On Tuesday, Governor Jerry Brown made the announcement that he was ending negotiations with Republicans in an effort to extend taxes to resolve the budget deficit that remains after the spending cuts ...

One of the most contentious issues that has arisen with regard to the new Governor's budget has been a proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies in California.  How serious a threat was this?  Seri ...

I will never forget the day, at the behest of a mutual friend back late in 2009, I met with two organizers from a prominent union organization in California, the California Labor Federation.I understo ...

While it remains a clear Plan B, it is becoming increasingly clear that Governor Jerry Brown is moving closer to a contingency that would circumvent the need for two-thirds legislative support and mov ...

Someone wanted outrage last week. Well, there is plenty of outrage to go around, especially with two reports showing the utter devastation that budget cuts and our economic downturn have caused to our ...

Someone wrote with regards to the threats to UC Davis facing serious cutbacks due to the budget, "This is too bad, no doubt. But I think Californians need to realize that the State does not OWE them a ...

Balancing the Budget on the Backs of the Poor, who Rely on Medi-Cal, and Students - On Thursday, the legislature completed roughly half of the budgetary equation - approving most of the spending cuts ...

A Field Poll released Wednesday indicates the voters are willing to consider an extension of the tax measures that Governor Jerry Brown has proposed, as a means for closing the deficit and avoiding an ...

Governor Brown has made this week his deadline for reaching a budget deal - yes - March 8.  That deadline has been dealt a blow, as yesterday it was reported that Republican senators released for the ...

Last week a key committee for the legislature came out backing the end of redevelopment.On Thursday, a Senate-Assembly budget committee voted to send the spending plan to the floor of both houses in t ...

Last weekend, the Vanguard reported on David Crane's editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he argued that collective bargaining had no place for public employees, given the fact that they ...

Legal Opinion Suggests Majority Vote Sufficient For Tax Extension, But Democrats Do Not Want it - The big news now is that the Sacramento Bee this morning is reporting that lawyers for the state legis ...

The Little Hoover Commission, purportedly a bipartisan commission, issued the recommendation on Thursday that California's state and local governments roll back pensions for existing employees and shi ...

by Dan Oney - While redevelopment agencies may be facing annihilation, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) is taking steps to ensure that municipalities still retain some tools to continue their economic deve ...

LAO Letter Lays Out The Face Of An All-Cuts Budget - The Legislative Analyst Office released a report on the possible list of cuts needed to close the state's multi-billion dollar budget deficit, shou ...

The problem of soaring prison costs is nothing new in California government, even as the state faces largely unprecedented problems with its budget.The recent polling by the Public Policy Institute of ...

Governor Jerry Brown delivered the first State of the State Address of his new tenure as California's Governor, and he called on both Democrats and Republicans to do things that they do not want to do ...

Polling Shows Some Support for Higher Taxes, Will Voters Get the Chance to Vote on It? The conventional wisdom rising out of the first month of Governor Jerry Brown's tenure is that he does not have t ...

In July, candidate Jerry Brown laid out a series of common sense proposals to deal with pension reform on the state level.  While we have generally focused on pension reform at the local level, clearl ...

This morning's Sacramento Bee points out that those who own the land and buildings in downtown Sacramento pay an estimated 31 million dollars in property taxes every year.  Contrary to popular belief, ...