California Budget News

Arnold will no longer be Governor after the November election. He is doing what is called lame duck politics- doing business after the store is closed.

Politicians often do this to pass legislation they think will go against the new politicians policies. Hoover became famous for it, Clinton did a lot of it, as did Bush, and, surely, Obama will, also. It was noted that Clinton was signing everything that was put on his desk.

Hey there Tim, I was just reading what Governor Schwarzenegger was doing in California, and I know what I am about to say wont sit well with many people but I'll say it any way. Growing up I learned about Civil servant jobs. AKA Government Jobs , These were jobs that could guarantee any one who could get one a career with a pension and health benefits. Hey who would not want one of these jobs, its a guaranteed pay check and the government is not going out of business.
Putting government salaries in check was a good thing, remember they are civil servant jobs, there supposed to be jobs that are humble, and doing these jobs help the people of our society. These are not jobs that anyone should look to to make money off of, make a living yes. you want more get a degree, do something else . That is what Government jobs are. and high salaries in the government is just one flaw of what has gone wrong in our society today.

EVERY government worker is a drain on the economy. Some are needed. Many, most are not. Why can't you just register your car once? Because they need the money. To hire registry workers. It starts with giving out free money to people who "need" it. Ask any one on the dole. They all have a reason they need it. Nothing is free. If someone doesn't pay for it, someone else does. And how many government workers do we need to make sure everything is "fair?" Fair in one person's eyes may not be in another.

Let's not be naive; State governments have their fingers into many complex and technical areas; as a consequence, highly skilled individuals with technical proficiency are required. As job turnover is counter-productive, a reasonably competive wage is commensurate. This consideration is separate from the minimally skilled employee whose departure from the State revenues would not unduly upset the smooth fuctioning of the State of California.That number is probably in the thousands of employees.
I find it astounding Governor Schwerzenegger failed to address and act upon an issue that likely would have limited, if not abated, the State's deficit; that being the subsidization of "illegal aliens" whether it be within the health-care, penal or educational venues. This issue must be taboo as Arizona's Governor, Brewer, choose to raise taxes in an effort to bail out the floundering public school system rather than addressing the issue of subsidization of illegal aliens. It appears the voice of the people is being ignored when it comes to addressing this most relevant of issues.

I'm a teacher in California, aka: a public servant. I'm old (50 now) but a fairly new teacher as I waited until my kids were near grown to go back to school. The problems in my sector of public service, as I see it: #1)ot many teachers believe they are a public servant. I believe we are here to teach the public, no matter who the public is. Our benefits are sufficient. The retirement is great if you started at 23 years old. We really shouldn't be complaining. But, #2) we went to college for 6 years (that's the way it is in CA, 4 year degree 2-year teaching credential). After 6 years of college, you kind of think you should be able to afford to buy a house. But unless you have a Master's degree, you probably don't make enough money to qualify. Brings me to number 3; If housing is so high that a 15 year mailman (my husband)and 5 year teacher can't afford to buy one; something is wrong. High housing cost is a critical factor here. In Ca, you can't afford a dumpster on minimum wage. Luckily, we owned our home already and will be okay. #4) Our retirement benefits as public servants are quite nice, too nice, for those who have been in public service (without paying social security). [Since I'm old and paid into Social Security, I fall under the windfall act.] Public servants can retire at 55 with pretty nice retirement. It seems obvious to me we either need to raise the contributions amount from the employee, or drastically raise the retirement age. Simple economics. #5) The cost of caring for illegal immigrants is astounding here. Especially if the children are born here, as they are entitled to full welfare benefits. But ALL children, by filing out a simple form, get free breakfast & lunch. That's a pretty big cost. And if the children don't know English, there is the cost of a bilingual clerk to translate everything, and tutors to help the children.Furthermore, there is the cost of tests (and manpower to administer said tests) to access their English proficiency. Providing jobs, yes, but expensive public servant jobs. And if you want to grade teachers on the student scores, it really is only fair that the teachers be given English speaking students for teaching & testing. A child who enters Kinder with no English is really 5 years behind in English. A deficit that is had to overcome.
Just a few of the challenges Ca faces.
I'm confused by Jack's response from NH. He states Governor Brewer of AZ is raising taxes to subsidize illegal students. Seems she's all over the news for trying to stop the problem, so it doesn't get worse. In the mean time, she has to pay schools to stay open. I'm wondering if he had a better idea?

The Governator of California has been an extreme dissapointment, just like the present Illinois Governor - they say the right things to get elected, but they lack the leadership skills our states desperately need. Across the board, deep cuts are the evidence of elected officials ignoring their responsibilities year after year.

Belittling the "public servant" is pure ignorance. The large majority of people try their best every day to accomplish what they were hired to do. If the elected or appointed people at the top build their empire at public expense, vote them out or fire them and demand their successors make appropriate, measured cuts to bring services into balance with revenue. Also, resist the temptation to protest cutbacks in the services you think are entitlements for your benefit.

Government services are the result of a perceived need that has been met by some elected offical and once created they are almost impossible to reverse. We have allowed members of both major parties to bow to special interests and pass womb to the tomb legislation that threatens the public good. It takes a severe recession or depression to unvail our failure to demand more of our representatives. The gravy train is coming to a greasy halt. Yes some deep cuts in government services will be necessary and there should be no category that is untouchable, but layoff decisions should be understadable given the available assets.

The unavoidable by-product will be increased unemployment at a time when no substantial source of new jobs is on the horizon, which in turn suppresses consumer spending. The political thinking of the past cannot be the way of the future, but destroying our Constitution is no substitute for leadership.

I have just one thing to say about the Governor of California. When programs were attepted to be cut to help expenses, everyone in California fought the attempted cuts all the way. Everyone wanted things to stay as they were, with no changes. So, something had to give, and I think the Governor finally found a creative way to get something done.

Just so you are all aware, the governor is only allowed to do this because as of July 1 the State of California is without a budget. Once a budget is passed by the legislator and signed into law by him the state employees will get all their back pay.

I am a life long resident of California. I have nothing but good things to say about the way Governor Schwarzenegger has stood up to the out of control and dysfunctional state legislator and the public employee unions. He has single handedly modified the thinking that we can borrow our way out of this mess to a mentality that we need to fix it now.

One of the things that has allowed him to do this is that a 2/3 vote is required to pass a budget in California. All of you that are fiscally conservative should really encourage your state to adapt a procedure like this.

This year he is on a mission to reform state pensions. He has vowed not to sign a budget that does not accomplish the following:
1. Roll back the expansion of pension benefits adopted in 1999
2. Require a permanent five percentage-point increase in employee pre-tax contribution toward retirement benefits
3. Calculate the retirement rate based on the highest three years of wages during employment instead of the highest single year. (This is a practice known as pension spiking)
4. Require full disclosure by state pension funds and honest funding of pension promises as and when those promises are made.

To me these seem reasonable

Wish us luck.

Talking about budgets, this week in Washington the Insurance Industry is meeting in Washington, to be informed of the details of the implimentation of the Obama Healthcare Reform, as it pertains to the insurance companies.

My sister, who writes insurance packages for an insurance company, for different states according to their policies is there right now.

She promises to fill me in on the details they are now just being told, about implimentation questions.

She also informed me that the state of California just lost to the insurance companies in California, and yes, indeed by court ruling the premiums will be raised, minimum of 40%, starting in January. She says this is necessary everywhere for the insurance companies to stay at the mandated level of solvency required by the Federal Government