Tucked away in the state budget package on Gov. Brown’s desk is a provision that makes it easier for local governments to avoid complying with Public Records Act requests.
“The bill essentially makes a portion of the Public Records Act optional for local governments – that’s the long and short of it,” said Phillip
Gov. Brown’s rewritten budget borrows $500 million from California’s cap-and-trade auctions and diverts the money for use in other state programs – a move that drew immediate fire from clean-air advocates.
The administration said the $500 million represents a one-time loan and will be paid back, with interest. Tapping the money was proper, the
For some, “realignment” is a four-letter word.
When the strapped state in 2011 approved shifting programs — incarcerating some prison inmates, for example — to the counties as part of a budget-balancing act, the idea was to give the locals enough money to handle the new responsibilities.
But it didn’t quite work out
As the weather heats up, a Capitol debate is heating up, too — on the hotly disputed ‘fire tax.’
The $150 annual charge on some 850,000 rural property owners is on the books, despite delays in collections, court action and tens of thousands of complaints from property owners. Republican lawmakers have seized the issue
From the Public Policy Institute of California:
Strong majorities of Californians favor Governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal and, specifically, his plan to direct extra money to school districts with more English Learner and lower-income students. Fewer—but still a majority of residents—back the governor’s plan to pay down the state’s debt and create a reserve,
Saying California was “back” and “on the move,” a chipper Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers in his annual State of the State speech to streamline funding for schools, focus on implementing federal health care reform and keep a tight rein on spending so the budget stays balanced.
The Democratic governor said Thursday that he
Resolving a divorce, a custody tussle, a contract dispute, a landlord tenant fight, an unpaid debt or any number of multimillion-dollar or small claims civil issues takes longer and costs more than it used to.
And it’ll get costlier and even more time-consuming, experts say, because of the steady diet of state budget cuts
Saying California’s chronic multi-billion dollar shortfalls are over for at least the next five years, Gov. Jerry Brown presented a $139 billion budget Thursday that increases spending for public schools by nearly $3 billion and for higher education by $600 million.
“California came through probably 15 years of great fiscal difficulties. Some of it
Months before California voters approved new taxes in the Nov. 6 election, accounting practices in the state budget were changed – changes that ultimately could make it much harder to define just how much money the state has taken in or is likely to get.
The changes were approved by the Legislature and governor