Posts Tagged: rogue

Lawmakers: Make fixing broken drug program a top priority

Prescription medication available through hospitals and pharmacies. (Photo: Andy Dean Photography, via Shutterstock)

by BRIAN NYQUIST posted 02.22.2022

OPINION: California is committed to the health of its residents. Nearly a quarter of Gov.  Newsom’s state budget for 2022-2023 is allocated to health care expenditures. Amid their focus on improving health care access and affordability, however, policymakers should also reexamine existing programs that are failing to properly protect vulnerable California communities.

Some still have hard feelings about what happened when CalSTRS, now deep in the red, had a brief funding surplus more than a decade ago: Teacher and state payments into the fund were cut, and retirement benefits were raised.

At a CalSTRS board meeting last week, Lois Shive, a representative of a retiree group,