemployment rate of 12.4 percent
Read MoreAssembly OKs Prisoner Dump
MARCH 18, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS On a straight party-line vote, California Assembly Democrats approved a public safety bill on Thursday that Republicans warned will dump inmates out of overcrowded state prisons and into overcrowded county jails — or release
Read MoreRepublicans Block Redevelopment Vote
MARCH 17, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With many predicting that yesterday’s budget vote in the Legislature was just going to be a drill, lawmakers surprised everyone and actually cut $7.4 billion from various state programs. It was an attempt to
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CA GOP Anti-Establishment Revolt
MARCH 17, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER Gov. Jerry Brown and his allies in the media and the Democratic Party are turning the budget battle into a question of patriotism. As reported by columnist George Skelton, Brown has reverted to Cold
Read MoreLockyer: Pensions Won't “Crush Govt.”
MARCH 17, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI Bill Lockyer’s recent harsh criticism of a bluntly honest Little Hoover Commission report, “Pensions for Retirement Security,” sounded more like Shakespeare’s King Lear than that of the Treasurer of the State of California. Lockyer is so
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Financial Aid for Illegal Students OK’d
MARCH 16, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS The Assembly Higher Education Committee approved two bills on Tuesday allowing college students who are in the state illegally to receive financial aid. Dubbed the California Dream Act, AB130 allows illegal immigrants to receive
Read MoreJapan Quake Shaking CA Economy
MARCH 15, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER In the long run, California’s economy probably will not be greatly affected by the economic aftershocks of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In the short run, it could be shaken in various ways.
Read MoreCalifornia Takes Huge Leap Toward Default
MARCH 15, 2011 BY CHRISS STREET California taxpayers just took a huge punch in the nose from the same actuaries who provided the cover for state politicians to spike public employee retirement benefits. The latest shocker comes from California State Controller John
Read MoreBrown-GOP Negotiations Revealed
Satire alert MARCH 14, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS Five Republican Senate mavericks have been negotiating with Gov. Jerry Brown in an attempt to get him to agree to proposals that would create jobs, rein in spending and eliminate pension abuses
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