The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Feoktistoff, via Shutterstock)Asked about the prospect of a Democratic supermajority in the California Legislature after Nov. 8, leaders of both parties are being, well, supercautious. With a Democratic supermajority, which means majorities of two-thirds or greater in each house, Republicans could go from marginalized to irrelevant.
A retiree checks out the newspaper in his back yard. (Photo: Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock)Calpensions: A board working on a proposal to enroll most small business employees in a state-run retirement savings plan, unless they opt out, was told last week that small technology-focused financial firms could do the job. The founders of three firms that offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans to small businesses did not object to competition from the state.
Voters cast ballots at the November 2014 general election in Oak View, Calif. (Photo: Joseph Sohm) We Californians justifiably become excited about our many remarkable achievements: we make terrific movies; Silicon Valley leads the planet in technological innovation; our traffic jams are world class. But when it comes to voting, we give a statewide shrug. A mere 42.2 percent of registered voters — registered voters — bothered to cast ballots in the November 2014 general election. Los Angeles County bottomed out statewide with a turnout of 31 percent. It gets even worse: The June 2014 turnout was 25.2 percent.
Calpensions: An accounting board best known for requiring the calculation and reporting of the debt owed for retiree health care promised government workers, which often turned out to be shockingly large, is having another moment. This month the Governmental Accounting Standards Board applied new rules for reporting pension debt to retiree heath care.
Consumers have been complaining this year that Covered California insurance plans have doctor’s networks that are too narrow. The doctors they want to see don’t accept the insurance, they say. While a relatively new problem for California’s upper- and middle-class residents, this situation has been a problem for the poor for decades.
A major public pension reform initiative got a mixed cost analysis last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure would give state and local governments the option of cutting retirement benefits current workers earn in the future, while preserving benefits already earned through past service.