California’s Capitol is ruled by a handful of powerful special interests, according to more than two-thirds of those surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California. PPIC’s survey of likely voters also noted that despite a recent string of scandals that have tarnished the Senate, the public’s perception of lawmakers has remained constant.
OPINION: Public employees have shown they are willing to do their part to help balance government budgets. We may not have liked the pension system overhaul Governor Brown signed in 2012, but once it became law our union leaders helped to implement the changes, which will amount to a reduction of more than $77 billion to public workers’ retirement and health care benefits.
An $8 million pension bond was approved last week by voters in Piedmont, a small well-to-do city completely surrounded by deep-in-debt Oakland, originator of the pension bond that has figured in the Stockton, San Bernardino and Detroit bankruptcies. (Photo: City of Fremont
Susan F. Rasky, a former Congressional reporter for the New York Times who taught for two decades at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, died Sunday following a long illness. She was 61.
A superior court judge overturned a freeze on retiree health care for Los Angeles city attorneys this month, citing some of the same case law that made public pensions a vested right that can only be cut if offset by a new benefit.
The CalSTRS board was told last week that it’s unclear whether the new liability figure will be reported by the state or spread among school districts, where more than doubling current debt might lower credit ratings and drive up borrowing costs.
Capitol Alert: FPPC fines Kinney, Areias, Hickox for covert lobbying
“Three well-connected partners in the prominent California Strategies public affairs firm have agreed to pay fines to California’s political watchdog agency for trying to influence state government decisions without registering as lobbyists.”
“Jason Kinney, Rusty Areias and Winston Hickox violated state law when they “crossed over the line which
Well over half of California’s 120 state legislators come from local government – the 450-plus city councils, the 58 boards of supervisors, the 1,100 school districts and the other local bodies that do the heavy lifting of day-today governance.
But once they get to Sacramento, the perspective changes. And if blaming Sacramento is common at
In the upper levels of California government, Mac Taylor is indeed a rarity – he’s nonpartisan.
As the Legislative Analyst – he’s only the fifth one since the office was created 72 years ago – Taylor is the taxpayers’ watchdog over budget and ballot measures and their potential costs. He is the Legislature’s nonpartisan
For those who work in state government and have experience in the legislative process, there are few surprises. Every now and then, however, political tricks threaten necessary reforms. Late last week, just before the Memorial Day holiday, a trick was pulled that could derail legislation to help prevent foreclosures by interests who want to create