News

As part of an effort to close a $12 billion deficit, on page 67 of his revised budget issued earlier today Governor Newsom proposes to negotiate $767 million of savings on salaries for state employees.

This chart shows the top five donors to Governor Gavin Newsom’s campaigns and ballot measures and to committees that made independent expenditures in support of his campaigns and measures since he first ran for state office in 2010…

SB 799 would allow private attorneys to bring lawsuits against taxpayers and give rise to the types of harassment that already plague California under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), disability access laws (ADA) and Proposition 65.

A CA lawmaker under the influence of government unions has proposed yet another bill to expand retirement benefits. AB 1383 would boost pensions for safety employees without requiring sufficient funds to be set aside to meet those promises.

AB 569 would allow California cities to boost pension promises to public employees without requiring sufficient funds to be contributed upfront to guarantee payment of those promises. If it becomes law, AB 569 would set the table for another explosion in unfunded retirement obligations, the costs of which are already crushing California governments.

One of the questions we will ask of gubernatorial candidates is their view of Gavin Newsom’s performance as governor. In preparation, I’ve been doing a deep dive into the record.

Governor Newsom’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year includes $45 billion of spending on salaries and benefits for 255,000 state employees, which translates into $177,000 per employee. Questions legislators should be asking include the following…

If you have the opportunity to speak with a candidate for governor, please consider asking the following two questions.

Earlier this week, a journalist asked me how a stock market decline this year would affect pension spending by California’s cities, schools and the state. He wondered if it “would produce a big or small hit.” The answer is that any decline this year would produce neither.

So long as transit boards are in the pocket of unions, there will be no end to the rising costs for worse service.