Posts Tagged: controller

News

CA120: High diversity, but low turnout looms in 2018

A Ventura County voter casts a ballot in the June 2016 primary. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

Any sound voter analysis tries to identify prior events that hopefully serve to predict future voter behavior. For this we examine several past elections, including the gubernatorial elections we mentioned in Part I, and other recent presidential primaries. But each appears somewhat flawed as a predictor of what the 2018 primary will look like.

News

CA pensions’ tax bite exceeds national average

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

California pension funds take a bigger share of tax revenue than the national state average, a research website shows. Why the growing costs are outpacing the norm is not completely clear. A prime suspect for some would be overly generous pensions, particularly what critics say is an “unsustainable” increase for police and firefighters widely adopted to match a big increase given the Highway Patrol by SB 400 in 1999.

News

Term limits for CalPERS board leaders?

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

A tentative CalPERS proposal would limit the board president and committee chairs to four consecutive one-year terms, a policy that could end the long-running presidency of Rob Feckner in 2017. He has presided over times good and bad at the nation’s largest state public pension system.

News

Treasurer John Chiang eyes run for governor

John Chiang, then state controller and now California treasurer, at a 2013 gathering. (Photo: Ryan Miller/Invision/AP )

State Treasurer John Chiang said Monday he is “very interested” in running for governor in 2018 and will decide early next year whether to launch a campaign. Chiang, who served two terms as state controller before being elected treasurer in 2o14, is the latest in a number of prominent Democrats who have announced their intention to run for governor or are at least considering the job.

News

CalPERS urged to shun Obamacare ‘Cadillac Tax’

Calpensions: Employer and employee groups are urging CalPERS to “undertake all efforts” to avoid the “Cadillac Tax,” a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans imposed in 2018 by President Obama’s health care law, a CalPERS staff report said this month. But it’s far from clear that one of those efforts will be Gov. Brown’s proposal to give state workers the option of a low-cost plan with a high deductible, even though the administration mentions the looming penalty tax as a reason for offering the plan.

Opinion

Election recounts: Reforms urged

A California voter casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5)

OPINION: In some states, a narrow margin of victory triggers an automatic statewide recount at no cost to the candidate. California does not have such a provision, and I believe we need one.

News

Controller’s race a mystery wrapped in an enigma

Headquarters of the state controller, Sacramento. (Photo: Coolcaesar)

David Evans, a largely unknown Republican candidate in the race for state controller, emerged from obscurity and achieved stunning results on a $600 campaign budget against three established politicians, leaving analysts struggling to interpret the implications of the results.

News

Hunting retirees’ hidden health care debt

Calpensions: In a new step to expose hidden debt, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board last week proposed that retiree health care debt or “unfunded liability” be reported on the face of government financial statements, not buried inside.

News

John Pérez targets politics, future

CAPITOL WEEKLY INTERVIEW: Assembly Speaker John Pérez would like to stay in the Legislature but he’s got a problem: The law won’t let him. He’s termed out next year under voter-approved term limits and it’s time to move on. Pérez heads into the controller’s race with a $1.5 million campaign war chest. He likely will face fellow Democrat Betty Yee, a former chief deputy in the Finance Department, the office that writes budgets for the governor. Yee currently serves on the state Board of Equalization.

News

State vs. Cerritos over redevelopment money

The city of Cerritos may be a trailblazer of sorts among local governments, but it’s leading the way on a trail that local governments probably don’t want to follow. The southern California community, which boasts a population just shy of 50,000 residents, is among the first of several city governments in California to go to the mat against the state controller’s review of its shift of local assets from the redevelopment agency.

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