politics

| | | |

UCOP & Regents: Don’t Say Later You Weren’t Warned

Byuclafaculty

Two initiative petitions were submitted earlier today. One, reproduced below, deals with pensions. It would explicitly cover UC and, thus, would override the pension changes enacted by the Regents last December. For example, it limits the final pension to 60% of final salary. It covers existing employees as well as new hires. The second is essentially a revival of the old GANN initiative that was passed by voters shortly after Prop 13. The GANN limit restricted the rise in state spending (general fund plus other funds) to the inflation rate plus the growth in population. GANN was essentially gutted in…

| | | |

Poll Results on Pensions and Budgets: Let’s Be Cautious in Interpreting the Results

Byuclafaculty

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) takes a respected monthly poll on public attitudes in the state on political and policy issues. The March release is just out. Taken at face value, the public is very concerned about the state budget situation (Figure 2 – scroll down below), there is slippage in support for a special election advocated by Gov. Brown on tax extensions (although a bare majority still support the plan – Figure 3), cutting public pensions is seen as a good way to balance the budget (Figure 4), and the way to reform public pensions is to…

| |

Outlines of Plan B on the State Budget? Or Negotiating?

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown has been hinting that – if he can’t get Republican votes in the next few days to put tax extensions on the ballot – he will do something else to get on the ballot. Example: Brown considering other paths on taxes as Republicans stand firm in talks Steven Harmon, Contra Costa Times, 3/22/11 SACRAMENTO — As Gov. Jerry Brown continued to negotiate with Republican legislators on his plan to extend taxes, he also has begun to weigh going it alone, sources said Tuesday. That could take two paths — forcing a special election onto the ballot through a…

| |

Panic in the Streets

Byuclafaculty

From former State Assembly Leader Willie Brown’s column this week in the San Francisco Chronicle: What a town. I was at Walgreens the other afternoon and was stunned by the number of people lined up to buy potassium iodide to ward off the possible effects of radiation wafting over from Japan. Even more stunning was watching those same people, clutching their iodide protection, proceed to jaywalk across New Montgomery Street and dodge cars in their rush to get back to work. Full column is at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/20/BAAT1IEMD4.DTL Actually, the item in the column that you might want to panic about is…

| |

Brown Appeals to Public for 2/3 Vote on Tax Extensions

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown still does not have the few Republican votes he needs to put his proposed tax extensions on the ballot. My guess is that he has until about April 1 to get those votes if the election is to occur before the end of June. An election could occur after June 30, of course, but that would a) put it into the next fiscal year (for which the vote is supposed to apply) and b) make it hard to refer to the proposal as tax “extensions” (rather than increases) since the temporary taxes will then have expired. Below is…

| |

48% of Voters Think Public Pensions Are About Right or Not Generous Enough

Byuclafaculty

Just a straw in the wind from the latest California Field Poll. Note that the headline on the poll press release (see URL below) is “MORE CALIFORNIA VOTERS NOW VIEW PUBLIC PENSION BENEFITS AS TOO GENEROUS.” What the headline refers to is the change since October 2009 in the response to the “Too Generous” option. Yours truly is more impressed with the fact – reflected in the headline on this blog post – that after the Bell City scandal and all of the agitation about public pensions – voter opinion still tilts toward “About Right” and “Not Generous Enough.” It…

| |

Please Don’t Mention Their Pension

Byuclafaculty

Pension reform is lucrative for former Capitol insiders (excerpts) Capitol Weekly, 3/17/11, Malcolm Maclachlan The consulting company hired by Republican lawmakers known as the “GOP 5” to do research on reforming public employee pensions signed a similar but much larger contract with a conservative pension reform group last month. The company, Capitol Matrix Consulting, is headed by Mike Genest, who served as finance director for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matrix’s other two principals, Brad Williams and Pete Schaafsma, also are well-known in the Capitol as top-level financial analysts. All three men, incidentally, have state pensions worth more than $100,000 a…

| |

Field Poll suggests voter support for tax extensions

Byuclafaculty

The California Field Poll suggests voter support for the governor’s proposed tax extensions. The table above summarizes the results when the question is asked generally. When it is asked more explicitly (see below, naming the taxes), there is somewhat less support (58%) but still a majority. “The governor is proposing to extend for five more years the one-cent increase in the state sales tax, the ½ percent increase in vehicle license fees and the ¼ percent increase in personal income taxes that the state enacted in 2009. Some of the money would be transferred to local governments for schools, public…

| | | | | |

Pension train may roll through UC’s pension changes. Does anyone at UCOP even know where that train is?

Byuclafaculty

As noted in earlier posts, the pension train is rolling in Sacramento and could easily override the changes in UCRP made by the Regents last December. Is anyone from UCOP articulating a UC position? The kind of caps being discussed are too low for UC faculty. See below for the latest: Pension focus shifts: hybrid, caps and the big one (excerpt) Ed Mendel, calpensions.com As Gov. Brown seeks crucial budget votes, one reform proposed by five Republican senators would switch new hires to “hybrid” pensions, a cost-cutting combination of lower pensions and 401(k)-style individual investment plans. The governor, who also…

| |

Deadline day for the state budget has arrived without a budget vote. Is everything out of control?

Byuclafaculty

As prior posts have noted, Gov. Brown set a deadline of 60 days after his budget proposal was announced to have a budget passed and to obtain a 2/3 vote from the legislature to put his tax extensions on the ballot. Today is deadline day and he still has no deal for the Republican votes needed for the tax extensions. Democrats could pass a budget by majority vote that assumes there will be tax extensions but if there is no ballot vote, the budget would be out of whack. You can read about it at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/03/10/3463706/day-60-what-now.html We also noted in…