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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    California Lawmakers Approve Record $156.4 Billion Budget

    California Lawmakers Approve Record $156.4 Billion Budget

    By Michael B. Marois June 15, 2014


    California lawmakers approved a record $156.4 billion budget for the most populous U.S. state after they struck a last-minute deal with Governor Jerry Brown over spending levels.

    The plan passed by the Democratic-controlled senate and assembly boosts state outlays 5.8 percent in the fiscal year beginning July 1. The general fund, which pays for most state services, will rise 9.6 percent to $108 billion.


    California has benefited from a surge in revenue, much of it from capital-gains taxes and $7 billion in temporary income-and sales-tax increases. The state has gone from a $25 billion deficit three years ago to a record surplus. The budget is about $1.2 billion more than Brown initially planned, after legislators wrestled added spending from him for health and welfare programs.


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    “This is a much brighter day than what we’ve seen in years past,” Senator Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, said during floor debate late today.


    Brown, 76, argued that the extra money is fleeting and should be used to cushion future economic declines. The budget counts on voters in November to amend the constitution and require that 1.5 percent of general-fund revenue be set aside each year in a rainy-day fund, as well as capital-gains taxes that exceed 8 percent of the general fund.


    Credit-rating companies have criticized California for its failure to set aside money when the economy is booming and for relying too much on volatile capital gains to pay for general-fund spending.


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    Credit Rating

    California’s general-obligation bonds have an A1 rating from Moody’s Investors Service, the fifth-highest rank. Standard & Poor’s grades them one step lower, at A, with a positive outlook -- a potential precursor to an upgrade. California hasn’t had an S&P rating above A since 2009. Only Illinois has a lower rating from both Moody’s and S&P.

    The budget includes elements of Brown’s plan to prop up the $74 billion unfunded liability of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second biggest pension in the nation. Schools, collecting money from the tax increase Brown won, will see their responsibility for teacher pensions double within seven years, while teachers and the state will also pay more.


    The spending plan also includes $250 million earned from the auction of greenhouse gas emission credits to finance operations of the state’s proposed high-speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. The project will get 25 percent of the auction revenue in future years, less than the 33 percent Brown had proposed.


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    The money is needed to support the project while lawsuits prevent the state from selling bonds to begin construction of the $68 billion project.


    June 15 is the constitutional deadline to pass a spending plan. For each day they are late, lawmakers don’t get paid. The governor must sign a budget into law by July 1.


    To contact the reporter on this story: Michael B. Marois in Sacramento at mmarois@bloomberg.net


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    http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...billion-budget

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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    June 20, 2014

    Pay panel gives California officials 2 percent raise

    Gov. Jerry Brown, California lawmakers and other elected officials will be getting a two percent raise this year.

    Pointing to California's firmer fiscal footing, a panel that sets salaries for elected officials on Friday voted 4-1 to enact a pay boost. The raise will add $1,906 to lawmakers' annual $95,291 salary, giving them a yearly pay of $97,197. The raise for Gov. Jerry Brown, who makes $173,987, will be $3,480, taking him to $177,467 a year.


    Years of yawning budget deficits have given way to a surplus, allowing California to pass an on-time budget this year with minimal friction. Those sunnier circumstances framed the debate among members of the California Citizens Compensation Commission.


    "It would be hard to argue, I believe, that the state is not better off financially today than it was a few years ago," said commissioner Scott Somers. "If they get tarred when times are tough," he added in reference to elected officials, "they ought to at least get some credit when things are improving.


    California lawmakers are the best-compensated of any state legislators. They lead the field even though their pay was cut twice during the recession, reductions that the pay commission partially reversed last year with a five percent boost. The next-largest paychecks go to legislators in Pennsylvania, who made $83,801 in 2013.



    Despite earning more than their counterparts in other states, Sacramento lawmakers earn less than city and county officials in California. Members of the Los Angeles and San Francisco city councils both draw larger paychecks than state legislators, as do county supervisors in 16 separate counties.


    "I think that where (members of the Legislature) are compensated is low based on all the indices that staff provided us," commissioner Nancy Miller said.


    Complicating comparisons to other states and cities is the fact that California lawmakers cannot draw pensions, a prohibition voters enacted along with term limits back in 1990.


    "It is very difficult to compare apples to apples for our Assembly members and senators," Somers said.


    State lawmakers in New York and Ohio, for instance - both states that, like California, have full-time legislatures - receive retirement benefits, although their base salaries are lower. Lawmakers in Texas, where the part-time Legislature meets every other year, earn $7,200 in salary but are eligible for retirement money.


    Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalert...#storylink=cpy




    http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalert...ent-raise.html
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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Highway Patrol officers (California Association of Highway Patrolmen, Unit 5)

    Number of employees in 2013: 6,514

    2013 average full-time pay: $90,094
    2013 median full-time pay: $95,197


    Number of employees in 2012: 6,733

    2012 average pay: $86,637
    2012 median pay: $94,119

    Number of employees in 2011: 6,500

    2011 average pay: $90,683
    2011 median pay: $94,045
    Read more articles by Jon O

    Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/20/6499492/what-state-workers-earn-california.html#storylink=cpy
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    California unemployment rate falls to 2008 levels

    Fresno Bee - ‎6 hours ago‎
    Unemployment dropped in California last month to levels not seen since the days before the economic meltdown in 2008. The statewide unemployment rate in May fell two-tenths of a percentage point . . .
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