Would it Be a Level of Threat Like, Say, Spraying Malathion?

Governor Brown and Director of Public Health Issue Statements on Radiation Safety

SACRAMENTO – Governor Jerry Brown and the interim director of the California Department of Public Health, Dr. Howard Backer, today assured Californians that public health and safety do not face any threat from radiation released at nuclear facilities in Japan this week.    Read more »

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Lawmakers Pass a Budget But Key Pieces Are Still Unresolved

Over Republican opposition, Democratic lawmakers passed a bill authorizing a $123 billion state budget and other measures aimed at reducing state spending by $6.2 billion but did not act on three key measures necessary to balance the spending plan.

The budget voted on by the Legislature is close to that proposed by Democratic Gov.    Read more »

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Not Exactly a Cut But Delayed School Payments Have a Cost

Among the budget-related bills approved by the Legislature March 16 was one that postpones $5.2 billion in state payments to public schools.

Since the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, the state has shorted public schools $18.6 billion that schools are owed under the formulas dictating annual state support. More than $6 billion of the $18.6 billion was offset by one-time federal economic recovery aid.    Read more »

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Legislature Starts to Begin to Commence to Approve a Budget

The Legislature lurched toward passage of a budget plan March 16, sending bills to Gov. Jerry Brown aimed at reducing state spending by some $7.5 billion, about half of the savings coming from reduced payments to welfare recipients, less health care for the poor and scaled back services for the developmentally disabled.    Read more »

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Legislature Schedules Vote on Budget, GOP Still Opposes Plan

Both the California Senate and Assembly have scheduled votes for 1:00 pm March 16 on a $123 billion budget plan that attempts to close a $25.4 billion gap between revenues and spending commitments over the next 16 months.

It’s anything but certain the 20 bills – the budget itself and 19 implementing measures – will be approved since Republicans and Democrats don’t appear to agree on the merits of the package.    Read more »

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$500-Million Highway Program Is Proposed By Contractors

Brown administration officials, legislative leaders and the construction industry have opened discussions aimed at pumping as much as $500 million more into the state’s highway construction program without raising gasoline taxes, possibly through the issuance of revenue bonds.

The construction industry, hard-hit by the sharp reduction in highway construction and stymied by Gov.    Read more »

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State Parks Face a 9 Percent Budget Cut, Closure List Being Readied

Among the proposals made by Gov. Jerry Brown in his January budget that lawmakers include in their spending plan, is an $11 million cut for the Department of Parks and Recreation.

This roughly 9 percent reduction in the department’s $121 million general fund budget “will result in partially or fully closing some state park units and reducing expenditures at the department’s headquarters,” the Democratic governor said in his budget plan.    Read more »

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The Senate Sends All Californians Best Wishes for Arbor Week

In the absence of a vote on the Legislature’s budget plan, California’s Senate approved two resolutions March 10 relating to food and flora.

The more sweeping of the two resolutions, neither of which carries the force of law, declared the week of March 7 to March 14 as “California Arbor Week.”    Read more »

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Subsidized Childcare Costs Will Increase for the Working Poor

(Editor’s Note: Corrections have been made to this post. The total income figures in the chart linked to in this post are not total State Median Income, as the post initially said, but actually the 75 percent of State Median Income maximum for childcare eligibility.  So $3,769 is 75 percent of a family of three’s toital monthly income of $5,025.    Read more »

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February Receipts Drop But Still Up $1.3 Billion for the Year

SACRAMENTO – State Controller John Chiang released March 9 his monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in February. Total receipts for the month were $139.4 million lower — 2.4 percent — than estimates found in the governor’s proposed budget.

“After the first 8 months into the fiscal year, we are $1.3 billion ahead of projections,” said Chiang.    Read more »

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