Analyst estimates $100 million more in Prop. 47 savings than Brown

The Legislature’s non-partisan fiscal analyst believes Gov. Jerry Brown is underestimating the amount of savings from Proposition 47, the controversial ballot initiative that reduced some nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

The initiative required the savings be used for mental health, drug treatment, truancy and victim services. In a report issued Friday, the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that the first deposit should be about $100 million more than what the state Department of Finance has accounted for.

In his January budget proposal, Brown set aside $29.3 million for the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund – $62.7 million in savings from inmate and caseload reduction, minus $33.4 million for resentencing and increased parole capacity.

The vast gap is mainly due to different methods for calculating prison costs. Thousands of inmates have been resentenced and released from state facilities under Proposition 47, pushing California’s overcrowded corrections system just under a court-mandated capacity.

Brown’s budget estimates that the average daily inmate population is about 4,700 fewer this year because of the law. But the Legislative Analyst’s Office noted that, to stay below capacity levels, most of those potential prisoners would have had to be contracted out to beds in other states, which would have set the state back an additional $83 million.

The LAO also said the governor is likely underestimate the savings from fewer felony cases being filed and overestimating the cost of reclassifying the records of former offenders who already served out their felony terms.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article60119951.html 

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AB 1321 Passes: California Will Set Up Nutrition Incentive Program!

Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1321 (Ting), which will set up the infrastructure for the Market Match program already running using mostly private funding throughout California. This is a tremendous victory that will be essential in scaling up the Market Match program, benefitting low income California residents struggling to afford healthy food, as well as the state’s small farm sector.

Tremendous thanks are owed to Roots of Change, the organization which sponsored the legislation and organized the advocacy efforts, from Northern California to the Central Valley to LA to San Diego, at every step of the way through the legislative process.

Hunger Action LA operates Market Match at 20 markets now in LA County, with the newest programs just beginning in the past month in Pasadena, Downtown LA, Santa Fe Springs and Eagle Rock. Our colleagues at SEE LA operate the program at 5 additional markets. AB 1321’s passage should pave the way for a bright future for the program.

Thank you, very much, to all of you who made phone calls and wrote letters of support---multiple times!---for the program. It’s another testament to the power of people’s voices if we but use them, in policy issues that affect us all.

Via: Hunger Action Los Angeles
http://www.hungeractionla.org/news_update_oct_13th_2015#ab1p

Governor Signs New Law Ending Fee for Sealing Juvenile Records

On September 30, 2015 Governor Brown signed into law SB 504, "Starting Over Strong", authored by Sen. Ricardo Lara. This new law removes California's fee for juvenile record-sealing, so that youth who turn 18 no longer need to pay to file court petitions to seal records of juvenile adjudications.

"We seek to restore the civil rights of all formerly incarcerated people, and making record-sealing free will help young Californians get jobs so they can support their families," said Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC), a co-sponsor of SB 504.

Every year, thousands of California youth are arrested. When they turn 18 and apply for jobs, many are denied employment for past mistakes. People with minor (non-serious) records are eligible to have them sealed, but most counties have charged fees (up to $150) for this service, which was cost-prohibitive to young people who lack jobs but want to Start Over Strong. This change will save millions of dollars as young people become able to seal their records, stay employed, and stay out of jail. Every person who gets a job generates payroll taxes for the state budget, and also saves the state the extremely expensive cost of incarceration. The fee itself generated less than half a million dollars in state revenue annually.

This new law improves economic outcomes for California’s youth and, in so doing, protects public safety by eliminating an unnecessary barrier to reentry for youth who are eligible for and seeking the juvenile record sealing remedy. Juvenile records can create barriers to employment and housing. An unsealed juvenile record can appear on a background checks, and lead to an unfairly adverse employment or housing decision. Without stable employment and housing, there is a higher chance that young people will recidivate and become involved in the adult criminal justice system.

SB 504 (Lara) was co-sponsored by LSPC, Youth Justice Coalition of Los Angeles, East Bay Community Law Center, and the California Public Defenders Association.

LSPC organizes communities impacted by the criminal justice system and advocates to release incarcerated people, to restore human and civil rights and to reunify families and communities. LSPC builds public awareness of structural racism in policing, the courts, and prison system, and advances racial and gender justice. LSPC's strategies include legal support, trainings, advocacy, public education, grassroots mobilization, and developing community partnerships.



Via: Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Victory in Sacramento! Brown signed SB 219!

On Sunday, we celebrated a major victory for incarcerated people and their families: Governor Brown signed SB 219, a bill co-sponsored by CURB and Justice Now that will expand access to the Alternative Custody Program! 

We couldn’t have done it without you.

Your letters, emails, phone calls, and tweets sent a clear message that Californians are determined to fight the devastation of imprisonment, and are willing to take action to support incarcerated people and their families.

Thanks to your fighting spirit, more people will be able to finish their sentences in the community so they can care for their children and dependent family members.

We hope the momentum created by this victory can help us continue our fight to reduce the number of prisons and jails and the number of people incarcerated, and invest in strong and healthy communities.

We hope this victory can be another stepping stone in a new path forward for California.

Via: http://curbprisonspending.org/ 

California to register voters automatically at DMV

In a bid to improve voter turnout in California elections, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to automatically register to vote anyone who has a driver’s license or state identification card.

The measure was pushed by Democrats, whose candidates and causes typically benefit from higher turnout elections.

Assembly Bill 1461, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will require the state to register adults to vote when they get or renew a driver’s license, unless they opt out. It will make California only the second state, after Oregon, to proactively register people to vote unless they decline.

The California legislation was a priority of Secretary of State Alex Padilla and followed the state’s record-low turnout in last year’s elections.

“In a free society, the right to vote is fundamental,” Padilla said in a statement after Brown announced signing the bill. “We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different.”

The law will expand access to the polls as dozens of states are implementing significant new electoral restrictions, such as requiring photo identification to vote and cutting back on early voting. It drew praise from voting rights advocates and even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who tweeted that other states should follow California’s lead.

“California just became a national leader on voting rights,” Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Democracy Program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement. “In too many states, our outdated and error-prone registration system blocks millions from the polls. Automatic permanent voter registration can transform voting in America. Other states should look to California as a bold new model for reform.”

Democrats said the measure would increase the ranks of people – particularly the young, poor and nonwhite – engaged in the political process. Republicans mostly opposed the measure. They warned it risked allowing people eligible to get driver’s licenses, but who are noncitizens and ineligible to vote, to register and cast fraudulent ballots.

Democratic lawmakers countered that the bill included protections to prevent that from happening.

In November, only 42.2 percent of voters showed up, the lowest participation in a general election since World War II, according to a committee analysis of the measure. The turnout rate reflected just 31 percent of the state population eligible to vote, including an estimated 6.6 million Californians not registered.

“Our democracy depends on the true participation of the populace,” state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said during a floor debate last month.

The measure sought to build upon the federal Motor Voter Law, which required voter registration forms to be available at motor vehicle agencies. More than 20 years later, though, experts said the paper-based law’s impact has been spotty, with few states able to detail how their agencies are helping people register to vote or update their registrations.

In Oregon, an automatic registration law took effect earlier this year, with full implementation due in January. Election officials automatically register people to vote when the state’s motor vehicle agency relays information that the people are eligible. They can apply to opt out.

“I just think we’re getting the cart before the horse,” state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said last month.

Under the law, automatic voter registration would not take place until the state’s long-awaited voter database, VoteCal, is up and running; there is a system in place to protect the transfer of noncitizen information; and money has been appropriated by the Legislature.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, introduced the measure along with Gonzalez and Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html

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Bill to restore Inland cities' funding on governor's desk

Same issue. Different year.

A bill that would restore funding diverted in 2011 from the state’s four newest cities – all in Riverside County – has landed on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. Again.

Officials in Eastvale, Wildomar, Menifee and Jurupa Valley, stung by Brown’s two previous vetoes of bills that would have restored state funding to them, were pragmatic about whether the governor would sign SB 25 into law.

“I hold out very little hope, but I pray every night that he does,” said Wildomar Mayor Ben Benoit.

Brown has 30 days from Sept. 8, the day SB 25 got to his desk, to either sign the bill or veto it. If he takes no action, SB 25 becomes law.

SB 25, which was introduced by state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, is virtually identical to SB 69, which was Brown vetoed in September 2014. Roth also sponsored SB69.

In his veto message, Brown cited concerns about the “long-term costs to the general fund that this bill would occasion.”

Eastvale City Manager Michele Nissen said the state’s financial picture has improved markedly over the past year.

“Now he’s got a revenue surplus,” Nissen said.

Eastvale and Jurupa Valley have written letters signed by their respective mayors urging the governor to sign the bill to ease the four cities’ financial hardship.

Eastvale, Menifee, Wildomar and Jurupa Valley have lost millions annually since June 2011, when state legislators voted to divert vehicle-license fee revenue from cities to law enforcement grants.

All California cities lost vehicle-license fee revenue, but the four newest cities received a greater share to make up for property taxes that cities formed after 2004 don’t get.

All have had to cut back on services, including law enforcement, but none have been affected as badly as Jurupa Valley, which became a city two days after the vote.

SB 25 would return the estimated $16 million per year to the four cities in property tax money that normally goes to education.

Because state law requires full funding for education, that money would have to be repaid from the general fund.

Jurupa Valley has lost an estimated $25 million over the past four years and has taken an initial step toward disincorporation.

Although Jurupa Valley’s financial situation has improved, the city still owes more than $18 million to Riverside County in unpaid transition year costs, law enforcement costs and revenue neutrality payments.

Menifee Mayor Scott Mann said Brown has had multiple opportunities to restore vehicle-license fee funding rescinded as part of his public safety realignment plan in 2011. And there has been no indication from the governor, or his staff, that he will approve it this time either, Mann said.

Despite that, Mann said, he has written a personal letter to Brown asking him to sign SB 25.

Via: http://www.pe.com/articles/cities-780038-brown-bill.html

Effort to repeal California ‘welfare queen’ law done for the year

State Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, has suspended her latest bid to reverse a law barring families that conceive additional children while on welfare from receiving increases to their grant.

Mitchell said she would not continue forward this year with Senate Bill 23 to repeal a law Mitchell contends perpetuates the negative concept of the “welfare queen,” a woman who has babies while on welfare to collect more cash assistance. Mitchell’s bill is currently awaiting a vote on the Assembly floor, and she said she would instead push to get the policy into next year’s budget.

“How would we pay for it?” Mitchell said. “Because of the huge price tag, I’m going to continue working with the administration during the interim.”

Overturning the “maximum family grant” would cost an estimated $205 million in the first year. SB 23 passed the Senate this spring, but its prospects dimmed when Gov. Jerry Brown left it out of the final budget deal in June.

Mitchell said she had not changed tactics out of concern that the bill would fail in the Assembly or be vetoed by Brown.

“I’m confident that they agree with the policy,” she said. “I will be waiting with bated breath for January 10,” she added, referring to the date by which Brown must release his budget proposal.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article34058808.html

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This time for real: Legislature passes (another) budget

Three days after Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders reached agreement on a $115.4 billion general fund state spending plan, lawmakers in both houses on Friday ratified the deal.

The budget includes Brown’s more conservative revenue estimates and lower overall spending levels, while increasing funding for preschool and universities and expanding Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented children starting in May 2016.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the budget contained “unprecedented gains” in education and social services. The budget also won support from some Senate Republicans, while one Senate Democrat, Holly Mitchell, refused to vote on it. She said the budget did too little to help people living in poverty.

In the lower house, the bill passed almost entirely along party lines, with every Republican except for Rocky Chávez of Oceanside voting against it.

Democrats in the Legislature passed a more expansive spending plan on Monday, knowing Brown would not accept it but racing to meet a June 15 deadline or forfeit pay. They announced a budget agreement the following day on a more modest plan.

While Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, praised the revised budget bill for hewing to Brown's more conservative revenue estimates, she said it redirected education funding to other areas and failed to adequately fund transportation infrastructure or more judges, a major issue in her Riverside County district.

Lawmakers in both houses were continuing to debate a raft of budget-related trailer bills.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article24986815.html

Jerry Brown, lawmakers propose $1.1 billion drought relief bill amid increasing tension

With California trudging into its fourth dry year, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Thursday announced $1.1 billion in emergency funding for flood protection and drought relief.

The vast majority of the money – all but about $30 million – was already included in Brown’s January budget proposal, and the measure is similar to a bill package lawmakers approved last year.

But tension over the drought runs higher today than it did then, when Brown first declared a drought emergency and urged Californians to reduce water consumption by 20 percent. This year, California recorded its driest-ever January, and state regulators on Tuesday ordered water agencies to limit the number of days each week customers can water their lawns.

Brown, who said last month that he was reluctant to impose mandatory water restrictions, suggested Thursday that he is open to more stringent measures.

“I’m not going to second-guess (state water regulators), but I would share your urgency that we step it up in the weeks and months ahead,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference at the Capitol.

Brown said, “If this drought continues, we’ll crank it down and it will get extremely challenging for people in California.”

The Legislature is expected to hold votes next week on the drought package, whose passage will allow spending immediately – months before the July 1 start of the next budget year.

The measure includes $272.7 million in water recycling and drinking water quality programs funded by Proposition 1, the water bond voters approved last year.

But the majority of the funding – $660 million – comes from water and flood-prevention bonds voters approved nearly a decade ago, in 2006.

Brown said, “The fact is, these projects take a long time.”

Outside the Capitol, patience appears to be waning.

According to a February Field Poll, 94 percent of California voters consider the drought situation in California “serious,” with nearly 70 percent calling it “extremely serious.” Public support for water rationing, though still just more than one-third of voters, has grown in the past year.

“I think, for the public, an increasingly large proportion is becoming alarmed,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. “The governor is taking actions which I think make him at least appear to the public that he’s attending to the problem.”

Contributing to the public’s growing concern was a widely circulated editorial in the Los Angeles Times last week in which Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the state was at risk of running out of water altogether.

“Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing,” Famiglietti wrote. “California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain.”

Speaking at the Capitol, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León said the one-year water supply estimate and the lack of water this year “is creating a renewed sense of urgency.”

He said the drought package “is just the first round” in the Legislature’s effort to address the drought and that “we have much work to do.”

The water bond voters approved last year includes $2.7 billion for storage projects such as dams and reservoirs. Brown said “these are big projects, and I’m certainly looking very carefully at how we can get more storage as quickly as possible.”

Republican lawmakers have been more insistent, seizing on the drought to criticize the lack of water infrastructure investments in the past, as well as the current pace of project approvals.

“I’m calling on the state water agencies, on state government to get projects out of the red tape, to get them moving because they’ve been hung up for decades,” said Assembly Republican leader Kristin Olsen of Riverbank.

Nevertheless, Olsen and Bob Huff, the Republican Senate leader, stood with Brown and Democratic lawmakers for the drought package’s announcement.

Last year’s version was approved by the Legislature with nearly unanimous support, as is expected for this drought package.

Though Republican lawmakers appeared to have no hand in crafting the measure – having only been made aware of it shortly before the announcement – Brown said the Republicans’ support was evidence “we’re doing well.”

He dismissed the timing of their involvement as a “narrative that’s not particularly interesting.”

Still, it made for awkward stagecraft.

After first planning to address reporters after the news conference Thursday, Republican leaders changed course at the last minute to appear with Brown and the Democratic legislative leaders.

Republicans attended their first meetings on the plan Wednesday, and the governor contacted Olsen on Thursday morning, Olsen spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said.

She declined to elaborate further on Republicans’ role in discussions.

“I’ll let the governor’s remarks stand for themselves,” Fulkerson said.


DROUGHT RELIEF

Here is how most of the proposed drought funds will be spent:

$660 million for flood management planning and infrastructure improvements, including levee work.

$272.7 million for drinking water quality, water recycling and desalination projects.

$24 million for emergency food aid for people, such as farm workers, out of work due to drought.


Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article15381434.html#storylink=cpy

Join us, statewide budget action day!

Join us Friday!

Throughout the state we are rallying to  "tear down the wall of poverty" for California's most vulnerable! Find a location near you and join us!

San Francisco

350 McAllister St.

When: 12:30 PM

Contact: Pete Woiwode, 510-504-9552

pete@communitychange.org

Sacramento

Capitol Room TBD

When: 11:00 am or following Governor Brown's statement

Contact: TBD

San Jose

1381 South First St. 95110

When: 10:00 AM

Contact: Pete Woiwode, 510-504-9552

pete@communitychange.org

Fresno

2550 Mariposa Mall 93721

When:10:00 AM

Contact: Rose Aguste

raguste@healthaccess.org

Los Angeles

300 S. Spring Street 90013

When: 12:00 PM following budget release

Contact: Aurora Garcia, 562-519-3106

agarcia@communitychange.org

San Bernardino

300 N. D Street 92418

When: 11:00 AM

Contact: Maribel Nunez, 562-569-4051

mnunez@communitychange.org

2015 State Budget Release Press Conference & Rally

Join us this Friday, January 9, 2015

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

at

San Bernardino City Hall 

300 N. D Street

San Bernardino, CA 92418 

California lawmakers pass bill banning inmate sterilizations

(Reuters) - California lawmakers sent a bill to ban sterilization surgeries on inmates in California prisons to Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday, after media reports and a later audit showed officials failed to follow the state's rules for obtaining consent for the procedure known as tubal ligation from incarcerated women.

The bill prohibits sterilization in correctional facilities for birth control reasons unless a patient's life is in danger or it is medically necessary and no less drastic procedure is possible.

“It’s clear that we need to do more to make sure that forced or coerced sterilizations never again occur in our jails and prisons,” said state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, who wrote the bill. “Pressuring a vulnerable population into making permanent reproductive choices without informed consent violates our most basic human rights.”

The measure passed the Senate floor with a unanimous vote of 33-0 and now goes to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for his signature.

The bill was introduced earlier this year in the wake of allegations, first raised by the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting, that the state failed to obtain informed consent in cases of women inmates who had their fallopian tubes tied.

An audit released in June showed that errors were made in obtaining informed consent from 39 women inmates out of 144 who had their tubes tied while incarcerated between 2005 and 2011.

Prison rules make tubal ligation available to inmates as part of regular obstetrical care. But until the issue was brought to officials’ attention in 2010 by an inmates rights group, proper authorization for the procedure was rarely obtained, the state auditor’s report said.

In 27 of those cases, a physician failed to sign the consent form as required, the audit showed. In 18 cases, there were potential violations of a mandated waiting period after women gave consent.

The audit was the latest blow to the state's troubled prison system and came as California is struggling to meet court-ordered demands to improve medical and mental healthcare in its overcrowded prisons.

Medical care in California's prisons has been under the supervision of a federally appointed receiver since 2006.

The current receiver, J. Clark Kelso, was appointed in 2008, but did not learn about problems with tubal ligations until 2010, the audit said.

Just one such procedure, deemed medically necessary, was performed after the concerns were brought to Kelso's attention, the audit said.

Jerry Brown sets debate with Neel Kashkari

Gov. Jerry Brown will debate Republican Neel Kashkari in Sacramento early next month, the only debate the incumbent governor will participate in ahead of the November election, his campaign said Monday.

Brown, who leads Kashkari by a wide margin both in fundraising and public opinion polls,previously said he was unsure if he would debate Kashkari. The little-known Republican has pressed Brown to debate him 10 times, echoing a call Brown made four years ago in his race against Meg Whitman.

The one-hour debate, on Sept. 4, was first reported Monday by KQED News, one of the producers of the event. It comes relatively early in the race, and Dan Newman, a spokesman for Brown, said it is the only debate invitation the governor will accept.

KQED reported that the debate is being produced jointly with the Los Angeles Times, The California Channel and Telemundo California. The report said The California Channel will air the debate and offer a satellite feed to television stations around the state, and that Telemundo stations will broadcast a translated version of the debate in major media markets. Newman said the debate will be held at The California Channel’s Sacramento studios.

Brown has declined a debate invitation from a Sacramento-based consortium including The Sacramento Bee, KCRA, Capital Public Radio and California State University, Sacramento. The same media partners sponsored a debate between Brown and Whitman in 2010. 

via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/18/6637856/jerry-brown-sets-debate-with-neel.html#mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert

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California water bond: Support for the latest $7 billion plan builds as deadline looms to OK it

SACRAMENTO -- Powerful voices in California's water wars pledged their support Tuesday for a $7 billion state water bond that lawmakers must pass before Wednesday's midnight deadline if they hope to see it on the November ballot.

The California Farm Bureau Federation and Los Angeles County's Metropolitan Water District had hoped for at least $3 billion in the bond for construction of dams, reservoirs and other storage projects.

But with time running out, they called on lawmakers from both parties to support a package crafted over the weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders with $2.5 billion for water storage.

"With California experiencing an unprecedented drought on the heels of two dry years, the most important issue on the November ballot is the passage of a water bond," said Paul Wenger, president of the Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm association, whose members have been crippled by the lengthening drought.

Some business and water district leaders saw the bond proposal as a "workable framework" that respects the state's fiscal limitations while acknowledging the need for an array of water projects, including groundwater cleanup and river habitat restoration.

Wenger compared Brown's commitment to increasing the state's water storage capacity to that of his father, former Gov. Pat Brown, who built the enormous network of dams, reservoirs and canals in the 1960s that the state depends on today to move water from north to south.

"It is an absolute necessity that the greatest single component of this bond be dedicated to water storage, something that has been sorely absent in the last five water bonds that have been passed by voters since 1996," Wenger said. "We applaud Gov. Brown."

Still, if Brown and his Democratic allies hope to meet the deadline to replace the bloated, unpopular water bond originally scheduled for the November ballot, they must work feverishly over the next 24 hours to address lingering concerns that threaten to scuttle a deal, Capitol observers say.

Senate Republicans and Central Valley Democrats want more money dedicated to water storage projects, while legislators who represent towns near the San Joaquin River Delta are seeking stronger safeguards to block bond money from being spent on Brown's controversial plan to build twin tunnels beneath the Delta to siphon water south.

Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno, is actively negotiating with Brown for more than $2.5 billion for water storage. Even a little more will be essential to "landing this plane," he said.

"This is a good first step, but we'll need to do a little better than that to get Central Valley support for this bond," Perea said. "It's a concern I have that others from the region, both Democrats and Republicans, share."

Splitting from the Farm Bureau's position, some agricultural groups, including ones that represent citrus, rice and table grape growers, are also pressing for more water storage funding.

"Where we differ from some of our colleagues in agriculture," said Joel Nelson, president of California Citrus Mutual, "is that they're willing to take a chance.

"We want more guarantees that we're going to create more water and make it available to those tho need it."

via: http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_26325189/california-water-bond-support-latest-7-billion-plan

Bill again boosting California minimum wage fails

With multiple Democrats not voting, a California Assembly panel on Wednesday rejected a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage beyond the boost agreed to in 2013.

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, repeated the arguments that last year drove lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown to approve a bill boosting California's minimum wage to $10 a hour by 2016.

Leno's Senate Bill 935 would build on that, pushing the baseline to $13 an hour in 2017 and then allowing the wage to rise along with the cost of living thereafter.

"If we don't support this bill the outstanding question remains: What are we as the state of California going to do about paying poverty wages?" said Leno, who has called last year's legislation inadequate. "The phenomenon of income inequality and wealth inequality only continues to grow."

Business groups warned that Leno's bill could unhinge a faltering economic recovery and asked lawmakers to wait for last year's legislation to take effect. The hike included in 2013's Assembly Bill 10 kicks in on July 1, raising the minimum wage from $8 to $9.

"It is too much, too soon given that AB 10 is just going into effect next week, and we should allow that bill to implement," said Jennifer Barrera, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce.

That argument resonated with some Democrats on the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee. Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, the author of last year's minimum wage hike, said Leno's bill would mean reneging on agreements Alejo had made with business interests to not include a cost-of-living adjustment.

"The ink hasn't even dried on AB 10," Alejo said. "You've got to keep your word."

One vote separated the bill from passage. The final tally was 3-2 ( it needed four votes to move on), with Alejo and Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, not voting.

Editor's note: This post was updated at 4:19 p.m. to include the vote total and the fact that the bill was in the Assembly.

PHOTO: Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco during session in the Senate chambers in Sacramento, Calif. on Monday, March 11, 2013. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua.

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Jerry Brown to sign budget Friday in San Diego

Gov. Jerry Brown will sign the state budget Friday in San Diego, his office announced Thursday, less than a week after both houses of the Legislature approved the spending plan.

Governors have the right to reduce or strike appropriations in budget bills before signing them, but it is unclear what line-item vetoes Brown will make to the $156.4 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Last year, the Democratic governor made only a small number of line-item vetoes, totaling about $40 million.

This year's budget plan is a compromise between Brown and Democratic lawmakers. It includes an expansion of child care and preschool for poor children and more money for high-speed rail, Medi-Cal and welfare-to-work. It also puts about $1.6 billion into a special rainy-day account.

Brown will be joined for the budget signing by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. Brown is scheduled to travel to Los Angeles after signing the budget to attend a celebration with Latino lawmakers.

PHOTO: Gov. Jerry Brown signs bills in Sacramento on March 24, 2011 as Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco look on. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

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CSU plans to hire 600 to 700 new faculty by fall

The California State University plans to hire 600 to 700 full-time positions by this fall as both the CSU and UC systems struggle to hire more tenure-track faculty in light of recent budget cuts.

California State University San Bernardino College of Education

An allotment of $125 million from the state last year to the CSU system helped fund 470 new faculty positions. The proposed allocation for this year’s budget is $142.2 million each for the CSU and UC systems, although they are requesting an additional $95 million and $124.9 million, respectively. Steven Filling, chair of the CSU Academic Senate, stressed that with the net loss of 59 CSU faculty members last year, more funds are needed to support faculty positions.

“Ideally, we’d get new money for additional faculty and therefore better services for students. Then we wouldn’t have to turn away students who are qualified,” Filling said. “Increase in teachers, increase in classes offered.”

CSU students can expect to see new tenure-track professors in the classroom by fall. But the net hiring impact at the end of the academic year may only be about 250 with retirements and resignations factored in, according to C. Judson King, director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education. Additionally, temporary or part-time positions may be taken over by new tenure-track faculty.

Meanwhile, the UC system wants to use $21.8 million of the extra $124.9 million they are requesting to fund hiring new faculty, buying new equipment and enrolling 2,100 more students, according to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein.

Gov. Jerry Brown previously pushed UC and CSU schools to reduce costs themselves through online courses and flexible curriculum.

“Right now, the state legislature is in negotiations, so we’re hopeful,” Klein said. “(The $124.9 million) is not a wish list, per se. It’s our very best effort, and we’re looking under every rock.”

Caitlin Quinn, 2014-2015 ASUC external affairs vice president, said she hopes the UC system will follow the CSU system’s lead and acquire more funding to prevent departments like Gender and Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies from shrinking.

“I think it’s good to see a big influx of faculty for the students, and as UC students, we should be in solidarity with the CSU students and advocate for more faculty and funding here,” Quinn said.

The CSU has about 23,000 faculty, including tenure-track, full-time, part-time and temporary positions. According to Filling, the CSU system falls far below meeting the 75 percent tenure-track recommendation of a resolution passed by the state legislature in 2001.

“In the intervening years, we’ve taken more students and the classes get bigger,” Filling said. “When they do, we start to not do as much of the thing that makes that successful, which is develop relationships directly with students.”

via: http://www.dailycal.org/2014/06/03/csu-plans-hire-600-700-new-faculty-fall/

Senate Dems push for spending on mentally ill criminals

As budget negotiations reach their final weeks in the state Capitol, state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg is pressing for more spending to treat mental illness among inmates and people being released from prison, arguing that the proposals will reduce prison crowding and promote public safety.

The proposals by Senate Democrats to spend $132 million on reducing recidivism among mentally ill offenders are based on suggestions by professors at Stanford Law School, who studied the proliferation of mental illness within California’s prison population. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed $91 million in spending.

The Senate Democrats’ package comes as lawmakers respond to Friday’s rampage near UC Santa Barbara in which a disturbed student killed six people and injured 13 in a spree of stabbing and shooting.

“These proposals finalized earlier this month are now cast under a different light than any of us had originally planned,” Steinberg said during a news conference Wednesday. “It’s a cruel and of course sad coincidence that the significance of one proposal – to improve training among front line law enforcement to recognize the warning signs of mental illness – was illustrated by a gun rampage in Santa Barbara County.”

The proposals from Senate Democrats include:

• $12 million to train law enforcement officers and $24 million to train prison employees in dealing with people who are mentally ill

• $25 million to expand re-entry programs for mentally ill offenders

• $20 million to help parolees by providing case managers to make sure they get treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse

• $20 million to expand so-called mental health courts that manage offenders who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs

• $50 million to re-establish a grant program for counties offering substance abuse treatment, job training or other programs to help mentally ill offenders after they’re released from prison.

via: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/28/6440139/senate-dems-push-for-spending.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/28/6440139/senate-dems-push-for-spending.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

AM Alert: Health and human services budget committee discusses May Revision

Legislators are usually back in their districts on a Friday, but with Gov. Jerry Brown presenting hisrevised budget proposal this week, there's enough to discuss to keep some of them in town today. The Assembly Budget Committee's Subcommittee on Health and Human Services meets in Room 4202 of the Capitol at 9 a.m.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/05/am-alert-health-and-human-services-budget-committee-discusses-may-revision.html#storylink=cpy

Whether Brown has restored enough of the recession-era spending cuts to health programs and social services is one of the biggest points of contention surrounding the budget. With the first surplus in years, liberal lawmakers and advocacy groups have pushed the governor to spend the additional billions rather than socking them away in a proposed rainy-day fund. In-home caregivers have been especially vocal in pushing back against Brown's budget, which would limit the number of hours they can work.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/05/am-alert-health-and-human-services-budget-committee-discusses-may-revision.html#storylink=cpy

Jerry Brown pushes his plan for state reserve fund

SACRAMENTO — Raising the stakes in his campaign to strengthen California's finances, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday called a special session of the state Legislature for next week to consider a new plan to save money and pay off state debt, an election-year pitch that he must make to lawmakers without the benefit of a Democratic supermajority.

Brown's proposal is aimed at cushioning the state against recessions and calming its turbulent fiscal waters. It would require Sacramento to capture spikes in revenue and either save the money to prevent budget cuts during a downturn or pay off debt and cover long-term liabilities such as public pensions.

"We simply must prevent the massive deficits of the last decade, and we can only do that by paying down our debts and creating a solid rainy-day fund," Brown said in a statement.

California voters approved the creation of a rainy-day fund in 2004, but it has mostly sat empty amid persistent budget crises.

Brown's move forces lawmakers to address the issue more publicly while burnishing his own credentials as a financial steward for California. It is also his first major test of the new political landscape in the Legislature, where multiple criminal investigations have cost Democrats their two-thirds majority in the state Senate.

The governor needs some GOP support for his measure because it is a constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds vote for passage, and Democrats are now shy of that threshold. If the proposal passes, it would go before voters inNovember.

Republicans have wanted a rainy-day fund that functions differently from the one Brown proposes, and the governor risks a political black eye if they don't go along. But the special session offers Republicans a way to collaborate across the aisle on an issue likely to have broad public appeal.

"There's a huge opportunity for Republicans to demonstrate they are willing to join us in the interest of long-term stability for this state," Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) said in an interview.

The special session convenes April 24, concurrent with the legislative session already under way.

The GOP plan for new reserve-fund rules, which passed with bipartisan support during a 2010 budget standoff, includes spending restrictions that Democrats find objectionable.

That measure is already scheduled for the November ballot. Brown's plan would replace it.

The leader of the Assembly's Republicans, Connie Conway of Tulare, warned that the GOP would be wary of any plan that does not sufficiently limit lawmakers' ability to dip into reserves.

"Republicans will oppose any effort to replace the strict proposal that is already before the voters with a faux rainy-day fund scheme," Conway said in a statement.

Still, there are signs that Republicans are willing to work with the governor.

Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo), the top Republican on the Assembly budget committee, said in a statement that "changing circumstances require a new look at the measure." He added: "Although the devil is in the details, the conversation is going in the right direction."

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), whose caucus members Brown will need to win over for his plan to be successful, also praised the governor's interest in the issue.

"It's just common sense for California to put away money during the 'boom' years to avoid future tax increases and spending reductions in the 'bust' years," he said in a statement. 

"However, we are mindful that legislative Democrats have undermined similar efforts in the recent past."

It's possible that Brown could face a challenge from his own Democratic Party. Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said there was no need for lawmakers to pass a new reserve plan until later in the year.

"Constitutional Amendments must be done right, not rushed," he said in a post on Twitter.

Brown's proposal would create a new budget mechanism that kicks in when there is disproportionately high revenue from capital gains taxes, which can rise and fall sharply with the stock market. The governor and Legislature could then choose whether to save the extra money in the reserve fund or use it to chip away at long-term costs such as public pensions and maintenance projects.

"Both of them are absolutely critical to the state's future," said Brown's finance director, Michael Cohen. "But how you balance them in a particular year is really what elected officials are elected to do."

The fund could grow to 10% of general-fund spending under Brown's plan and would be accessible to lawmakers only after the governor declared a financial emergency.

Brown's latest budget proposal includes $1.6 billion for the reserve fund and $1.6 billion to pay off bonds used to balance the budget during the recession.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-brown-legislature-20140417,0,5769485.story#ixzz2zGKAPAT7