governor

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Johnny Dollar Reports

Byuclafaculty

There used to be an old radio show, “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.”   The closest we now have in California is state controller John Chiang who provides monthly cash reports on the state’s budget. For the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2012-13), we are behind on revenue by about $200 million (which is really noise given the size of the budget).  We spent, however, over a billion dollars more than budgeted for the first quarter.  The extra spending seems to be occurring in the social welfare area.  It’s not K-12 or higher ed. Anyway, if the budget estimate…

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Who Will Vote in November? Do Voters Dislike Voting on Ballot Propositions?

Byuclafaculty

There are eleven state propositions on the November ballot as well as the national, state, and local candidates and local propositions. Among those state propositions is Prop 30, the governor’s tax plan endorsed by the Regents.  As a new PPIC publication notes, voters in California are not a random sample of the population.  See the table above.  And despite complaints about all those propositions on the ballot (there are eleven this time), they like direct democracy as the chart below indicates. The PPIC publication from which the table and chart are drawn is at: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/atissue/AI_1012MBAI.pdf

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On Being Propositioned

Byuclafaculty

There is a complicated inter-relationship between various propositions on the November ballot.  Prop 30 (the governor’s tax initiative) is paired against Prop 32 – a “paycheck protection” initiative that would largely cut unions out of political funding which often means funding Democrats.  Prop 32 is thus supported by Republicans and has gotten considerable campaign support from CharlesMunger. Prop 30 is also paired partly against Prop 38 – the MollyMunger school tax initiative.  So you have to keep track of your Mungers who are both aligned against 30 but not 32.  (Molly is the liberal who wants more money for schools…

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One Bill That Got Away (from our attention last month)

Byuclafaculty

As Governor Brown was signing or vetoing bills last month, we tried on this blog to point to those affecting UC.  However, one – AB 1955 – got away from us and escaped our attention.  It deals with the aftermath of the UC-Davis pepper spray incident.  As is often the case, while the bill mandates CSU to do something, it just “requests” the Regents to do the same because of UC’s constitutional status.  Gov. Brown signed this bill which you can read below: AB 1955, as introduced, Block. Public postsecondary education: campus law enforcement agency and student liaison. Existing law…

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Waiting for Brown’s First Prop 30 TV Ad

Byuclafaculty

Prop 30 is the governor’s initiative for temporary tax increases that has been endorsed by the Regents.  So far, a full-scale campaign, i.e., TV ads, has yet to occur.  But a note on the LA Times‘ PolitiCal blog says the TV campaign is supposed to start today. So we’re waiting. There have been opposition radio ads and some more general “issue” ads that oppose tax increases.  Brown has a lot more money in the bank for his campaign than do the opponents.  He appears to be following the later-is-better strategy used in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.  In that campaign, his…

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Brown Vetoes Bill Requiring Consideration of Community Service for Tenure

Byuclafaculty

A bill was vetoed yesterday that would have required CSU and “requested” UC to consider community service for tenure and other academic personnel decisions.  The veto message is at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_2132_Veto_Message.pdf The message notes that such service is already part of the academic review process and that such matters are best left to campus-level decision making.

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Governor Vetoes Collective Bargaining for RAs

Byuclafaculty

Collective bargaining in the public sector in California is regulated by a series of statutes.  The major ones have the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as their administrative agency.  One of these laws covers UC and CSU and is known as HEERA, the Higher Education Employee-Employer Relations Act.  Current law allows collective bargaining for student teaching assistants. However, research assistants are not covered. Yesterday, the deadline for signing or vetoing bills, Gov. Brown vetoed a bill that would have extended collective bargaining rights to RAs. You can read his veto explanation statement at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_259_Veto_Message.pdf For those interested, the full text of…

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The Thrifty Fifty Online Textbooks

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown signed twin bills that create a mechanism for producing and distributing free online textbooks for what are described as fifty lower-division core courses at UC and CSU in cooperation with the community colleges. Exactly how these texts are going to be produced (for no royalties, if I read the new laws correctly) remains to be seen.  There do seem to be some mechanisms for payment for supplying such texts but, again, details are not clear. The twin bills are at:http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1051-1100/sb_1052_bill_20120905_enrolled.html andhttp://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1051-1100/sb_1053_bill_20120905_enrolled.html

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Prop 30 and the Statue Statute

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown used the occasion of signing a bill to have a statue of Ronald Reagan in the State Capitol implicitly to promote Prop 30 – Brown’s tax initiative.  See below: LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 2358, Hagman. State Capitol: Ronald Reagan statue. Existing law prescribes various duties for the Department of General Services in connection with development and maintenance of the park around the State Capitol Building. This bill would authorize the Ronald Reagan Centennial Capitol Foundation, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to plan a statue of Ronald Reagan in the State Capitol Building Annex. The bill…

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That Feels Sooo Good

Byuclafaculty

The governor has signed legislation that does everything about tuition other than allocate money to stop it from rising.  It is (sort of) voluntary for the Regents and UC. And it feels so good. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 970, Fong. University of California and California State University: systemwide student fees. Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. The California State University, which is governed by the Trustees of the California State University (trustees), and the University of California, which is governed by…