To Qualify His New Initiative for the November Ballot, Gov. Brown Faces an Almost Impossibly Tight Deadline

Gov. Jerry Brown’s alliance with the California Federation of Teachers and their creation of a new hybrid tax increase measure means one less such proposal on the November ballot.

If it can get on the ballot.

An initiative seeking a spot on the November ballot must qualify by June 28.

The law sets the qualification deadline at 131 days prior to Election Day.    Read more »

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Not the First Time This Has Been Said, Nor the Last…

“Great difficulty is experienced by discharged convicts in obtaining employment.

“In many cases the convict leaves in impaired health and unable to work if he could find employment. He has neither money nor friends.

“What is to become of him? He has made up his mind to lead an honest life but he cannot live on resolves alone.    Read more »

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Long-time Capitol Lobbyist and Political Mentor Rod Blonien Dies at 65

Rob Blonien, a long-time Sacramento lobbyist who influenced the careers of some of the Capitol’s most powerful players, died March 12 of a heart attack at his Sacramento home. He was 65.

Even-keeled, ebullient and steadfast, Blonien was one of the original triumvirate of top aides to Gov. George Deukmejian after his 1982 election serving first as his legislative secretary and then as undersecretary of the Department of Corrections, spearheading the GOP governor’s prison building program and effectively running the agency.    Read more »

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New Year Off to a “Slow Start,” Gov. Brown’s Budget Writers Say

So begins the March Finance Bulletin from the Democratic governor’s Department of Finance. The next sentences read:

“Employment indicators were contradictory—a small loss of nonfarm jobs but the unemployment rate improved. Construction activity slowed, as did the real estate market.”

Elsewhere the bulletin notes that the median price of a single-family California home sold in January fell to $268,280 — down nearly 4 percent from a year earlier.    Read more »

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Economy on the Uptick But State Revenues Come Up Short

February revenues were $146.3 million below budget estaimtes, according to State Controller John Chiang’s monthly cash report released March 12.

Chiang attributed the shortfall to “a large increase in early tax refunds going out during the month of February.”

Nearly $100 million of the total came in lower-than-expected personal income tax collections for the month.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Stanford!

Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad at the same time he served as California’s eighth governor, was born in Watervliet New York on March 9, 1824.

Elected in 1861, Stanford was California’s first Republican governor, the second of the state’s Civil War governors and the best known of those who held the office during the 19th century.    Read more »

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No Wonder the Name Stuck…

Greenhorn in Siskiyou County was named after an unamed Gold Rush greenhorn who was told, as a joke, that a particular site — which everyone believed had no ore — would be the place he would strike it rich. He did.

(Life being full of rich irony and all.) 

-30-    Read more »

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Rock On, Jeffe

A subscriber brings to the attention of California’s Capitol, this important piece of legislation by Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Los Angeles Democrat:

“AB 2195, as introduced. John A. Perez. California Jobs Act of 2012

Existing law regulates wages, hours, safety and other aspects of public and private employment.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to reduce the number of unemployed persons in the state.”     Read more »

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Inside California’s 11.1 Percent Unemployment Rate

California’s 11.1 percent unemployment rate is a statewide average.

The number of Californians working — or not working — varies by geography.

In Merced, the unemployment rate is 18 percent while in the Bay Area, it’s under 10 percent. Fresno has  16 pecent unemployment rate but Napa’s is only 8.5 percent.    Read more »

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The “Alarming” Rise in California’s Long-term Unemployed

At 11.1 percent, California has the highest unemployment rate in the country, next to Nevada.

That’s a little over 2 million Californians without jobs.

And more than one-third of them haven’t been able to find work for over one year.

Nearly half of those 2 million Californians have been without work for more than six months – an “alarming” trend according to a recent report by the Legislative Analyst on the state of the state’s economy and what that means for the budget.    Read more »

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