Budget and Finance

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Brown's Tax Election Stalling

MARCH 8, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER A couple of days ago it seemed as though Gov. Jerry Brown had the needed GOP votes to slate a Special Election for June on increasing taxes. Now it seems he doesn’t. His deadline

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Costa Mesa Stands Up To Public Unions

MARCH 7, 2011 By LAER PEARCE The chambers were packed at Costa Mesa’s City Council meeting last Tuesday night, and understandably so.  After all, the council was considering sending pink slips to 203 city employees – 43 percent of the

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Ignoring Pension Truth Tellers

MARCH 5, 2011 There’s no getting away from the pension issue these days or from the fact that the state’s pension system is on the brink of disaster unless pensions for state and local workers are pared back dramatically. The

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Inflation Stalks CA Budgets

MARCH 4, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER Like a rerun of “That 70s Show,” inflation is back. And it’s hitting both personal and government budgets in California. The most obvious signal of renewed inflation is the rise in prices at the

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CPUC Floats $3.4 Billion Green Water Tax

MARCH 4, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI Call it the Green Water Tax. It’s a proposal advanced in a White Paper on the Web site of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to impose a $3.4 billion surcharge on the energy-related costs

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'Calpetbaggers' Still Spiking Pensions

MARCH 2, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI Call them “Calpetbaggers.” They’re the 200 local governmental entities fingered in last week’s Little Hoover Commission’s pension report that have defiantly increased public pension benefits since 2008 — in the face of a $240 billion

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Brown Late, Budget in Turmoil

MAR. 1, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Gov. Jerry Brown was late delivering key realignment revisions to California legislators, who seemed befuddled at budget hearings Monday. The report, on a proposed constitutional amendment on realignment, was made available Feb. 28 to

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Poisonous Budget Spider Uncovered

FEB. 28, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI There is a line in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe where a gentleman is… advised to remember that all the wealth he had acquired by sucking the blood of miserable victims had but swelled

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Pensions Before The Poor!

FEB. 28, 2011 By TROY ANDERSON For years, officials in California have used accounting gimmicks, stimulus funds and the state credit card to keep the safety net intact. But experts say the state may have run out of tricks. Facing

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Can California Mimic Wisconsin?

FEB. 28, 2011 If a real union reform battle can take place in Wisconsin and spread to other liberal rust-belt, union-dominated states, then it could perhaps happen in California —- although it might take some time, given the political dynamic

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