Leaders of four public employee unions agreed to pension and pay cuts in a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John Howard reports, "Four state-employee bargaining units representing 23,000 workers have reached tentative agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration on new labor contracts. The pacts, which must be approved by the unions' rank-and-file members and the Legislature, reflect the state’s harsh economic environment.
"The unions made it clear that they were not pleased with the agreements, but said the state's fiscal condition required workers to tighten their belts. Gov. Schwarzenegger said the agreements reflected an element of pension reform.
"The proposed agreements include increasing the retirement age for new hires, boosting the workers’ contribution to PERS and using three-year top-pay formula instead of one year to calculate pension levels. All the changes – and others – had been sought by Gov. Schwarzenegger as part of his pension-reform efforts to help balance the red-ink state budget.
"They contain roughly a 5 percent pay cut and approximately a 5 percent increase in the worker’s contribution to the state pension program, said Terry McHale, a lobbyist who represents the firfefighters and the Highway Patrol officers.
"The four bargaining units are CDF Firefighters Local 2881, the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP); the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Bargaining Unit 19 representing the health and social services professionals; and the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians (CAPT).
A proposal to tweak the state's term limits law missed the November ballot, and other ballot measure proposals may also be in jeopardy.
"Proponents submitted more than 970,000 signatures to county election officials. Counties then conducted a random sampling of those signatures to check validity rates in every county. In order to skip a full count of signatures, a measure must be on track to return 763,790 valid signatures. The term-limits proposal fell short of that threshold and must now go through the full counting process. That process is expected to carry beyond the June 24 deadline for measures to qualify for the November ballot.
"Matt Klink, a spokesman for the initiative, said they were disappointed the measure would not be before voters in November, but are comfortable that they will qualify for the 2012 ballot after a full count is complete. And he took a swipe at Kimball Petition Management, the signature gathering firm hired to acquire signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.
“We submitted 979,281 signatures, which was less than we were
promised,” Klink said. “We were promised well over 1 million
signatures.”
"Six other proposals are awaiting results of the random sampling to see if they will qualify for the November ballot. The deadline for counties to conduct those sample tests varies depending on when a particular measure submitted their signatures to county officials. Some of those county deadlines extend beyond the June 24 deadline which means some of the measures current pending signature verification may also be left off the November ballot."
After trailing on Election Day, Assemblyman Mike Villines (R-Clovis) has taken the lead in the GOP race for insurance commissioner.
As of this morning, Villines was ahead by nearly 2,800 votes. Just call him Landslide VIllines...
Joe Biden will head to California next month to raise money for Barbara Boxer.Maeve Reston reports, "The Boxer campaign said Wednesday that Biden will raise money for the Democrat in Silicon Valley on July 8 and in Los Angeles on July 9. President Obama raised nearly $3.5 million for Boxer and the Democratic National Committee during a trip to Los Angeles in April. He made a second visit for Boxer in late May—raising $600,000 for Boxer and $1.1 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at two events in San Francisco."
State lawmakers dodged another pay cut Wednesday. And Jim Sanders reports that the late state budget has something to do with it."
Commissioner Kathy Sands shelved a previous proposal to cut pay by 10 percent, saying she did not want to act without knowing the ramifications of a budget to cure the state's projected $19.1 billion deficit.
"Considering we don't have a budget, I think that's a very reasonable position," Commissioner John Sites II added.
So, they're rewarded for missing the deadline? They would have gotten a pay cut if they had acted quickly? Now we're really confused...
Meg Whitman is on the air in Spanish, talking about her opposition to Arizona's immigration law. (Somehow we doubt Pete WIlson is in this ad).
Politico reports, "The ad marks a dramatic tack a way from a primary in which Whitman was at times visibly uncomfortable with her campaign's hard line, denying at one point -- mistakenly -- that her campaign was airing ads with images of a boarder fence.
"Whitman is trying to undo damage done to the Republican Party among Hispanics that began in earnest with the fierce opposition to a broad immigration overhaul -- and the naturalization of many illegal immigrants -- that began in the middle of the last decade.
"It won't be easy," writes Marrero, a leading commentator on Hispanic politics at the nation's largest Spanish-language daily, adding that many of the positions Whitman continues to hold -- including her opposition to "comprehensive immigration reform and to subsidies for illegal immigrant college students "aren't accepted in the Hispanic community."
And finally, from our Church Festivals Gone Wrong Files, AP reports, "Police in western New York said two Canadian men attended a church festival and wound up in the woods drunk, naked and covered in mud. State police said troopers found a 22-year-old man from Hamilton, Ontario sitting along a road in the town of Lewiston, just outside Niagara Falls, around 5:45 a.m. Sunday.
"Troopers said he was caked in mud. After questioning him, troopers found a 23-year-old man from Hamilton covered in mud and passed out in a ditch nearby."
Sounds like a party.