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Storified by Jon Ortiz · Mon, Apr 30 2012 09:43:59

CA's tough guv; ME contracting dispute; SC pay raise debate

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Storified by Jon Ortiz · Thu, Apr 12 2012 03:24:17

Your morning roundup of civil service news from California and the nation

Storified by Jon Ortiz · Sat, Apr 07 2012 09:51:17

California legislative Democrats balk at Jerry Brown's budget cuts
In a show of good faith one year ago, legislative Democrats slashed Medi-Cal, cut universities and reduced welfare grants to slice the state deficit 13 weeks before the constitutional deadline. But this year Democrats are refusing to go along with Gov. Jerry Brown's most controversial reductions, spurning his demand to have cuts in place by March. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: AM Alert: Shack up with a student, lose your pension
Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto will introduce her own pension legislation today with a bill aimed at cracking down on student-teacher relationships. Assembly Bill 1861 would eliminate pension and retiree benefits for teachers who have an inappropriate relationship with a student at the same school - even if the student is an adult. (Sacramento Bee)

Op-ed: Sam Blakeslee: Republicans back Jerry Brown's pension reforms; where are the Democrats?
There is a saying in the sales industry, "When you get a 'yes,' stop talking and take the order." Democrats in the state Legislature would do well to follow that axiom. (Mercury News)

US: States From Ohio to Florida Weigh Running Company Funds
Six U.S. states, led by Massachusetts and California, are taking steps to put public pension overseers in charge of retirement savings plans offered to nongovernment workers, according to an advocate of the idea. (Bloomberg)

The State Worker: Personnel case takes on how the state handles hiring
In 2007, James Ward sold his San Diego-area dental practice and moved to Blythe, the remote desert town between Los Angeles and Phoenix. The reason for the dramatic switch: a job he took at Ironwood State Prison. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown changes his tax plan to address concerns of liberal allies
After a months-long feud with his most liberal allies, Gov. Jerry Brown compromised Wednesday to eliminate a rival tax initiative for the November ballot. (Sacramento Bee)

Skelton: Acrobat Brown does a flip on tax hike measure
Back in the day, when Gov. Jerry Brown would dazzle us with a flip-flop, he'd land on his feet spouting philosophy. (Los Angeles Times)

CalPERS cuts investment forecast by quarter-point
CalPERS is forcing state and local governments to pay more to support the giant pension fund - but will let them ease into it. The fund's governing board Wednesday approved a quarter-point drop in CalPERS' investment forecast, to 7.5 percent. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Teach a high school class, date a student - lose your pension?
Angered by a 41-year-old Modesto teacher who moved in with an 18-year-old student, a California lawmaker is crafting legislation that would strip teachers of their retirement benefits in such cases. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS OKs reduction in investment forecast, costing state extra $167 million per year
CalPERS gave final approval today to a quarter-point reduction in its investment forecast, but will look at softening the fiscal impact on government budgets. (Sacramento Bee)

VT:Retirement Program Proposed For State Hospital Employees
The Shumlin administration and the union representing Vermont state workers are in talks about a possible retirement incentive program for workers at the now-closed Vermont State Hospital. (Vermont Public Radio)

CA: Dan Walters: Two tales of pension accounting
Major corporations that still maintain traditional defined-benefit pension plans are asking Congress to lower their pension trust fund contributions because, they say, extraordinarily low interest rates force them to sock away too much. (Sacramento Bee)

RI: RI bill would let state workers hold public office
A bill winding its way through the Rhode Island legislature would end a 73-year-old ban on state employees running for public office or serving on a state employee grievances board. (AP / Boston Globe)

CA: Past pension boosts deferred costs
The recent loss of tens of billions of dollars from California's public pension funds may have raised awareness about the high cost of guaranteed benefits for public workers, but reform advocates say the unsustainable system has been years - or even decades - in the making. (AP / Sacramento Bee)

CA: Staff cuts planned at Napa State Hospital
The California Department of Mental Health has notified dozens of Napa State Hospital employees they may be laid off later this year, according to union representatives. (Napa Valley Register)

CA: Will state agencies derail local pension reforms?
While unions oppose key parts of Gov. Brown's 12-point pension reform plan in the Legislature, local officials say union allies are using state agencies to try to derail or undermine local pension reforms on the June ballot in San Jose and San Diego. (Calpensions)

CA: Workers' comp fraud case based on sex-club shooting goes to jury
Jurors began deliberations Wednesday in the workers' comp fraud conspiracy case against a state correctional officer and his wife over his shooting at a San Francisco sex club that he claimed was job-related. (Sacramento Bee)

Calif. city seeks to escape soaring pension costs (CBS News)

State lawmakers order San Jose pension audit
The state will audit San Jose's finances amid employee unions' accusations that city officials overstated the cost of the pension system to build support for a June ballot measure reducing retirement benefits. (Mercury News)

CalPERS urged to cut its annual profit forecast
CalPERS is considering making a significant cut in its investment forecast next week, which would likely force the state and local governments to increase their annual contributions to the big pension funds. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Messy rollout continues for CalPERS computer system
Well, here's another CalPERS computer gaffe story. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Fewer California state workers took pensions in 2011
Fewer state employees took their pensions in 2011, reversing a four-year trend that had seen more workers going into retirement. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Viewpoints: Let's base public pension debate on facts, not made-up numbers
It would be nice to separate the wheat from the chaff in the debate over how to restructure public pensions. It is important to eliminate abuses and ensure that public pensions are fair to retirees and affordable to taxpayers. But it is equally important to key the debate on real facts and figures that accurately portray the public costs. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Teachers union leads in record year of lobbying lawmakers
State Assemblyman Warren Furutani looked out over a sea of red -- protesting oil industry workers wearing scarlet T-shirts -- and saw trouble for his plan to raise $2.5 billion for universities with a tax on crude. Click here for chart. (Los Angeles Times)

CA: State government contracting debate back at California's Capitol
The debate over whether government runs best with civil service workers or privately contracted help is re-igniting in the Capitol over legislation that, among other things, would give state workers first dibs whenever the state has work to do. (Sacramento Bee)

A Labor Force Faces the Ultimate in Downsizing: Herbert Jenkins Heads Detroit Union With a Single Member--Him
To dig out of a fiscal mess, the city of Detroit has reached tentative labor deals with the leadership of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the United Auto Workers and International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Then it had to win over Herbert Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins is president of the Assistant Supervisors of Street Maintenance and Construction Association, the union representing the leaders of Detroit's pothole-repair crews. He also is the only member of that collective-bargaining unit. (Wall Street Journal)

CA: Salary 'spiking' drains public pension funds, analysis finds
Approaching retirement, Ventura County Chief Executive Marty Robinson was earning $228,000 a year. To boost her pension, which would be based on her final salary, Robinson cashed out nearly $34,000 in unused vacation pay, an $11,000 bonus for having earned a graduate degree and more than $24,000 in extra pension benefits the county owed her. By the time she walked out the door last year, her pension was calculated at $272,000 a year -- for life. (Los Angeles Times)

CA: Editorial: Self-inflicted wound for chief of wildlife board
Good judgment should be a prerequisite for any president of California's Fish and Game Commission. Californians are so passionate about issues involving hunting, fishing, wildlife and conservation that this commission needs a steady hand at the helm. Sadly, Daniel Richards continues to flunk that test, day after day. (Sacramento Bee)

WI: Retired state workers to see dip in pension funds
About 96 thousand retired public employees in Wisconsin may see their pension checks shrink by seven percent.The cut would hit them next May. (WSAU)

CA: Apple dividend would mean big bucks for CalPERS, CalSTRS
The run up in value of Apple Inc. stock has been good for California's largest pension funds. (Sacramento Business Journal)

CA: Steinberg: Fish & Game Commission head acted 'like a jackass'
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg joined the debate today over the embattled head of the state Fish and Game Commission's Idaho cougar hunt, blasting Dan Richards for acting "like a jackass." (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Fish and Game president blasts critics, says he ate mountain lion
The head of the California Fish and Game Commission, under fire for killing a mountain lion during a hunting trip in Idaho, blasted his critics Thursday as "environmental terrorists" and dismissed demands by Democratic state lawmakers for him to resign. (Los Angeles Times)

CA: Ogilvy wins $900,000 health care PR job
A tentative winner has been announced for a $900,000 public relations contract to help California implement federal health care reform: Sacramento's Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. (Sacramento Bee)

Dan Walters: California legislators show their hypocrisy over hunting issue
Dan Richards, who chairs the California Fish and Game Commission, is under fire in the Capitol because he killed a mountain lion in Idaho and posed with his trophy for a picture that was later published on a hunting publication website. Forty Democratic legislators signed a letter to Richards saying he should resign. "Your actions raise serious questions about whether you respect the laws of the people of California and whether you are fit to adequately enforce those laws," the lawmakers told Richards. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom later joined the chorus. So let's get this straight. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Pension costs are crushing local governments
Last week, Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research and California Common Sense released a report that confirmed what Californians have come to realize, yet many leaders still deny. From Stockton to San Diego, government pension costs are crushing local governments. (Sacramento Bee)

NV: Judge dismisses separation-of-powers lawsuit
A Carson City district judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a conservative think tank that challenged the constitutionality of public workers serving in the Legislature. (AP / Las Vegas Sun)

The State Worker: GOP backs Jerry Brown's plan on pensions
Last year, Republicans in the state Legislature rejected Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's offer to put public pension reform on a statewide ballot. On Wednesday, those same Republicans introduced a package of pension rollbacks for the November ballot written by ... Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. (Sacramento Bee)

UC Davis officials sued over pepper spraying
Three months after being pepper sprayed or allegedly roughed up by UC Davis campus police during an Occupy demonstration, 19 students and alumni Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit claiming that their free speech and assembly rights were violated in the controversial incident. (Los Angeles Times)

Finance chief Matosantos pleads no contest in drunken-driving case
California Finance Director Ana Matosantos pleaded no contest Tuesday to driving over the legal limit for alcohol last year in downtown Sacramento. (Sacramento Bee)

CT: Prison guards backed off Super Bowl sick calls
Efforts to stop the annual Super Bowl flood of "sick" calls among state prison guards largely succeeded in stopping staff shortages and statewide inmate lockdowns while the New York Giants clashed with the New England Patriots. But unionized guards have now called illegal procedure, filing about 100 grievances against Department of Correction Commissioner Leo C. Arnone for allegedly changing work rules and requiring doctor's notes for those who called in sick. (Connecticut Post)

Meg Whitman contributes $100,000 to Mitt Romney's Super PAC
Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman pulled out her checkbook last month to boost her former boss Mitt Romney's presidential bid. (Sacramento Bee)

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown and Gray Davis a study in contrasts
If Californians believed that electing Democrat Jerry Brown as governor would mean a big break with Republican predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, they must be disappointed. (Sacramento Bee)

MI: Scott Walker Allies Launch Ad Campaign
In advance of a near certain recall election, a national ally of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker is taking to the airwaves with a new TV ad aimed at bolstering the image of Walker's controversial budget repair law, and features state workers touting the measure's reforms.(National Journal)

Editorial: Our View: Public Employees Bill of Rights Act all wrong
Considering the state of this state and the condition of the world, the so-called Public Employees Bill of Rights Act might be mistaken for satire. The problem is, Assembly Bill 1655, is serious. (Appeal Democrat)

The State Worker: Pension measure autopsy shows multiple causes of death
We're in the ballot initiative wing of the California Political Causes Morgue. On the table, two public pension reform plans that died last week. Scalpel, please. (Sacramento Bee)

Calpers to Buyout Funds: Give Up Carried Interest
California Public Employees' Retirement System's investment chief urged private-equity industry executives to abandon the fight to preserve a lucrative tax break on much of their income or "risk becoming the robber barons of the 21st century." (Wall Street Journal)

CalPERS will look again at adjusting forecast
CalPERS is going to look again at adjusting its investment forecast, a move that could increase taxpayer contributions while ramping up the political heat on public pension funds in California. (Sacramento Bee)

OR: State wellness plan penalties up for consideration
The Public Employees' Benefit Board put itself ahead of the curve -- but not too far ahead -- when it decided to penalize state workers who don't participate in its new wellness program, experts say. (Statesman Journal)

California Assembly decision to fight budget release cost nearly $200,000
The California Assembly spent nearly $200,000 in public funds fighting against release of member-by-member budgets allocating tens of millions in public funds, records show. (Sacramento Bee)

State employee unions aren't counting on generous contracts from Democrat Jerry Brown
Contract talks kicking off this month between the state and four employee unions present Gov. Jerry Brown with a political dilemma: How does he deal fairly with his key labor constituency without exposing himself to charges he's kowtowing to them? (Sacramento Bee)

California's mobile hospitals are running out of money and time
In a cool, 18,000-square-foot warehouse tucked in an industrial Sacramento-area neighborhood sits millions of dollars in equipment California leaders hope never to use. (Sacramento Bee)

While GOP leaders call for smaller government, Okla. state workers near 6 years since pay hike
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Jess Callahan, a state social worker who helps provide services to the elderly, blind and disabled in Choctaw County, hasn't seen a pay raise since 2006, and he's not alone. (AP/ The Republic)

In Wisconsin, assessing a new labor law's impact
RACINE, Wisconsin -- James Ladwig recently took over the job of Racine County executive. He was sworn in last April, not long after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a controversial bill curtailing the bargaining rights of state and local workers. So with the new job, Ladwig got a new set of rules for governing his county. (Stateline)

Democrats gear up to fight part-time Legislature measure
A Democratic political strategist and a former Democratic assemblyman will help lead opposition to a proposed ballot initiative that would reduce California's Legislature to part-time. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Some California unions drop furlough cases; two soldier on
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association quietly dropped two furlough lawsuits last week, one in Alameda Superior Court and the other a federal case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Sacramento Bee)

Sick pay cashouts for NJ public workers the talk of the day
Emotions ran high Wednesday at a conference of New Jersey mayors, some of whom demanded stepped-up state assistance in controlling municipal budgets, with others being lashed by a legislator for creating massive taxpayer liabilities to public workers for unused sick pay. (Asbury Park Press)

Group suspends California public pension reform ballot effort
The cause of pension reform in California took a significant body shot Wednesday when a group hoping to put an overhaul measure before voters this year suspended its campaign. (Sacramento Bee)

Budgets were tight, but some California lawmakers got extra money last year
With California billions behind on its budget and public services shrinking, the Assembly collectively tightened its belt last year - but not all of its members did. (Sacramento Bee)

NY: Drawing Fire, Deal Gives Agency Staff Power to See State Workers' Tax Files
ALBANY -- Lawmakers and labor unions on Monday pointedly criticized a secret decision by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration to greatly expand the state inspector general's access to tax returns filed by state employees. (New York Times)

Initiative would make Legislature part time, slash its pay
A proposal by Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) probably won't make her many friends among her colleagues. She wants to reduce the Legislature to part-time status and cut its pay from $95,000 annually to $1,500 a month. (Los Angeles Times)

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown's tax plan takes a double hit
Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign to balance the state budget with new income and sales taxes took a double hit Monday. (Sacramento Bee)

Lawmakers' cars going, going ... gone!
The Capitol parking garage should have some extra spaces this spring. The Legislature has spent the last two months selling cars it had previously purchased for lawmakers, a move mandated by the California Citizens Compensation Commission's decision to cut the car perk legislators have enjoyed for decades. (Sacramento Bee)

See the sale prices for California legislators' state cars
The state Legislature has taken a loss of more than $1 million on the sale of dozens of cars it had purchased for legislators over the years. (Sacramento Bee)

CA: Three arrested in unemployment insurance scheme
Federal authorities have arrested three Inland residents in connection with a scheme to issue unemployment checks to people who did not qualify for benefits, federal authorities said Thursday in a statement. (Press-Enterprise)

High-speed rail tapped state funds for unusual lobbying contract
In an extremely unusual use of taxpayer money, the leaders behind California's $99 billion high-speed train quietly hired a lobbyist to sway the Legislature -- the same politicians who appointed them to build the project in the first place. (Mercury News)

California government payroll grew by $500 million in 2011 as furloughs eased
State government payroll increased by half a billion dollars last year, even as California cut thousands of state worker jobs, according to a Bee analysis of new data from the Controller's Office. (Sacramento Bee)

OR: Lawmakers consider supervisor ratio
A bill intended to accelerate middle management reductions in Oregon state government got off to a rocky start before skeptical legislators Wednesday. (Statesman Journal)

The State Worker: How hard is it to fire a state worker?
Caltrans' recent decision to "unfire" an employee who admitted falsifying structural tests and let him retire may leave you wondering, How hard is it to fire a state worker? (Sacramento Bee)

CalSTRS may cut forecast again
CalSTRS is thinking of cutting its investment forecast for the second time in barely a year, a move that acknowledges the increased financial strain on the pension fund. (Sacramento Bee)

John Chiang says California's cash will dry up if officials don't act
California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not borrow more money and delay some payments, the state's cash manager warned Tuesday. (Sacramento Bee)

Maine Bill Would Allow Public Employees to Bring Guns to Work
Maine lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow state employees to bring guns to work. The measure would require that gun owners have a concealed weapons permit and keep firearms locked and out of sight in their vehicles, according to Capitol News Service. (MPBN)

High-stakes labor battle coming to California
SACRAMENTO -- The raging battle over the political and economic clout of labor unions is headed west to California. The state's powerful labor groups have anxiously witnessed union rights and benefits being gutted in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. Now, unions in California are girding for an all-out war over a ballot initiative that would curb their ability to raise political cash. (Mercury News)

Jerry Brown says cap-and-trade fees will fund high-speed rail
Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview airing in Los Angeles today that California's high-speed rail project will cost far less than the state's current estimate of nearly $100 billion and that environmental fees paid by carbon producers will be a source of funding. ... Brown has also proposed changes to reduce pension costs, and he suggested he may take that measure to the ballot, too, if the Legislature does not act. (Sacramento Bee)

NY: Cuomo Seeks Civil Service Law Changes
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is quietly seeking more leeway to hire and transfer state employees outside of a competitive process, a move unions say would weaken civil service rules designed to prevent patronage. (Wall Street Journal)

Editorial: Caltrans sidesteps accountability - again
This week's settlement between Caltrans and Duane Wiles is disturbing on several levels. The deal, which essentially "unfires" a technician who falsified safety tests and allows him to resign, shows how difficult it can be to dismiss state employees, no matter how badly they violate the public trust. (Sacramento Bee)

Interim director: PDC is not closing
The possible closure of the Porterville Developmental Center, potential layoffs, the status of the secure treatment area and the center's budget were the big topics of a town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon inside the facility's Carl F. Broderick Auditorium. (Porterville Recorder)

Editorial: State should put an end to plum patronage boards
To save money and make government more efficient, Gov. Jerry Brown, like his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, proposes to eliminate dozens of state boards and commissions that have outlived their usefulness. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: California settles up -- interest free -- with prison guards union
California's prison officers union is getting a loan from taxpayers - interest-free - to settle a multimillion-dollar debt it owes the state. (Sacramento Bee)

Local AFSCME union chapter at odds with leaders
State workers in an Oregon AFSCME local are staging a protest vote about a controversial new wellness program that, if successful, will hit their union square in the pocketbook. (Statesman Journal)

Public Pensions Increase Private-Equity Investments
Large public pension plans are pouring more money into private-equity funds, deepening ties between government workers and an industry currently under the harsh glare of U.S. presidential politics. (Wall Street Journal)

Atherton Interim City Manager John Danielson forced to resign Friday
Atherton Interim City Manager John Danielson will have to step down Friday because the California Public Employees' Retirement System rejected the town's request to extend his contract one more year while it searches for a replacement. (Mercury News)

CalSTRS reports 2.3 percent earnings on investments in 2011
CalSTRS announced meager investment gains for 2011 - and repeated its plea to the Legislature for help. (Sacramento Bee)

San Jose council moves to end its pensions
San Jose city leaders took initial steps Tuesday toward ending their own state-run pension plan as they continue seeking workforce retirement concessions. (Mercury News)

Editorial: Lawmakers spin their wheels on pension reform
A joint Senate/Assembly conference committee will hold its third (ho-hum) informational hearing today on the 12-point pension reform plan that Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled with such fanfare last October. Don't expect anything to come of it. So far, a lot of talk has emerged but no pension bill. Efforts to substantially reduce state pension obligations are a sham in this Legislature, and most people who work in the Capitol know that. (Sacramento Bee)

GOP Senators: Take Overtime Out Of Pension Calculations
Two Republican state senators called Tuesday for passage of a bill this year to take pensions for future state employees out of union negotiations and to stop employees' widespread practice of "padding" of their pensions with heavy overtime as they prepare to retire. (Hartford Courant)

CalPERS reports just small gain in 2011
CalPERS, still struggling to recover from the market crash of 2008, said Monday it earned a return of just 1.1 percent on its investments in 2011. That was a fraction of the 12.5 percent it earned in 2010 and underscored the challenges facing CalPERS amid cries from some elected officials to curb the cost of public pensions in California. (Sacramento Bee)

3 Calif. municipalities sidestep pension debate
While most of the state's roughly 480 cities and towns are entangled in a heated debate about future pension costs, three small cities in Contra Costa County are quietly sitting on the sidelines. (California Watch)

Issue of the week: Pensions
THE ISSUE: On Wednesday, a Senate-Assembly conference committee will convene to consider part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to reduce state pension costs. Brown wants to offer hybrid plans to new state employees that would include traditional defined-benefit pensions and 401(k)-style retirement funds. Last week, we asked readers: Should lawmakers reduce pension costs by offering hybrid plans to new state workers? Does that change go too far? Or should it be more far-reaching? (Sacramento Bee)

Dan Walters: California civil service unions in denial on pension costs
Whenever someone suggests that California's public employee pension systems need reform, civil service unions react dismissively, often with attacks on the credentials or even the morals of critics. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Assembly fumbles whistle-blower bill
Is it any wonder why Californians hold the Legislature in such low regard? (Sacramento Bee)

UCSF seeks to ease ties with UC
Unlike the other nine campuses of the University of California, UCSF enrolls no undergraduates, offers no world history classes and gets so much money from government grants that it barely depends on the tuition its students pay to attend the medical school on a windy San Francisco hill. Yet UCSF is attached like Velcro to the other campuses, required to spend millions of dollars to help support them and send officials to countless meetings where students protest rising tuition and regents debate educational policy. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Dan Morain: Brown buys a risky ticket on high-speed rail
You have to hand it to Jerry Brown. He's not shrinking from taking a big risk on high-speed rail. (Sacramento Bee)

Hat tip to blog users J, B and M for their unwavering dedication to flagging news and editorials for our morning roundups.

The State Worker: Will Jerry Brown's reorg plan fix California's bugs?
To understand how Gov. Jerry Brown wants to reorganize government, just look at an iPhone. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS discloses $250 million realty loss
CalPERS took a $250 million loss on a massive land deal as it continues to reposition its battered real estate portfolio, the pension fund said Wednesday. (Sacramento Bee)

Op-ed: Public unions: What's the big deal?
On Jan. 17, 1962, President Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988, bringing collective bargaining rights to most federal workers for the first time. ... For 20 years after Kennedy's order, public sector union rights were not controversial. To the contrary, they enjoyed bipartisan support -- even from conservatism's leading light, Ronald Reagan. Reagan, as governor of California, presided over the extension of collective bargaining rights to state and local workers in 1968. (Los Angeles Times)

CalPERS Pressures Apple on Director Elections (Market Watch / Wall Street Journal)

Jerry Brown commits typo, forced to re-file tax initiative
Gov. Jerry Brown is taking a mulligan, tripped up by a typographical error and forced to re-file his ballot initiative to raise taxes. The Democratic governor on Friday filed paperwork with the state for "The Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012- ver. 2." The measure is identical to one Brown filed in December, the governor said in a filing with the attorney general's office, "except that we have corrected a typographical error that resulted in two numbers being transposed." (Sacramento Bee)

Colorado governor calls for privatization of state workers comp insurer Pinnacol
DENVER--Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper called for the privatization of Pinnacol Assurance during his State of the State address Thursday, saying the proposed move could support state businesses and schools. Denver-based Pinnacol submitted a proposal to the state in November that would restructure Colorado's workers compensation insurer of last resort into a mutual insurer. The company currently is classified as a state "political subdivision." (Business Insurance)

FPPC sues United States Postal Service over records request
The state political watchdog agency has delivered a lawsuit to the United States Postal Service in an ongoing dispute over public records. (Sacramento Bee)

Judge refuses to toss CalPERS suit against Moody's, S&P
CalPERS has won the right to pursue a $1 billion lawsuit against two Wall Street heavyweights, beating back their efforts to have the case thrown out of court. (Sacramento Bee)

The depressing toll of the Great Recession: Mental health problems mount nationwide while budgets for treatment and care are shrinking
In late 2009, as the unemployment rate in San Joaquin County, California, reached 18 percent and one in twelve homes were being foreclosed, two high school students in the town of Ripon, population 15,000, committed suicide within two months of each other. Over the next eighteen months, sixteen more teenagers around the county took their own lives, a not-uncommon occurrence that public health researchers refer to as "suicide contagion." Years of declining budgets had cut the number of counselors, nurses and psychologists in county schools, impairing the ability of individual districts to handle the needs of grieving students, parents and communities on their own. So school officials in cities like Ripon, Stockton, Lodi and Linden turned to each other for help. (Salon)

Editorial: Double-dipping in pensions needs to sunset
Sacramento County Executive Brad Hudson assumed his new job with ambitions of attacting economic development and shoring up the county's shaky financial house. We hope he achieves those goals, but it won't be easy, given his emerging status as a poster child for what is wrong with the pension system for governmental managers and public employees in California. Hudson earns more than a quarter-million dollars a year as Sacramento's CEO, $258,000 plus benefits, to be precise. At the same time, he collects a sizable public pension. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Calfornia government struggles with more tech problems
California's biggest IT project - one that's supposed to help state government better manage its dollars - has money and staffing problems. (Sacramento Bee)

Fired Caltrans manager denies wrongdoing, will seek reinstatement
Brian Liebich, the fired manager of the state Department of Transportation unit that tested the foundation of the new Bay Bridge, has denied any wrongdoing and says he has been made a scapegoat. (Sacramento Bee)

S&P, Moody's Must Face Calpers Lawsuit Over Ratings, Judge Rules
Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service Inc. must face California Public Employees' Retirement System's $1 billion lawsuit over their ratings of structured investment vehicles, a judge said. (Bloomberg)

Pension overhaul backers need campaign cash, bash Kamala Harris
The effort to place a public pension overhaul before California voters this November has moved into a new and challenging phase. (Sacramento Bee)

Maryland man's lawsuit over sick leave is being considered by the US Supreme Court
WASHINGTON -- A man who sued the state of Maryland after allegedly being fired for trying to take a 10-day medical leave from his state job will have his case heard Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the outcome could affect whether state workers nationwide can sue in similar situations. (AP/Washington Post)

US Supreme Court hears California union political spending case
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case about political spending by the union that represents California state workers. (KPCC)

Economist says Jerry Brown's budget underestimates revenue
At least one prominent economist says Gov. Jerry Brown is underestimating the strength of the recovery in his new budget proposal. Chris Thornberg, a Los Angeles consultant who advises State Controller John Chiang, said today he believes tax revenue in the upcoming fiscal year could top Brown's forecast by around $4 billion. Thornberg, head of Beacon Economics, called the governor's forecast "bizarrely low." (Sacramento Bee)

Kitzhaber 3.0: One year into third term, Oregon's governor says he has 'better grasp' of the job
SALEM -- Republicans braced for another four years battling a governor notoriously known as "Dr. No" when Democrat John Kitzhaber won election to a history-making third term. But as Kitzhaber marks his first anniversary back in office, Republicans appear to be his biggest fans. If there's any frustration with Kitzhaber, it's from Democrats and traditional allies. (Oregonian)

Inmate calls Colorado Mental Health Institute treatment a Catch-22
In 1989, Gary Hilton feigned mental illness so he could go to the Colorado Mental Health Institute instead of prison. Today, he's the one crying foul, claiming the state hospital moved him to a high-security ward for his refusal to disclose past crimes and inappropriately warned his female friend that he is a serial killer. (Denver Post)

The State Worker: Pension reform debate is about to heat up
The next few weeks will draw the lines more sharply in the 2012 debate over public employee pensions. (Sacramento Bee)

3 more Atascadero State Hospital employees attacked by patients
Patients have attacked three employees at Atascadero State Hospital since Friday, the hospital confirmed Wednesday. (San Luis Obispo Tribune)

Texas' failure to fund mental health treatment leaves hundreds stranded in jails around the state
Nearly four years ago, "Sam's" paranoia had grown so intense that he believed spies followed him in the shadows everywhere he went. His house, car, motorcycle, workplace, were all bugged, he believed. "I was in a very bad place, psychologically," said Sam, who asked that his name not be used for this story, by phone from the Kerrville State Hospital last month. "I thought everyone was after me." (Current)

Daugaard Proposes Bonus for South Dakota State Workers
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, talks with Bloomberg's Amanda J. Crawford about the state's budget and his proposal to give across-the-board bonuses for state workers. As governors in some states continue to wage war on public employee unions, cost cutting followed by higher-than-expected revenue has officials in South Dakota and other states looking to spend the first surplus dollars in years. (Bloomberg)

Wellness program approved despite concerns
An Oregon labor relations board has sided with the state regarding a controversial state workers wellness program, ruling that the measure is not subject to union negotiations. (Statesman Journal)

Rival California peace officers union slams handling of website hacking
A shadowy computer hacking group's recent seizure of peace officers' personal information from a union website prompted a call Tuesday for a legislative investigation. (Sacramento Bee)

Ruling clears way for fraud suit against former CalPERS official
Reporting from Sacramento -- A federal judge has approved a plan to liquidate the estate of Alfred J.R. Villalobos, former board member of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the state's biggest public pension fund. (Los Angeles Times)

PERS allowed to recoup $156 million
The Oregon Supreme Court Friday upheld two key decisions regarding Public Employees Retirement System "window retirees," effectively ending years of pension litigation. The court stood by its earlier decision in the Robinson case, which upheld PERS' right to recoup an estimated $156 million in overpayments from 28,042 people who retired from public service between April 2000 and April 2004. (Statesman Journal)

Open Forum: California pension system not in crisis
Despite those who are all-too-willing to play Chicken Little, the sky is not falling on the California pension system. (San Francisco Chronicle)

California Supreme Court hands Gov. Brown a win on redevelopment
California redevelopment agencies lost their battle for survival Thursday after the state Supreme Court ruled lawmakers legally eliminated the local offices that subsidize construction in blighted areas, such as Sacramento's downtown railyard and K Street corridor. (Sacramento Bee)

State, UT employees to see smaller paychecks in January due to delayed deal in Congress
Thousands of state workers and University of Texas employees will see slightly smaller paychecks next month because Congress took so long to extend the 2 percent payroll tax cut. (Austin American-Statesman)

Arraignment set for 2 fmr. pool workers
FALL RIVER, MASS. - An arraignment date has been set for two former Massachusetts state workers charged in the death of a woman in a local pool. (WPRI)

Op-ed: Cuomo's challenge
Gov. Cuomo recently said public-pension reform would be his top goal for 2012 -- and then backtracked. But ignoring this crisis for another year simply isn't an option; it won't go away. (New York Post)

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More than 250 Assembly employees get pay hikes this month
More than 250 Assembly employees received pay hikes this month under the sweeping authorization granted by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez recently for aides whose pay had not risen in three years. (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Jerry Brown looks ahead to 2012
Sitting on a hard wood bench for an hour listening to Gov. Jerry Brown field questions, it's often difficult to tell whether he's articulating a conviction, hiding something or sorting out his thoughts as he speaks. (Los Angeles Times)

UC regent Crane ousted for telling hard truths
David Crane is not the most popular man in Sacramento. In fact, his determination to tell legislators what they don't want to hear - yet need to hear - is about to cost him his position as a University of California regent. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Mass Exodus of State Workers Begins
HOUSTON - From a never ending line that snakes out of the Department of Motor Vehicles to a steady stream of children walking into Protective Services, state workers have their hands full in Texas. (myfoxhouston.com)

Jerry Brown predicts tough budget year, says he 'passed' first year in office
Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that he expects the first half of the new year to be dominated again by California's budget problems, as he proposes more spending cuts and tries to clear the November ballot of tax measures that might compete with his. (Sacramento Bee)

Federal workers starting at much higher pay than in past
Newly hired federal workers are starting at much higher salaries than those who did the same jobs in the past, a lift that has elevated the salaries of scientists and custodians alike. (USA Today)

LAO: Ballot proposals to cut California government pension costs may wind up increasing them
Two ballot proposals aimed at cutting government pension costs could wind up increasing them, are fraught with legal and fiscal uncertainty and would put pressure on governments to increase public employee pay, according to new analyses of the measures. (Sacramento Bee)

Mentally ill flood ERs as states cut services
CHICAGO/NEW YORK -- On a recent shift at a Chicago emergency department, Dr. William Sullivan treated a newly homeless patient who was threatening to kill himself. "He had been homeless for about two weeks. He hadn't showered or eaten a lot. He asked if we had a meal tray," said Sullivan, a physician at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago and a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians. Sullivan said the man kept repeating that he wanted to kill himself. "It seemed almost as if he was interested in being admitted." Across the country, doctors like Sullivan are facing a spike in psychiatric emergencies - attempted suicide, severe depression, psychosis - as states slash mental health services and the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression takes its toll. (Reuters/MSNBC.com)

Viewpoints: Pensions need to be fixed, but not gutted
It's no secret problems plague California's public pension system. Serious problems. Critics like Joe Nation, operating nowadays from his Wall Street-supported think tank at Stanford University, want everyone to focus on pension funds' investment return assumptions as a big part of the problem. You could see that in his recent op-ed in The Bee, "Pension plans should assume realistic returns" (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Pension numbers need to be nailed
When California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer dropped by The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board last week to talk about public employee pensions, he said he didn't have "settled, crisp views" on pension reform. That statement surprised everyone in the room.After all, Lockyer is one of the state's chief financial officers, a man who's been sitting on the boards of the state's two biggest public pension funds, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System, for five years now. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Brown must put price tag on pension reform
A few days back, when Gov. Jerry Brown talked about his trigger cuts and tax increases, he repeated his assertion that without credible pension reform passed this year by the Legislature's Democratic majority, voters won't be as likely to pass the tax increases he so desperately wants. Which raises the question: What is credible pension reform? (Sacramento Bee)

Dan Morain: 'Reform' initiative wears a soiled white hat
The latest initiative to qualify for the 2012 ballot is thick with the earnest rhetoric of white-hat-wearing good government reformers. It's also dripping with cynicism. ... The initiative is a remake of so-called "paycheck protection" measures rejected by voters in 1998 and 2005. While those propositions were direct attacks on labor's political fundraising, the new version tries to be clever, purporting to restrict corporate money as well. In fact, it would gut only one side's ability to play in politics - organized labor. (Sacramento Bee)

Pension plans look toward rate of return
Nearly every state has cut public pension benefits for new workers in the last three years, with an emphasis on reducing the money the states will owe to employees when they retire. (Stateline.org)

Montclair council votes to continue retirement contribution by firefighters
MONTCLAIR - The Montclair City Council decided 3 to 1 Wednesday night to require members of the Montclair Fire Fighters Association to continue their 6 percent individual contribution toward their retirement fund. Negotiators for the city and the association (MFFA) had been at an impasse since February. (Contra Costa Times)

The State Worker: California employees will pay higher payroll tax on next check
Here's one more thing to blame on Congress. Although the battle over extending a Social Security payroll tax reduction continues in Washington, D.C., the matter has already been settled for California state workers: They'll have more money withheld from their checks next month, no matter what. (Sacramento Bee)

2 former state workers to face endangerment charges in death of woman in Fall River pool
BOSTON -- Two former state workers will be charged in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found two days after she drowned in a murky Massachusetts swimming pool, a prosecutor announced Wednesday. (Washington Post)

RI's Treasurer: Focus On the Math, Not the Politics
While politics on the national scene are a continual show of gridlock, politics, and fingerpointing as the economy struggles, the state of Rhode Island managed to cut its pension liabilities and save taxpayers $4 billion. (CNBC)

Jerry Brown names lottery director, faces vacancies on commission
Gov. Jerry Brown has named a former business consultant as director of the California Lottery.Robert O'Neill, a 60-year-old former executive with the global audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP, will oversee an agency with about $3 billion in game sales each year. It provides about $1 billion to schools. (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Christie signs bill that would delay closing of Vineland Developmental Center
Gov. Chris Christie today signed a bill creating a special task force whose special review duties would at least temporarily delay the closing of the Vineland Developmental Center. (Press of Atlantic City)

Outgoing CalPERS Board Member Criticizes Fund Earnings
During the last decade, investment earnings at the largest public pension fund in the United States have been below the median among institutional investors. In response to Wilshire's quarterly earnings report showing below-median earnings by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the fund's outgoing board member, Lou Moret, told CalPensions.com: "We are glossing over this, and it looks horrible." (aiCIO.com)

Rhode Island Charities Paying For Supporting Pension Reform (ABC 6)

California's state park managers ask Jerry Brown to replace parks director
The managers who operate California's state parks say they have lost faith in their leader, and are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint a replacement. (Sacramento Bee)

Kasich discovers perks and perils of state plane travel
For many governors, the convenience of having a state plane at their disposal outweighs the political risk of looking a little extravagant to their voters. That seems to be the case for Ohio's John Kasich, who, as a candidate, criticized his predecessor for overusing state planes. The Columbus Dispatch reviewed Kasich's travel on public aircraft through this past August, in his first eight months in office, and found that Kasich racked up double the expenses for flying on state planes that his predecessor had during all of 2010. (Stateline.org)

Sacramento region governments cut from the bottom while adding to the top
Several local cities sliced their payrolls through layoffs last year by cutting those who made the least. And they ended up paying more employees six-figure salaries. (The Sacramento Bee)

AP data: States shed thousands of public employees
State governments across the country have cut more than 80,000 jobs since the beginning of the recession, reflecting steep drops in tax revenue and providing a drag on the economies in many parts of the country, the Associated Press has found. (AP / The Boston Globe)

Perry "Retires" to Boost Pension Pay
Rick Perry has done something his opponents have been hoping he'd do for years: retire. But it's not what the governor's detractors had in mind. (The Texas Tribune)

Fired Caltrans worker had been terminated before
The Caltrans worker fired last month after admitting that he falsified structural integrity test reports was booted from state service before, but a state board overturned that firing after determining it resulted from "a one-time lapse in judgment." Now Duane Wiles is appealing his latest firing to the same State Personnel Board that reinstated him nearly 12 years ago after he was accused of misusing his state credit card and making personal calls on a state cellphone. (Sacramento Bee)

Overcoming a backlog: How Texas conquered a mountain of food stamps applications
AUSTIN, Texas -- Two years ago, the 316 offices in Texas where people go to sign up for food stamps were the very image of a government backlog. Long lines of frustrated people, many of them hungry, snaked through dingy spaces designed to handle much smaller crowds. The back offices weren't much better. Desks of state employees were littered with piles of applications -- in boxes under workers' desks and stacked on top of them -- that hadn't yet been entered into the state's computer systems. Part 3 in a series. (Stateline)

Harassment claim against legislator settled in secret, records show
The state Senate secretly paid $120,000 to settle a claim by a legislative aide that she was sexually harassed by Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood), according to her attorney and government documents released this week. (Los Angeles Times)

The State Worker: CalPERS computer troubles linger
CalPERS just put another few million bucks into a new half-billion-dollar computer hardware and software system that launched late, went way over budget - and still isn't quite right. (Sacramento Bee)

More student unrest likely, California college officials tell legislative panel
One month after the pepper-spraying of student protesters at the University of California, Davis, officials are struggling with how to move forward, even as they prepare for the possibility of new protests and building takeovers when students return next month. (Sacramento Bee)

Fearing Reform, Teachers Retire Early
... Sally Schuler is retiring after 32 years of teaching in Olmsted Falls southwest of Cleveland. "I didn't want to do it but I did." Schuler says that--because of proposed changes to the teacher pension system, it makes no financial sense for her to keep working. (ideastream.com)

Viewpoints: UC, CSU leaders show a tin ear on executive salaries
... To put it bluntly, our public universities in California are screwing up. They are either completely tone deaf or incredibly insensitive. (Sacramento Bee)

California overhauls mental health department
alifornia has begun transitioning its mental health services program to concentrate care on the most serious patients residing in state mental hospitals and prisons, but the cost-cutting move is raising concerns about patient care from state workers. (AP / Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Pension reform
A recommendation to convert the state employee retirement system to a 401(k) plan seems like a reasonable move, but state officials need to realize that the pensions currently guaranteed by the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System are a significant benefit for state employees. If the state is going to make its retirement plan more like those offered by private businesses, it also may have to provide salaries and other benefits that make state jobs more competitive with those offered in the private sector. (Lawrence Journal-World)

'Daily Show' asks Scott to pee in cup WPTV News)

Penn State scandal spurs California legislation
As former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky's preliminary hearing on sex abuse charges begins this week, California lawmakers are rushing to introduce legislation aimed at preventing similar scandals here. (Los Angeles Times)

State starts investigation of prison riot, response in Folsom
A state prison investigation is looking into the cause of Wednesday's riot at California State Prison, Sacramento. Correctional officers used pepper spray and rubber projectiles and fired seven rifle rounds to quell the melee involving 150 maximum-security inmates about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. (Sacramento Bee)

States expand lucrative pensions to more jobs
Special retirement benefits once reserved for police, firefighters and others with dangerous jobs are now being given to tens of thousands of state workers employed as park rangers, foresters, dispatchers, coroners, even highway laborers, museum guards and lifeguards. (USA Today)

Assembly will not appeal court order to release member budgets
The Assembly has decided not to appeal a Sacramento Superior Court judge's ruling requiring it to release member-by-member budgets and any changes made to them through the year. (Sacramento Bee)

The Stater Worker: Jerry Brown serious on pensions; senator in hurry-up mode
Some observations from the recent legislative committee hearing that considered Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point public pension reform plan. (Sacramento Bee)

California Department of Mental Health to shed 600 state hospital jobs
The California Department of Mental Health on Wednesday proposed eliminating about 600 state hospital positions to shed costs, reducing the department's authorized workforce by about 5 percent. (Sacramento Bee)

The states doing the most (and least) to spread the wealth (California is 10th on the "most" list)
The Occupy movement has brought economic inequality to the headlines. Occupy protesters around the country have labeled themselves the 99 percent, in contrast to the wealthiest 1 percent. While this has captured the public's attention, differences in wealth have always existed, and states have tried to level the playing field by redistributing money through education spending, unemployment benefits, health care, welfare, and other means. 24/7 Wall St. examined government spending by state in a number of categories to identify those that give the most and least in money and benefits to their residents. (msnbc.com)

We never get all of what we learn into a news story, but this blog can give users the data, the notes and the quotes from the notebook that informed what was published.

Our report in today's Sacramento Bee discusses the latest Field Poll results concerning California voters' views on public employee pensions. You can read the story here, then click these links to go more deeply into the survey:

Tabulations From a Survey of California Registered Voters about the State and Local Government Employee Pensions and Pension Reform : These tables slice and dice responses by various demographic measures.

Plurality of voters sees public pensions as too generous, most react positively to Brown's reform proposals. Want changes to apply to both current and new public employees: Summarizes the November telephone survey's findings on voters' attitudes about public pensions.

Dave Low, chairman of union coalition Californians for Retirement Security, issued this statement about the new Field Poll results about public employee pensions:

California voters give edge to Jerry Brown's public pension overhaul
A majority of California voters support Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to dial back public employee pensions and a plurality think that state and local government retirements are "too generous," according to a new Field Poll. (Sacramento Bee)

Many Workers in Public Sector Retiring Sooner
MADISON, Wis. -- As states and cities struggle to resolve paralyzing budget shortfalls by sending workers on unpaid furloughs, freezing salaries and extracting larger contributions for health benefits and pensions, a growing number of public-sector workers are finding fewer reasons to stay. (New York Times)

Top Sacramento city managers agree to pay share of their pensions
With the annual cost of employee pensions rising, top management officials at Sacramento City Hall have agreed to pay the entire employee share of their CalPERS retirement contributions. (Sacramento Bee)

Pain in the Public Sector
Buried in the relatively positive numbers contained in the November jobs report was some very bad news for those who work in the public sector. There were 20,000 government workers laid off last month, by far the largest drop for any sector of the economy, mostly from states, counties and cities. (New York Times)

Op-Ed: Guaranteed pensions for all Americans [The Reply]
... Understandably, taxpayers are weary after years of budget shortfalls and bitter political battles over their money. But public servants are the wrong target. (Los Angeles Times)

Editorial: By cleaning up mess, Guard restores honor
It's not pretty or painless, but holding people to account is absolutely necessary for the California National Guard to restore its honor and regain public trust. (Sacramento Bee)

On The Money: Judges Blow Whistle On State Agency's Hiring (CBS 13)

State senators see broad management problems in Caltrans
In a sometimes contentious legislative hearing Tuesday, state senators told California Department of Transportation officials that their management of data falsification by a technician in one of the agency's testing units suggests pervasive management problems. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Problems at Caltrans show need for state to reform the agency
The recent public revelation that a Caltrans employee submitted fabricated safety test results and destroyed testing data for the $6.3 billion Bay Bridge project is deeply troubling. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Caltrans, engineers serve public and take responsibility seriously
Taking shots at Caltrans doesn't require a license. The season is always open. Anyone can do it, and if you have a microphone, a pen or a computer, you can advertise the shot to anyone who is willing to hear it or read it. (Sacramento Bee)

State lawmakers could come out ahead in car expense plan
The decision to pay state lawmakers mileage for using their cars on business instead of a $300-per-month transportation allowance could end up costing taxpayers more. (Los Angeles Times)

2 nurses attacked at Atascadero State Hospital
Two nurses at Atascadero State Hospital were treated for injuries Saturday after they were attacked by aggressive patients, a Department of Mental Health spokesperson tells KSBY News. (KSBY)

Retired public workers can count on promised benefits, court says
Health benefits for government retirees may not be eliminated if state and local governments had clearly promised workers those benefits, the California Supreme Court ruled in an Orange County case Monday. (Los Angeles Times)

Dan Walters: California government reformers occupy two camps
California's political dysfunction has evolved from a theory first advanced by a few jaundiced observers a generation ago - including yours truly - to a widely embraced axiom that has spawned endless journalistic, academic and civic discourse. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Gov. Brown needs to fix the culture of Caltrans
The debacle involving Caltrans' lax bridge inspections didn't take place on Gov. Jerry Brown's watch. But Caltrans' response is happening during his administration. So far, that response has been defensive, arrogant, dismissive and not the least bit reassuring. (Sacramento Bee)

Our View: Is Brown serious about pensions?
GOV. Jerry Brown has a golden opportunity to lead by example, to show us he's serious about putting independent, financially sophisticated people in charge of public pension systems that manage investments worth tens of billions of dollars. (Pasadena Star-News)

Brown polishing his tax plan
Gov. Jerry Brown is drafting a ballot initiative that would raise income taxes on the wealthy and hike sales taxes for everyone, insiders say. Much political finesse is involved. Each step is delicate. (Los Angeles Times)

California Assembly committee budgets conceal travel by lawmakers' personal aides
Much of the money spent for travel by Assembly committees this year went to fly personal aides of Southern California legislators round-trip between the Capitol and their districts.
The trips contradict what the Assembly tells Californians in its annual expenditure report - that committee travel funds are used primarily for hearings to serve the public. (Sacramento Bee)

Prison plan sways prosecutors in filing charges
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley's office handles about one-third of California's felony convictions, making this single county critical to the success of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to reduce prison overcrowding by sentencing nonviolent felony offenders to county jails. Cooley, however, is a Republican who adamantly opposes the Democratic governor's plan and is training his staffers to do everything they can to work around it - including pushing for the most serious charges to ensure that as many offenders as possible are sentenced to state prison. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Rhode Island Public Workers to See Reduced Benefits
Rhode Island lawmakers took aggressive steps Thursday to overhaul the state's ailing pension system, passing legislation that sharply curtails retirement benefits for both current and retired public workers. (Wall Street Journal)

RI pension debate may be heading from the Statehouse to the courthouse
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rhode Island is taking dramatic steps toward fixing one of the nation's most underfunded public pension systems, but the true battle with public-sector unions may be just beginning. (AP / Washington Post)

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown's budget gimmick falls short
Jerry Brown sought his second stint as governor last year by promising to balance the deficit- riddled state budget without gimmicks. (Sacramento Bee)

State pension fund in worse shape despite reforms
FRANKFORT -- The state pension fund is in worse shape than ever despite a reform attempt the General Assembly passed in 2008, the fund's advisers said Thursday. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Bay Area panel critical of Caltrans amid bridge structure questions
Bay Area transportation commissioners said Wednesday that Caltrans has much to explain about why it failed to notify other officials that a technician who had fabricated test data on several structures also tested the new Bay Bridge. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Caltrans controversy rekindles public vs. private debate
The Bee's Sunday report that a state worker violated key procedures while testing support structures for the new Bay Bridge span and other projects raises anew the question: Should California privatize more of its infrastructure work? (The Sacramento Bee)

Fired Paterno could receive six-figure annual pension from Penn State
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's long service at the university theoretically puts him in line for a pension of more than $500,000 a year, according to an Associated Press analysis of state public pension records. (CBS Sports)

Grim California budget forecast means more cuts to schools, social services
The state's nonpartisan budget analyst on Wednesday said California will fall $3.7 billion short this fiscal year, likely resulting in fewer public school days, cuts to libraries and further reductions in developmentally disabled services. (Sacramento Bee)

America needs more powerful bureaucrats
Following the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Barack Obama appointed a little-known civil servant to become its public face. Displaying a genius for publicity, including self-promotion, the American infrastructure czar became one of the most visible figures in American public life. (Salon)

Editorial: Caltrans must end the dodge ball on Bay Bridge testing
Inspecting bridges and freeways in quake-prone California is arguably the most crucial work Caltrans performs. These inspections not only safeguard lives now and in the immediate future, but for an engineering project like the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, they provide a safety factor that is expected to last for decades. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Anonymous online commenting only encourages civic bile
It was with some trepidation that I logged on to sacbee.com and scrolled down to reader comments on Jennifer Garza's recent story about the inclusive philosophy of St. Mark's United Methodist Church and its gay and straight congregation. Stories that mix religion and gay rights are always ripe for the most outrageous comments from both sides of that divide. So I feared the worst and those fears very quickly proved to be well-founded. (Sacramento Bee)

Legislature to examine Caltrans testing of Bay Bridge
Caltrans fired two employees who were implicated in problems involving the tests of the Bay Bridge and other freeway structures throughout California, as reported in a Bee investigation Sunday. ... The leaders of the California Senate and Assembly committees on transportation said they would hold separate hearings later this month to examine the issues raised in The Bee's report. (The Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: LAO report lays out conundrum of pensions
In a recent report, the Legislative Analyst's Office generally gives Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point pension reform plan decent marks, calling it "a bold starting point for legislative deliberations." But the "buts" in the LAO's analysis are daunting, a sobering discussion of how difficult it will be - perhaps even impossible - to tame the retirement tiger that each year consumes a bigger and bigger chunk of depleted state and local budgets. (Sacramento Bee)

Public pensions are protected in Constitution
In Philadelphia, 224 years ago, some men tucked these words into the nation's new Constitution: "No state shall ... pass any ... law impairing the obligation of contracts..." Those words, squeezed into a very long sentence in Article 1, Section 10, listing powers denied the states, became known as the "contracts clause." And it is playing havoc with modern-day public pension reformers, including Gov. Jerry Brown. (Los Angeles Times)

After taking a few days off, our daily round up of news returns today with this afternoon edition. Thanks to all who continue to suggest news stories to share. Keep them coming!

Bay Bridge Structural Problems?

A Sacramento Bee investigation raises questions about the structural integrity of the new span of the Bay Bridge. We talk with the investigative reporter and Caltrans officials about the allegations. Host: Michael Krasny (KQED)

Questions raised on Bay Bridge structural tests
The spire of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge eastern span majestically climbs hundreds of feet above the bay, an emerging icon of California's engineering and aesthetic prowess. Scheduled for completion and public use in 2013 at a projected cost of $6.3 billion, the bridge is the largest public works project in state history. Its designers placed one quality above all others: the strength to withstand the strongest anticipated earthquake. Yet a Bee investigation has found that the state Department of Transportation technician who conducted key testing to ensure structural integrity of the span's foundation was later disciplined for fabricating test results on other projects. (Sacramento Bee)

Caltrans fires two implicated in Bay Bridge testing problems
Caltrans fired two employees implicated in a range of problems involving the testing of the Bay Bridge and other freeway structures throughout California, as reported in a Sacramento Bee investigation published Sunday. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Brown must vet integrity of bridge
Once it is rebuilt, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will be an iconic structure whose majesty should give all Californians a deep sense of pride. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Do local pension measures predict statewide outcome?
Politics is a lot like the stock market: Past performance doesn't guarantee future returns. With that caveat, let's look at how the public voted Tuesday and ask: What does this mean for the public pension debate in 2012? (Sacramento Bee)

California lawmakers head to Hawaii to hobnob with Capitol interests
More than a dozen California lawmakers are packing their bags for a weeklong trip to Hawaii to hobnob and discuss key issues with some of the Capitol's most powerful interests. ... The conference is the creation of the California Independent Voter Project, or CAIVP, a nonprofit public policy group backed by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Chevron, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and other Capitol interests. (Sacramento Bee)

State Workers Outraged About Overspending

Ohio voters overwhelmingly reject Issue 2, dealing a blow to Gov. John Kasich
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio voters dealt a sharp rebuke to first-year Gov. John Kasich and his conservative agenda Tuesday by overwhelmingly rejecting the restrictive new collective bargaining law he championed. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Modesto pension reforms lead
Modesto voters Tuesday were strongly supporting three nonbinding advisory measures that aim at reforming city pensions. (Modesto Bee)

Steve Maviglio: Why Labor Should Resist Gov. Brown's Pension Envy
At first glance, Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point package of pension reforms, released last week, looked like a deft political play, even winning over the usually sharp Calbuzz pundits. (Calbuzz)

AM Alert: Republicans call for greater focus on public pensions
Four Republican state senators, including Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton, are holding a presser under the dome to highlight what they see as the urgency of reforming California's public pension systems. (Sacramento Bee)

CSU faculty union OKs one-day strike at two campuses
The union that represents 23,000 professors, librarians and coaches at California State University voted Monday to strike on Nov. 17, canceling classes that day for tens of thousands of students at the system's East Bay and Dominguez Hills campuses. (Sacramento Bee)

The Buzz: California Assembly aides expecting budget deficit up to $8 billion
Assembly budget aides expect California to face a deficit of about $5 billion to $8 billion in the next fiscal year, higher than the $3.1 billion projected by Gov. Jerry Brown, according to a memo obtained by The Bee. (Sacramento Bee)

Audit recommends fewer state-owned vehicles
Illinois state employees aren't driving state-owned passenger vehicles enough. (Rock River Times)

Opinion: Thomas D. Elias: Brown's pensions, prisons plans draw skepticism
Political landmarks that can properly be labeled "Nixon-to-China" moments are rare, usually occurring only once in a career, if ever. But his actions on prisons and pensions gave Gov. Jerry Brown two of them this summer and fall. (Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Ballot proposals seek change in California's pension system.
State and local workers would pay more for their pensions under two ballot initiativeproposals made public Wednesday. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Former GOP chair brings pension reformers together
Wednesday's unveiling of two plans to roll back public employee retirement benefits signals that the once-fractured "pension reform" movement is on the mend. (Sacramento Bee)

Bearded Sikh Finally Allowed to Work in Calif. Prison
Trilochan Singh Oberoi, a bearded Sikh American, will finally begin working at Folsom State Prison in California Nov. 1, after a contentious six-year battle to gain employment there. (San Leandro India West)

Dan Walters: $20 million gift to California courts a big mistake
California's court system, which like all other state-supported activities is strapped for cash, is on the verge of making a big mistake. It's ready to accept a questionable $20 million donation for its very expensive and much-troubled computerized case management system. (Sacramento Bee)

Proposal for real pension reform
Who says Gov. Jerry Brown always kowtows to every desire of the public employee unions that helped get him elected? Nope - he just sometimes kowtows to them. But with last week's proposal for serious pension reform to help cure a potentially devastating long-term financial disease that could cripple California, Brown showed that once again that with him, always expect the unexpected.

George Skelton: Brown has two reasons to push pension reform
... (Jerry) Brown's proposed overhaul of public pensions is a major step toward fiscal prudence and political reality. The governor should take even bolder strides, affecting current workers more. But that's unlikely, because he and the Democratic-dominated Legislature are indebted to public employee unions for campaign money. Republicans, however, also feed at a shared trough: the prison guards union. (Los Angeles Times)

Editorial: Parks partnerships help, but they're not a panacea
Slowly, ever so slowly, some of the 70 state parks scheduled for closure in July 2012 are getting a reprieve. (Sacramento Bee)

Q & A with Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod
COState Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, is co-chairing a committee to hear the statewide concerns of employers and employees on the issue of pension reform.
Researchers estimate the combined unfunded obligations for retirement systems covering state employees, public school teachers and university workers could be as high as $500 billion. McLeod, who plans to run for Congress next year, recently sat down with the Daily Bulletin to discuss her role in state pension reform, and other major issues facing Californians. (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

Editorial: Brown delivers on pension reform
Gov. Jerry Brown has delivered on his campaign promise to tackle pension reform. The plan he put forward last week is bold and comprehensive. It is also politically risky.

Daniel Borenstein: Jerry Brown's pension plan a good first step, but it's not enough
Gov. Jerry Brown's new pension reform plan signals he's serious about restoring fiscal sanity to public employee retirement systems, but it lacks crucial details and doesn't stop the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars of debt to our children. (Mercury News)

Marin County public employees fed up with pay and pension critics
A number of veteran Marin County employees who work hard for their pay and pensions are sick and tired of being flayed by irate taxpayers who think public workers get too much for doing too little. Others at the Marin County Civic Center say they don't give critics and the politics of the moment much thought as they focus on getting their jobs done. They note pension cutbacks are in the works for new hires -- and that retirement is too far away to worry about in any case. (Marin Independent Journal)

CalSTRS gives staff $1.79 million in bonuses
CalSTRS increased staff bonuses 11% to $1.79 million for the 12 months ended June 30 after posting the biggest gain since 1986. (Pensions and Investments)

Brown's pension plan leaves out CalSTRS
What about CalSTRS? Despite two years of lobbying from the teachers' retirement fund, a plan to shore up CalSTRS' finances was missing from Gov. Jerry Brown's pension reform proposal this week. (Sacramento Bee)

PD Editorial: Brown's sensible pension plan
On Oct. 31, nearly five centuries ago, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, an event widely regarded as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown presented his own theses -- 12 in all -- identifying the problems and potential solutions to the growing public employee pension crisis. It remains to be seen whether the politics surrounding this issue will allow his plan to be a catalyst for any kind of policy reformation. But on matters of principle and common sense, it's fair to say the governor nailed it. (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

Dan Walters: Is Jerry Brown's pension plan real or a ploy?
A few years ago, the California Public Employees' Retirement System's chief actuary gave what he assumed was a private briefing and described the huge system's liabilities as "unsustainable." ... Gov. Jerry Brown, who was elected with critical union support last year, weighed in Thursday by proposing a 12-point pension reform plan that could, if enacted, significantly mitigate those consequences. And he used the same word - "unsustainable" - to describe the pension dilemma. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown's pension package faces skeptical Legislature
Even as Gov. Jerry Brown announced his plan Thursday to reduce pension benefits for public employees across the state, its prospects of passing intact appeared dim. California's powerful labor interests objected to major parts of the plan, and the leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature - neither of whom attended Brown's announcement - reacted warily. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown's pension plan explained
Gov. Jerry Brown estimates his public pension reform plan would save the state $4 billion to $11 billion over 30 years and $21 billion to $56 billion over 60 years. Local government pensions also would have to comply and would save proportionately similar sums, the administration said Thursday. Here are the details. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown to propose higher retirement age, lower pension benefits for new state workers
Gov. Jerry Brown will propose a higher retirement age and less-generous pension benefits for newly hired state employees, sources familiar with Brown's pension plan said Wednesday. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Navigating the rocky world of state service
The long tail of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, the state's iffy economy and Gov. Jerry Brown's famous unpredictability continue to keep state workers off balance. A recent email to The State Worker illustrates what's happening: (Sacramento Bee)

Defending Public Pensions (ABC News)

Tim Hodson had diverse roles in state's politics
Tim Hodson, a widely recognized expert on California politics who spent 35 years working, teaching and preparing future leaders for the state Capitol, died Tuesday at age 61. (Sacramento Bee)

Parting Words: 'The New Petty'
Timothy Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento, passed away Tuesday. Hodson was a leading expert on California politics and a contributor to The Bee during his long and distinguished career. Not long before he died, he wrote this short poem - a lament about the state of public affairs in California. His family and friends requested that we publish it, and so we present it here. (Sacramento Bee)

Nurse Making $270K on California's OT Binge
Jean Keller earned $269,810 last year working as a nurse at a men's prison on California's central coast by tripling her regular pay with overtime hours. (Bloomberg)

Government job losses a growing drag on recovery
WASHINGTON -- Conservative Republicans have long clamored for government downsizing. They're starting to get it - by default. Crippled by plunging tax revenues, state and local governments have shed over a half million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. And, after adding jobs early in the downturn, the federal government is now cutting them as well. (Associated Press / Sacramento Bee)

SF ballot measures: will courts revisit pensions?
SAN FRANCISCO -- One of two competing pension measures on the San Francisco ballot next month is said by opponents to be an illegal assault on the "vested rights" of public employees, a cost-cutting plan certain to be overturned by the courts. (Calpensions)

Murdoch, all News Corp. directors, re-elected
News Corp. shareholders Friday re-elected all directors, including K. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, and his sons James R. Murdoch, deputy COO, and Lachlan K. Murdoch, according to a company statement. ... The meeting was contentious as a number of large public pension funds, including CalPERS and the $146.6 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, opposed the re-election of Mr. Murdoch, as well as the re-election of his sons. (Pensions & Investments)

Another View: Public employees support pension fix
Next week, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature are slated to begin a timely and deliberate recrafting of California's public pension system aimed at ensuring the system's stability and long-term affordability. Instead of bowing to political pressures from anti-labor groups and blaring headlines about the 2 percent of pension recipients who receive more than $100,000 per year, they intend to take a careful and thorough look at ways to ensure that Californians have the long-term retirement security we all deserve. (Sacramento Bee)

The power of one: Perez controls Assembly with money
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez single-handedly doles out millions in public funds each year to his 80 members: No vote, no committee, no debate. (Sacramento Bee)

State hospital workers remember colleague's death
NAPA, Calif. -- State workers gathered at facilities across the North Bay to mark the one year anniversary of the death of Napa State Hospital technician Donna Gross. (KGO)

Prison realignment reduces time Sacramento man will be behind bars
In Sacramento, the face of realignment from prison to jail belongs to a 64-year-old heroin addict. He is a Vietnam War combat veteran, a disabled Oak Park diabetic with a bad liver and bad kidneys. He has a wife, two grown kids and a criminal record that goes back to the early Nixon administration. (Sacramento Bee)

AB109 Taking Shape in Monterey County

NYC pension funds are cost-effective - report
Traditional pension plans provide a "better bang for the buck" for New York City public employees, paying the same retirement benefits as those used in the private sector but at a significantly lower cost, according to a report issued by the comptroller on Thursday. (Reuters)

The State Worker: This time, California prison layoffs look real
Some employees who work for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can't believe that their jobs in the state's prison and parole system are going away. (Sacramento Bee)

Pittsburgh and Harrisburg: A tale of two deep-in-debt cities
Four hours apart on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg are linked not just by geography but also parallel financial woes that bring into view what happens when local governments fail to handle big bills and states get dragged into their mess. (stateline.org)

CalPERS renews contracts for $123bn equity portfolio
The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System renewed the contracts of the 16 external managers responsible for its $123.3bn global equity portfolio. (Global Pensions)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Investigative reporter Ellen Schultz talks about how corporations deliberately deceived their employees and Congress to profit from workers' pensions.

State prison worker unions opt for contract changes to save jobs
As the state's massive prison and parole department begins a historic downsizing to cut costs and comply with court orders, it's getting a hand from organized labor. (Sacramento Bee)

CalSTRS joins foes of Murdoch re-election
Add CalSTRS to the small but growing list of pension funds voting against Rupert Murdoch's re-election to News Corp.'s board of directors. (Sacramento Bee)

Outlook goes from bad to worse for CalSTRS under proposed accounting standards
California's big public pension funds are already short tens of billions of dollars. An organization of accountants is about to make the picture look even worse. A proposed change to pension accounting standards could give more ammunition to conservatives seeking to reduce pension benefits for public sector workers. Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to issue a wide-ranging proposal to overhaul pensions sometime soon. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS & CalSTRS: delay new accounting rules
SAN FRANCISCO -- The nation's two largest public pension systems last week asked for a delay in new accounting rules that will make pension debt more visible, a change intended to aid decision-makers that some think may alarm the public. (Calpensions)

Last-minute 'gut and amend' laws bypass scrutiny in California
It was after midnight on the last day of the legislative session last month when the state Senate took up a controversial bill concerning election laws for the very first time. Most bills go through a months-long process of hearings, negotiations, amendments and votes. Not this one. Senate Bill 202 was written about 24 hours earlier, when Democrat Loni Hancock of Berkeley deleted the language in a bill about filing fees on voter initiatives and replaced it with a highly political proposal to change the state's election laws in ways that will favor Democrats in 2012. ... SB 202 delays a vote on the rainy-day fund until 2014 and moves initiatives, including the paycheck measure unions oppose, to the November ballot, when Democratic turnout will likely be higher. (Sacramento Bee)

Cuomo Forges Deal to Avert Layoffs
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state's second-largest government union struck a tentative agreement on Sunday that revises its package of pay and benefit concessions and staves off nearly 3,500 layoffs. (Wall Street Journal)

Editorial: Don't give a blank check to CalSTRS
Jack Ehnes, executive officer of the California State Teachers' Retirement System, told his board last week that he wants Gov. Jerry Brown to boost CalSTRS funding next year.
While Ehnes refused to say how much more precisely - he says it's the responsibility of the Legislature and the administration to determine the amount - he has said it will cost the state and school districts an additional $4 billion a year for the next 40 years to achieve full funding for the system. Sacramento Bee)

Calpers Plans Front-Running, Personal Stock-Trading Restrictions
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, is considering a proposal to restrict personal stock trades by employees as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. The proposed rules would require about 700 Calpers employees and their spouses and domestic partners to get approval before trading a stock for their personal accounts. (Bloomberg)

Threat to state workers' pension perk causes rush at CalPERS
California government employees, fearing that lawmakers may soon shut down a controversial program that boosts their retirement payouts, have flooded the state's largest pension system with inquiries and requests to purchase the benefit. (Sacramento Bee)

Murdoch board seat targeted by CalPERS
CalPERS took on Rupert Murdoch again, voting its shares of News Corp. stock against the media baron's re-election to his company's board of directors. (Sacramento Bee)

California's emergency manager warns of need for federal money
WASHINGTON - California's top emergency manager warned federal lawmakers Thursday that U.S. penny-pinching puts the state at risk. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS fires partner in struggling winery investments
CalPERS expected to harvest a fortune from lush fields of chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. But like many of the pension fund's big-time real estate deals of the past decade, the pension fund's investment in the wine industry turned sour. (Sacramento Bee)

Hercules Council, after rescinding medical benefits, finds retirement a stickier process
The new Hercules City Council, reacting to the city's bleak financial condition, rescinded health benefits for its members in one of its first official acts this summer. But eliminating retirement benefits has proved more complicated. (Mercury News)

Investing Amid Global Turmoil
CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Joe Dear talks about the fund's asset allocation, current economic challenges, the fund's long-term perspective and the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

Target Return Of 7.75% Very Challenging In The Near-term
Joseph Dear, the CIO of CALPERS, appeared on CNBC yesterday to discuss the near and long term outlook for the markets. His comments are highly instructive for other investors in formulating an investment policy, either for themselves or on behalf of a pension or endowment fund. (dailymarkets.com)

The State Worker: California government rules and reality sometimes clash
Unions this week hailed Gov. Jerry Brown for signing legislation aimed at making it harder for the state to contract for services that state workers can provide. Whether the measure, Assembly Bill 740, really accomplishes that goal isn't clear. Sometimes the rules and the reality of government clash. (Sacramento Bee)

California big-city mayors want more money for public safety
As California begins redirecting new inmates and parolees to counties this month, nine big-city mayors are asking the cash-strapped state for money to address a "brewing public safety crisis." (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Jerry Brown is giving unions most of what they seek
Reporting from Sacramento-- When the dust settled on Gov. Jerry Brown's first legislative session in nearly three decades, no group had won more than organized labor, which heralded its largest string of victories in nearly a decade. (Los Angeles Times)

Proposed California regulations spell out gift-reporting requirements for elected officials
The state political watchdog agency is set to consider next month adopting substantial changes to rules governing gifts to public officials and staff, including exemptions from disclosure for presents received from former spouses, dating partners and longtime friends. (Sacramento Bee)

Board limits state workers
The Board of Examiners approved restrictions Tuesday on state workers' ability to contract for other employment. The changes to the State Administrative Manual were ordered by the Legislature after an audit showed what appeared to be conflicts when state workers with one agency contract for additional work with another. (Nevada Appeal)

Hello, sunshine! How not to sell a state that's feeling the pinch
It's a great day in South Carolina, and if you don't believe it, ask Governor Nikki Haley. On September 27th the governor ordered the 16 directors of cabinet agencies under her direct control to change the way their employees answer the telephone. So now when phoning, say, the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services or the Department of Employment and Workforce, callers are supposed to hear this cheery greeting: "It's a great day in South Carolina. How may I help you?" (The Economist)

CalSTRS reported ready to seek more state funding
For more than two years, CalSTRS has been talking about asking state lawmakers for more money to plug its funding gap. Now the teachers' pension fund believes the Legislature is ready to listen. (Sacramento Bee)

Pension reform: giving workers low-cost option
Unions and management in San Jose have bargaining proposals aimed at making a rare triple play in public pension reform -- big cost cuts, done quickly and without a legal battle. Current workers would be given the option of switching to lower pensions. (Calpensions)

Corporations, wealthy dominate initiative process
California's initiative process was intended to give people a way to arm themselves against corruption, whether it was from lawmakers in the Capitol or the special interests that controlled them. But in the 100 years since former Gov. Hiram Johnson rallied against the corrupt politics that permeated state government, corporations and wealthy individuals have adapted to California's initiative process - and in some years dominate it - by qualifying ballot measures that benefit them. (Associated Press / Sacramento Bee)

Opinion: David Low: California public employees support some pension reform strategies
Sacramento is slated to begin a timely and deliberate recrafting of California's public pension system. Both the governor and the Legislature plan to launch a thorough review of the system -- with meaningful hearings and in-depth exploration of fair and workable fixes -- which will be a positive step toward ensuring the system's stability and long-term affordability. (San Jose Mercury News)

Pensions Wrestle With Return Rates
Turmoil in Europe, the sluggish economy and low interest rates are intensifying pressure on public pension-fund systems to reduce the annual-performance assumptions they use to determine contributions from taxpayers and employees. Some lawmakers and pension officials are pushing to abandon the roughly 8% annual-return assumption set by many public-employee funds, saying the rate is unrealistically high given upheaval in markets around the world and the preceding financial crisis. (Wall Street Journal)

Oregon PERS can collect overpayments, court says
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System has the authority to collect overpayments from as many as 38,000 government workers who retired between April 2000 and April 2004, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The 6-0 decisions in a pair of cases upheld the board, which ordered the repayments in January 2006, and turned aside lawsuits filed by retirees. (Statesman Journal)

Jerry Brown toughens law on cellphones in prison
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Thursday making it a misdemeanor for prison guards or visitors to smuggle cellphones to inmates, a bid to reduce inmates' ability to organize gang activity and other crimes from behind bars. (Sacramento Bee)

Calpers Urged to Reject Proposal to Limit Corporate Politicking
Oct. 7 -- Business groups appealed to the California Public Employees' Retirement System not to use its $218 billion power as the largest U.S. public pension to push the boards of corporations in which it invests to vote on political donations and disclose them annually. (Bloomberg)

Editor's note, Oct. 6, 1:05 p.m.: The Marin Independent Journal report in today's news roundup incorrectly identifies a state worker arrested on bribery and drug charges as a correctional officer. The state pay database identifies his job classification as a Materials and Stores Supervisor I.

California Assembly reports on lawmakers' spending mislead the public
... The Assembly routinely underreports the amount of money used to run legislators' personal offices and overreports the operating costs of committees that do the brunt of the policy work in the house. The practice obscures how the lower house's $146.7 million budget truly is spent at the Capitol and protects legislators from public criticism of their spending. (The Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Are unions sincere about helping private sector workers?
A new report this week concludes that nearly half of Californians will retire in or near poverty status. It's the kind of news you usually see from conservative think tanks, often with the kicker that public pensions unfairly shield government employees from the pain everyone else is feeling. Surprise! The UC Berkeley Labor Center published the report with the support of Service Employees International Union and labor coalition Californians for Retirement Security. (The Sacramento Bee)

California and Bust
The smart money says the U.S. economy will splinter, with some states thriving, some states not, and all eyes are on California as the nightmare scenario. After a hair-raising visit with former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who explains why the Golden State has cratered, Michael Lewis goes where the buck literally stops--the local level, where the likes of San Jose mayor Chuck Reed and Vallejo fire chief Paige Meyer are trying to avert even worse catastrophes and rethink what it means to be a society. (Vanity Fair)

Jerry Brown cites budget woes in veto of child care, welfare bills
In a blow to organized labor, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have let unions organize child-care providers who work out of the home. (Sacramento Bee)

Bill expands state auditor's powers in wake of Bell scandal
Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday gave the state auditor broad new powers to investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds by cities and counties, signing legislation created in the wake of the financial scandal in the city of Bell. (Los Angeles Times)

Dan Walters: California must face hard truth about budget
The harsh truth is that California's recession-strapped economy shows only faint signs of recovery, and state and local governments will be squeezed by yawning income-outgo gaps for years. There's almost nothing that political officeholders can do about that fact other than attempt to raise taxes. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to try, but there are also no indications that voters would be receptive. Most likely, he and other politicians will be restricted to spending only the revenue that a moribund economy delivers, and must prioritize. (Sacramento Bee)

SF pension reform donors tied to antiunion efforts
San Francisco -- San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi is billing his pension reform measure on the Nov. 8 ballot as a progressive effort to protect city services for children, seniors and the poor - and has bristled at the notion it's an attack on unions. But the two main contributors to Proposition D - venture capitalist Michael Moritz and businessman George Hume, who have donated $250,000 apiece - have also contributed to Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin who supported those states' polarizing, national-headline-grabbing efforts this year to curb unions' rights dramatically. (San Francisco Chronicle)

How state lawmakers pump up pensions in ways you can't
Click here for a chart of legislative pensions compared with those provided to state employees. California lawmakers elected after 1990 do not receive pensions. (USA Today)

UC Davis vet apologizes for locking her dog in hot car
The controversy isn't about who let the dog out but who locked it in a hot car at the Arden Fair mall - a UC Davis veterinarian. (Sacramento Bee)

Update: RI Senate GOP caucus to 'decline' 1.6 percent raise
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- All eight members of the state Senate Republican caucus announced Thursday that they "would be declining the 1.6 percent raise'' in their legislative salaries. (Providence Journal)

The State Worker: California's 'telework' debate raises trust issues
Boil down today's "Work Anywhere Symposium" at Sacramento State to its essence, and what's left is a daylong discussion of government accountability and its oft-dissed sidekick, trust. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown wants to ensure funds for inmate shift to counties
Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday he plans to place on the November 2012 ballot a funding guarantee for prison realignment, the state's shift of responsibility for certain offenders to local government. (Sacramento Bee)

Inmate loses bid for taxpayer-paid sex-change operation
A transgender California inmate has lost a legal bid for a sex-change operation at taxpayer expense. (Los Angeles Times)

California borrowing benefits from market, improved budget stability
Wall Street, which has long frowned on California and its budget grief, cracked a smile Tuesday. In its first sale of general obligation bonds since the passage of a rare, on-time state spending plan, California will pay tens of millions of dollars less in interest than it did last fall. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: 'Tip of the spear' of pension reform in San Diego
Public-pension reform advocates in San Diego face a daunting task. They have four weeks to collect the remaining 30,000 valid signatures needed to qualify the "Comprehensive Pension Reform" initiative for the June ballot. It's not every day that that we concern ourselves with local issues outside of Orange County. Then again, not many local measures represent the kind of dramatic reform that could serve as a model for fixing the state's broken public pension system.

David Frum: Revolt of the McMuffin brigade
It's a little hard to tell this story from Chicago without a lot of sarcasm, but I'll try my best. (National Post)

California Assembly says budget records lawsuit 'unfounded'
The California Assembly has criticized as "unfounded and unnecessary" a public-records lawsuit filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times seeking access to current fiscal records. (Sacramento Bee)

Amid failures, Jerry Brown's job approval rating rises
While politicians all around him watched their popularity plunge in the weak economy, Gov. Jerry Brown ducked the slide. Despite California's high unemployment rate and major legislative failures in his first nine months in office, Brown's job approval rating ticked up three percentage points since June, to 49 percent, according to a new Field Poll. (Sacramento Bee)

New poll reflects divide on bargaining limits
Madison - Just over half of Wisconsin voters support limiting collective bargaining for public workers, but a similar number oppose a new state law that does just that, according to a new poll done for a free-market group. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Jerry Brown grants bulk of state hiring freeze exemption requests
In the seven months since imposing a hiring freeze to deal with the state's fiscal woes, Gov. Jerry Brown has greenlighted nearly three-fourths of all requests for exemptions to hire state workers. Most of those jobs were low-paying positions without benefits, a Bee analysis of state data from March through May shows. Exclude those approvals, and Brown turned down more hiring requests than he allowed. (Sacramento Bee)

Perception is everything
Considerable public anger has developed over Stockton's police chief retiring one day and being rehired the next as the interim chief. Double-dipping is the moniker applied to the practice. It's never meant as high praise. The public perception, and in some cases with justification, is that public employees are gaming the system. (Stockton Record)

SEIU Local 1000 executive pay increase is shelved
SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker on Saturday pulled back a proposal that would have tripled her income and significantly boosted the pay for the local's three vice presidents. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Embarrassing CalPERS gift gaffes could have been worse.
It could have been worse. A lot worse. (Sacramento Bee)

R.I. public workers told reform needed to avoid layoffs / Video

CRANSTON -- State Administration Director Richard Licht had a blunt message for union representatives unhappy with possible options they were hearing Monday to resolve Rhode Island's pension crisis. (Providence Journal)

Ponzi scheme? Tax rich? Social Security's white hot again
WASHINGTON -- Social Security suddenly has become a white-hot political issue, as the Republican presidential front-runner blasts the system as a "Ponzi scheme" and liberal Democrats in Congress scramble to find ways to keep the program financed for generations to come. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Brown ought to use his veto pen without mercy
Gov. Jerry Brown needs to sharpen his veto pen. We hope he mercilessly skewers many of the bills sent to him in the closing hours of the legislative session. ... Several other labor bills also deserve quick deaths, including Assembly Bill 101, to expand the right of child-care workers to unionize, and Senate Bill 922, to restrict city councils, county supervisors and voters' power to ban "project labor agreements," which require that public agencies use union labor for public works projects. This power ought to remain in local hands. (Sacramento Bee)

A Surprising Thing About Pensions
It can be easy for high-level thinkers to assume that it's a good thing when companies phase out their pension plans and replace them with 401(k)s. After all, the company is relieved of a lot of responsibility, and most of the investment performance risk is shifted to the worker. That seems like a good move for corporations, though it's understandably not pleasing to workers. It turns out, though, that pensions can be good not only for employees, but also for the corporate world. (The Motley Fool)

Labor commissioner takes aim at public employee unions
State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello has set up a nonprofit advocacy organization whose primary purpose appears to be taking on public employee unions. (Tulsa World)

CalPERS to invest $800 million in California public works
CalPERS today moved to create an $800 million fund to invest in California infrastructure - highways, bridges, ports, power-transmission lines and more. (Sacramento Bee)

Feds: Public workers paid better than private workers
Here's the latest on who makes what from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (whose workers, we'll point out here, happen to be public employees). (Orange County Register)

Calpers Exits Fund Headed by Ex-Chairman of SEC After Losses
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest pension, is winding down a European fund managed by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden after it lost $71.5 million. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Jerry Brown rallies unions in Las Vegas, slams GOP
Fresh off a legislative session in which Republicans killed his tax plan, Gov. Jerry Brown went into campaign mode Monday, attacking the GOP in a barn-burning speech before thousands of union delegates at a labor convention in Las Vegas. (Los Angeles Times)

Our view: State erred in blocking collective bargaining
It seems that a fairly substantial issue gets approved during the final days of each session of the General Assembly. And it often happens quietly, with virtually no debate. And it is likely that those who disapprove of the 11th-hour legislation didn't have a clue that it was in a bill.... At the same time, the Republican-controlled Legislature tucked a provision in the state budget this year that bars any Indiana governor from granting collective bargaining rights to state workers. (Post-Tribune)

Raft of labor-backed bills are a challenge for Jerry Brown
As the Legislature finished in a flurry early Saturday and left town, it left Gov. Jerry Brown in a jam. Among the raft of bills approved in the final hours of the legislative session were several union-backed measures that, if Brown vetoes, could strain his already-complicated relationship with labor and, if he signs, could upset his business friends. (Sacramento Bee)

George Skelton: Howard Jarvis kills Brown tax plan
The most powerful person in the state Capitol last week was not the governor or a legislative leader, at least on taxes. It was Jon Coupal. Jon Coupal? He's a disciple of the legendary anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis. (Los Angeles Times)

A New Effort Seeks Big Change To Public Pensions In TX
For decades, state, county, and local governments have provided defined-benefit pensions for public employees. The employees are promised a certain amount each month in retirement, based on their salaries and years of service. A Houston attorney says those programs are unsustainable. He's leading an effort to change the way public retirement programs are handled. The goal is to make public employees bear the same retirement responsibilities, and risks, as workers in the private sector. (KHUF) FM

CalPERS rolling out pricey digital project
It was an extraordinary moment - the head of America's largest public pension fund publicly ripping a vendor for delays and cost overruns in a computer project. Now, nearly two years after the tirade by CalPERS board President Rob Feckner, that project is wrapping up. On Sept. 19, CalPERS debuts its new computer system. It's two years late and $228 million over its original budget. (Sacramento Bee)

John Tillman: Gov. Quinn Using State Workers as Pawns (Fox Chicago)

Democratic Surrender on Pension Reform Could Doom Party Bid to Raise Taxes
Democrats and the interest groups that back them made a greedy decision this week -- that will cost the state and its public institutions in the future. That decision: to abandon pension reform. The legislature, instead of passing measures on which there is bipartisan agreement, passed legislation promising to do something to curb pension abuses... sometime... in the future... presumably before the extinction of mankind. (NBC LA)

UPDATE: State building bomb threat was a hoax
A report of possible explosive device that prompted evacuation of state Workers Compensation offices early this afternoon proved to be a hoax. (Sacramento Bee)

Cut taxes, Obama tells Congress in $450B jobs plan
WASHINGTON -- Attacking a deepening jobs crisis, President Barack Obama challenged a reluctant Congress Thursday night to urgently pass a larger-than-expected $450 billion plan to "jolt an economy that has stalled." ... Obama proposed spending to fix schools and roads, hire local teachers and police and extend unemployment benefits. (Sacramento Bee)

State worker fired after email about free IDs
A state worker was fired Thursday after sending an email to other public employees urging them to spread the word that the state Department of Transportation provides free photo identification cards for voting. ... Larsen's email blast and firing came the day after news broke that a high-level DOT employee had instructed Department of Motor Vehicles workers not to tell people about the free IDs unless they specifically asked about them. If they don't ask, they are charged $28. (Wisconsin State Journal)

The State Worker: Labor-unfriendly measures aim for 2012 ballot
A few snippets of state worker news worth watching. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Baby sitter bill deserves some adult supervision
A controversial bill to unionize baby sitters - really, baby sitters - emerged just four days before the legislative session is set to end. Assembly Bill 101, authored by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, appeared in print for the first time on Tuesday and appears to be greased for approval. (Sacramento Bee)

Thousands of state workers in Connecticut planning to retire
HARTFORD -- Connecticut state employees are retiring at near-record rates, leaving Gov. Dannel P. Malloy with additional budget flexibility and time to decide how sharply he wants to reduce the work force. (Connecticut Post)

Democrats make last-minute push to unionize California child-care workers
Democratic legislative leaders have launched a last-minute push to allow unions to organize child-care providers who work out of the home. (Sacramento Bee)

Businesses, wealthy should be taxed more, not less
Decisions that Congress will make in the coming months about how to address the nation's long-term deficit will have a great impact on whether we are going to remain a middle-class nation.
Will our children and grandchildren have economic security and opportunity, or will they inherit a nation divided between rich and poor, where retirement security, health care security and educational opportunities are a thing of the past? (Detroit News)

Navarrette: A rare lesson on life's priorities
In my line of work, I've met individuals who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And yet the richest man I know is an educator and public servant. (Ventura County Star)

Lawmakers meet on pension reform
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - State lawmakers met Tuesday evening to discuss pension reform. (WPRI)

Economic Slump Brought a 'Tough Year for Labor'

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

My View: Economic downtown not public workers' fault
The common perception of many people is that workers in the public sector are paid better, with better benefits, than workers in the private sector. This perception has been reinforced by a recent piece in The Journal-Standard from Gatehouse News and also in a column by Representative Jim Sacia. The result has been to divide public workers and private workers, to increase resentment even among friends, and to vilify workers in the public sector. (Journal-Standard)

Branstad's order on lunch may save state $1 million
Governor Branstad has issued an order which forbids most state workers from claiming their bill for lunch as an expense unless they're spending the night away from home. (Radio Iowa)

The last Labor Day?
Let's get it over with and rename the holiday "Capital Day." We may still celebrate Labor Day, but our culture has given up on honoring workers as the real creators of wealth and their honest toil -- the phrase itself seems antique -- as worthy of genuine respect. (Washington Post)

Notices begin process of eliminating California government jobs
The state has warned nearly 3,300 California state workers this year that their positions may disappear as the government grinds through a slow-motion layoff process that aims to shrink its workforce over the next few years. (Sacramento Bee)

Stuart Leavenworth: FAQ on online comments and letters
My column last week floated the question of whether it is fair for The Bee to keep letting online posters - many of them unnamed - comment on signed letters by readers. It generated scores of responses. ... Since so many readers had concerns and suggestions, below I offer some answers to frequently asked questions about The Bee's online commenting system. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Cuts in federal, state budgets are taking us in wrong direction
This Labor Day, California and the nation are on the edge between a recession and a recovery. While economists say that the Great Recession technically ended in June 2009, the past two years have been a recovery in name only. ... The key to a strong recovery lies in boosting consumer demand - putting more dollars into the pockets of those who are likely to buy goods and services. One way of doing this is by sustaining public-sector jobs. (Sacramento Bee)

Utah government returns to five-day workweek
Customers hurried into the state motor vehicle office Thursday evening trying to get through the door and into the crowded waiting room before the office closed. Christine Madsen was outside the door, changing the sign on the door in anticipation of the state's return to a five-day workweek next week, abandoning a four-day workweek experiment three years after it began. ... At the Tax Commission office downtown, state workers dressed in black, wearing veils, held a lunchtime funeral for their four-day schedule, delivering a eulogy and eating funeral potatoes. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Kasich scales back prison privatization plan
COLUMBUS -- The Kasich administration scaled back its prison privatization plans on Thursday and decided to sell just one facility and hire the new owner plus another vendor to operate a total of three prisons. The deals are expected to impact nearly 1,200 workers and 6,100 inmates across the state. (Dayton Daily News)

The State Worker: Jerry Brown poised to take on pensions
After months of virtual silence on rolling back public pensions, Gov. Jerry Brown is about to resurrect the issue. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Furlough remains part of the tool bag
The 3rd District Court of Appeal this week did the state a favor. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the furlough order former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued in 2008 was valid and that it properly applies to the state's constitutional officers. Even though Gov. Jerry Brown has indicated he doesn't approve of furloughs, it is important for the governor and future governors to have all available tools to deal with a financial crisis. (Sacramento Bee)

N.J. unions, public workers sue to stop pension, benefits overhaul
TRENTON -- A court battle over benefits began in earnest today, as dozens of the state's public sector unions, workers and retirees filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the newly enacted overhaul of pension and health benefit care benefits. (Star-Ledger)

The Buzz: How to make $1 million working for the state
Last year was extremely lucrative for a few University of California employees. Fourteen UC workers earned more than $1 million during 2010, up from 10 during 2009. ... All UC salaries for the past three years can be viewed at www.sacbee.com/statepay.(Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown: Sales and income taxes could pass in 2012
LAS VEGAS -- Gov. Jerry Brown, who is considering what tax increases to propose to voters in November 2012, acknowledged this morning that polls are generally unfavorable but said voters might approve sales and income taxes. (Sacramento Bee)

Brown says lawmakers view taxes as 'sexually transmitted disease'
Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday accused some state lawmakers of adhering to "the notion that taxes are like some kind of sexually transmitted disease." (Los Angeles Times)

Portantino says Assembly spending records mislead public
Assemblyman Anthony Portantino has called a press conference today to accuse Assembly leadership of "cooking the books" and misleading the public in expenditure records released Friday. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS drops Fitch from lawsuit against ratings firms
With great fanfare, Cal-PERS sued Wall Street's three leading credit-rating firms in 2009, blaming them for a $1 billion investment loss. Now CalPERS, in a strategic move, has excused one of the three defendants - Fitch Ratings, the smallest of the big three rating firms. Fitch said it won't pay any damages to the California Public Employees' Retirement System. (Sacramento Bee)

Pension reform: easier said than done
A bill for a public pension reform advocated by Gov. Brown, and a commission appointed by former Gov. Schwarzenegger, has a labor sponsor, no formal opposition and therefore smooth sailing in the Legislature, right? Not exactly. (Calpensions)

Viewpoints: Pension changes can't wait
When the Legislature approved the 2011-12 state budget in June, commentators declared pension reform dead for the year, a missed opportunity for California. Including pension reform as part of budget negotiations would have been expedient, but the budget was not the only chance to address an issue that will continue to dominate the policy agenda. Bipartisan pension legislation is not only possible, it must happen this year. (Sacramento Bee)

Mich. court: 3% pay cut for state workers by Granholm, Legislature is illegal
State government employees won a key -- but possibly fleeting -- victory Friday as the Court of Appeals decided a budget-balancing move to dock their pay 3% to cover retiree health care benefits was unconstitutional. (Detroit Free Press)

Editorial: Pension reform again eludes state
The appetite for public employee pension reform, which seemed so voracious just a few months ago, appears to have evaporated among many state legislators. (Sacramento Bee)

Portantino bill would require Legislature to open its records
Legislation to force the Assembly and Senate to comply with the same public records standards imposed on local governments was proposed Thursday by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Urge your lawmaker to release budget data
The California Assembly continues to balk at releasing documents related to this year's office budgets. By withholding this information, Assembly leaders are almost surely violating provisions of the state Constitution that grant the public the right to access public information. (Sacramento Bee)

State Troopers Chose Raises Over Layoffs
It was a difficult decision to make, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was right to lay off 56 rookie state troopers and 23 correction supervisors this week. The employees who lost their jobs were members of the only two bargaining units representing state workers that rejected a concessions deal calling for a two-year wage freeze in exchange for a four-year no-layoff guarantee. (Hartford Courant)

The State Worker: Furloughs end, but layoffs remain a possibility
First, the good news for state workers: Next month about 25,000 of you return to steady full hours and full pay for the first time in 31 months. Now the bad: Layoffs are coming - the real kind, where real people go to the unemployment line. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown to propose new corporate tax package
Gov. Jerry Brown will ask lawmakers today to tighten a corporate tax formula in exchange for giving manufacturers a sales tax exemption and offering enhanced job tax credits, according to legislative sources. (Sacramento Bee)

Transparency in government pensions: GASB details proposed changes to pension reporting
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is proposing one of the most substantial overhauls of pension reporting since the existing standards were implemented in 1994. Among the new rules are adjustments to the methods which governments use to report pension costs, obligations, and unfunded liabilities. (Public CEO)

Audit slams California lands panel for failing to collect millions from leases
The state is mismanaging oil and other leases on public land, failing for years to collect rent from some companies and costing California millions of dollars in lost revenue, the state auditor said Tuesday. State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a blistering report that the State Lands Commission could have generated as much as $8.2 million in revenue from just a sample of the leases her office reviewed. (Sacramento Bee)

California mental hospitals are dangerous, legislators told
Reporting from Sacramento -- At an Assembly committee hearing on safety issues at the state's mental hospitals, lawmakers Tuesday received testimony about faulty alarm systems, daily assaults and an increasing number of patients with criminal histories. (Los Angeles Times)

N.Y. Still Pursues Case Against Whistle-Blower
ALBANY -- The Cuomo administration is continuing to pursue a two-year-old disciplinary case against Jeffrey Monsour, a state employee at the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities who has been an outspoken critic of the agency's management. (New York Times)

The Buzz: Democrats control lion's share of Assembly staff, records show
To the victor go the spoils, apparently. Holding a firm majority in the Assembly, Democrats' cadre of office and committee staff exceeds Republicans' by a higher percentage than the number of seats each party controls, records show. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS boosts cost of terminating pension plans
In a sign of the uncertain times, the CalPERS board last week approved a sharp increase in the cost of terminating pension plans, a rare action said to be taken each year by only one or two of the more than 2,000 retirement plans in the giant system. ... The new safeguard increases the money an employer must set aside to offset or "discount" future obligations. A much lower bond-based earnings rate will be assumed, currently 3.8 percent, rather than the CalPERS earnings forecast, 7.75 percent. The change touches a hot-button issue. Critics contend that the California Public Employees Retirement System earnings forecast, 7.75 percent, is overly optimistic and conceals massive debt. (Calpensions)

D.A.: DMV worker took cash for licenses
SANTA ANA - The arraignment Monday of a Fullerton DMV employee accused of issuing 12 commercial drivers licenses after falsifying computer records in exchange for money was continued to Friday. Michelle Carbajal, 37, of Fullerton, faces a possible 22 years in prison if convicted of 19 felony counts of altering public documents and 19 counts fraud, according to a news release. (Orange County Register)

State plans to cut benefits
CHARLESTON -- The state has informed several Mountain Line Transit Authority employees that it will no longer accept their pension contributions -- and there are also plans to cut off their retirement benefits, according to a Monongalia County commissioner. The county, Mountain Line and the employees are preparing litigation to request an injunction on the state's plans until a judge can review the case, said Asel Kennedy, commission president. Papers could be filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court as early as Monday. (Associated Press / Charleston Daily Mail)

Matier & Ross: Inside story on state consumer-safety czar job
Talk about an inside job. The state Public Utilities Commission is looking for a new consumer protection and safety director. But to apply for the $134,640-a-year job, you need to have been either:

-- A California civil servant.
-- An employee of the state Legislature.
-- An employee of the governor's office.
-- Or a military veteran.

Interesting criteria, considering the commission is supposedly looking for someone who "will lead a change in the culture and practice of the division."

Another View: CalSTRS has safeguards to deal with pension spiking
CalSTRS' efforts to guard against pension spiking have recently been mischaracterized or overlooked. (Sacramento Bee)

Lifeguard, 61, sues state for firing him after he refused to wear Speedo
Roy Lester is out to prove that no man above the age of 50 has any business wearing a skimpy, form-hugging Speedo. In 2007, Lester was forced out of the Jones Beach lifeguard job he had held for four decades when he was told he had to squeeze into a Speedo for the annual swim test. (New York Daily News)

State attorney general declines to investigate identity theft ads
The state attorney general has declined a request that it investigate a labor-backed coalition running radio ads claiming that signing initiative petitions increases risk of identity theft. (Sacramento Bee)

New policies helped CalPERS weather market turbulence
This month's plunging stock prices cost the state's biggest public pension fund $9 billion, but the fallout from the "market riot" could have been much worse, said Joseph Dear, chief investment officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System. ... "The wild ride tested the robustness of our risk mangement in a dificult environment," Dear said. "We did OK." (Los Angeles Times)

Recent stock crash has cost CalPERS $9 billion
The recent wreck on Wall Street cost CalPERS billions of dollars, and the pension fund believes there's more instability coming. "We should expect more market riots," chief investment officer Joseph Dear told CalPERS' governing board on Wednesday. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Public pension debate offers open season on messengers
It's always open season on messengers in Sacramento, in no small part because there's such a wealth of targets. Take the ongoing public pension debate. (Sacramento Bee)

Two Democrats hold off recall challenges
Two Democratic Wisconsin state senators targeted by Republicans survived their elections Tuesday, ending a tumultuous summer of recalls spurred by anger over how lawmakers reacted to Gov. Scott Walker's proposal curbing collective bargaining rights of public workers. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Statewide effort counters drive to slash budget
Two dozen people from the Pension Truth Squad gathered on the sidewalk outside Palm Springs City Hall on Tuesday as part of a statewide campaign to stop a pension system overhaul for California's public employees. Teaching, public safety and other retirees shared their stories in an effort to dispel what they said is a myth that public employees retire with extraordinary benefits.(The Desert Sun)

What Obama really said about unions
His comments on public sector workers were more sympathetic than critical, even as he called for "shared sacrifice." (Salon.com)

CalPERS works on unified sustainable investing policy
CalPERS is developing a unified sustainable investing policy across all asset classes. Following a workshop on sustainable investing for the investment committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, Anne Simpson, senior investment officer and chief of CalPERS corporate governance program, told committee members that staff would develop a framework for a unified approach that would improve the quality of the fund's decision-making, according to Clark McKinley, spokesman for the $235.9 billion pension fund, who attended the meeting. (Pensions & Investments)

State Employees' Union Accepts Wage and Benefits Concessions
ALBANY -- Members of New York's largest union of state employees, in a begrudging acknowledgment of the increasingly hostile mood toward public workers, have agreed to accept major wage and benefits concessions sought by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. (New York Times)

No Layoffs Of State Workers Good For Economy
Now that members of Connecticut's state employee unions are voting again on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "no layoff" concessions proposal, most of the state's population is keeping its fingers crossed, hoping for a "yes." Regardless of how we feel about state spending or unions, most of us realize that the layoff of more than 6,000 employees and the curtailment of many important state services would be a body blow from which our economy will not soon recover. (Hartford Courant)

As lawmakers return, will Brown push pension overhaul?
Public pension reform in California, once a top-shelf cause on both sides of the statehouse aisle, has become something of a political orphan. While a handful of government pension bills await action when lawmakers return to the state Capitol this week, reformers say the measures mostly tinker at the margins of an unsustainable system that needs fundamental change. Gov. Jerry Brown has stopped talking about the issue. Although he promised to change pensions when he ran for office and again signaled his support for rollbacks during budget talks this year, Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said last week that the governor has made "no decision on timing" for moving ahead. (Sacramento Bee)

Politifact: Retired police captain says law enforcement officers die 10 years earlier than most people (statement rated false)
The threat of a pension cut in Cranston, R.I., prompted Robert Barber, a 58-year-old retired captain in the city's Police Department, to argue that any reduction in benefits would be unfair. "The City of Cranston entered into a contract with me. The agreement was that I would serve my community and risk my life so that, at the end of my career, if I reached it, I would be able to live the rest of my life with some dignity," he wrote in a commentary in The Journal. And, he wrote, that life is not likely to be as long as most retirees'. "Statistically," he said, "law-enforcement officers die 10 years earlier than the general population." We were intrigued by that statistic. (Politifact / Providence Journal)

Faltering Rhode Island City Tests Vows to Pensioners
Cities and local governments make lots of promises: to their citizens, workers, vendors and investors. But when the money starts to run out, as it has in Central Falls, some promises prove more binding than others. Bond lawyers have known for decades that it is possible, at least in theory, to put bondholders ahead of pensioners, but no one wanted to try it and risk a backlash on Election Day. Now the poor, taxed-out city of Central Falls is mounting a test case, which other struggling governments may follow if it succeeds. (New York Times)

Thomas D. Elias: 'Paycheck protection' gets third try
Anti-union sentiment has always been strong in California, with today's particular emphasis on resentment of public employee unions whose members' pay and benefits sometimes equal or exceed the levels to which recession has reduced similar categories in private business. Loathing of unions by some has reached the point where the same forces that tried to eliminate organized labor as a political force two other times in the last 13 years are back again. They are circulating a new "paycheck protection" initiative designed to keep unions from using dues money paid through automatic payroll deductions for political contributions. (New York Times)

California departments fought Jerry Brown's bid to cut cellphones
When Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a 50 percent reduction in state-issued cellphones to save money, his office said it would consider exempting employees who needed phones for public safety or other "critical state operations." From the California Highway Patrol to the California Commission on the Status of Women, dozens of state agencies and departments thought that meant them. They requested thousands of exemptions, peppering their appeals with such watchwords as "urgent" and "mission critical." (Sacramento Bee)

California drug enforcement officials scramble to counter budget cuts
Rising prices and increased demand for prescription drugs on the black market have turned addicts, nurses and even a postal worker into alleged thieves. Reports of people illegally obtaining prescription forms and pills continue to rise at what law enforcement leaders say is an alarming rate. And now state and local drug enforcement officers are scrambling to deal with a $71 million state budget cut over two years that could shut down the state bureau in charge of enforcing narcotics laws. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Governor needs to fix teacher data debacle
What works and what doesn't in California's schools? That's a basic question that Californians deserve to know and that Gov. Jerry Brown should want to know. (Sacramento Bee)

No Ring Kissers for Poor Sean Harrigan
Sean Harrigan, a former commissioner of the Fire and Police Pension Plans who resigned under pressure in May 2009, is suing the City to pay his attorney's fees and recover his costs in connection with the Securities and Exchange Commission's probe into his relationship with the pension plan. As a result, the City is appropriating $50,000 to pay for the law firm of Albright, Yee, and Schmidt to handle this attempt at extortion where he threatens to tell all unless the City pays his costs. (CitywatchLA.com)

Indiana Pension Fund riding out Wall Street roller coaster
INDIANAPOLIS -- The gyrating stock prices of the last two weeks have meant hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, and then gains, and then losses and gains again, for Indiana's public pension funds. (Evansville Courier & Press)

Editorial: Finally, a crackdown on pension spiking
In the wake of the city of Bell pay scandal, the California Public Employees' Retirement System has ramped up its anti-spiking efforts. Good. California State Teachers' Retirement System honchos - are you paying attention? (Sacramento Bee)

Bell ex-police chief's pension cut by more than $100,000 a year
Former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams will continue receiving generous retirement benefits even after CalPERS slashed the amount by more than $100,000. Adams, whose $457,000 salary was higher than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck's and more than double his salary when he was Glendale's chief, will receive a pension of $287,066, according to documents obtained by The Times under the California Public Records Act. (Los Angeles Times)

California judges immune from even voluntary pay cuts this year
As California court employees across the state brace for the possibility of more layoffs and hour reductions, the paychecks of those who actually sit on the bench continue to enjoy a constitutional protection from cuts. (Sacramento Bee)

Wisconsin recall: Republicans take 4 of 6 in recall elections, hold Senate
Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday's historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

California's July revenue drop prompts fear of more school cuts
California has already fallen behind the revenue hopes that Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers used to solve the budget deficit in June, raising fears Tuesday that deeper education cuts may be in the state's future. Controller John Chiang said for the first month of the new fiscal year, California missed its $5.2 billion July general fund revenue target by $538.8 million, or 10.3 percent. (Sacramento Bee)

State decides to move prison health care agency to Elk Grove
The city of Elk Grove has won a high-stakes competition to house the headquarters of the California Correctional Health Care Services starting next year, city officials said late Tuesday. (Sacramento Bee)

Wall Street aftershocks felt in California's economy
Wall Street's scary losing streak could put a dent in California's fragile economic recovery. In some ways, it already has. The huge downturn in the stock market, punctuated by Monday's near-record fall, is costing the state's public pension funds billions of dollars. It's putting a strain on tax revenues - and could throw the just-passed state budget out of whack. (Sacramento Bee)

Consultant: Plans should prep for long-term weakness
Pension funds should be prepared for long-term weakness, even if in the short term they take very defensive positions in portfolios and focus on protection of capital, instead of returns. (Pensions & Investments)

Vallejo exits bankruptcy paying more for pensions
Vallejo got court approval to exit from bankruptcy last week with a plan that includes a sharp increase in pension payments to CalPERS -- the opposite of what many expected when the city declared bankruptcy in May 2008. (Calpensions)

AM Alert: CSU presidents' salaries get closer look
How much should California University University presidents get paid? The controversial subject is back in focus as a special committee of the CSU Board of Trustees discusses how those executives are selected and compensated. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown credits Schwarzenegger for 'bold ideas'
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's public approval rating already was in the tank when he left office, and that was before it came out that he had kept secret for more than a decade the fact he fathered a child with a member of his household staff. Easy as it might be to pile on, however, Schwarzenegger's successor, Jerry Brown, wasn't biting. (Sacramento Bee)

Wisconsin Recalls open eyes, wallets
The whole world is watching. Or at least the U.S. political world. The huge piles of money that have been landing in campaign coffers, the announcement last month that the Republican National Committee was "all-in," the appearance in the state of seasoned operatives from other high-stakes campaigns around the country - all these point to the critical nature of Tuesday's six recall elections. And that they're catching the attention of the nation's political professionals. But why? What meaning do Wisconsin's unprecedented recall elections have beyond the state's borders? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Pension extension via 'airtime' becomes political target
Thousands of California public employees have put down big money on what amounts to a bet with the government that they will live long enough to recoup their investment - and then some. The benefit, which adds to the civil service time figured into employees' pension formulas, has become a political target in the debate over government pay and perks. (Sacramento Bee)

Daniel Borenstein: New pension accounting rules could pressure officials to act like grown-ups
THE HUNDREDS of billions of dollars of publicly reported pension debt in California will increase significantly under proposed new national accounting rules that could make it more difficult and costly for state and local government to borrow money.
As those governments consistently fail to properly fund public-employee pension systems across the country, the obscure, but influential, Governmental Accounting Standards Board has been examining how public agencies should disclose the shortfalls on their financial statements. (Contra Costa Times)

Shareholders' hands tied by News Corp. structure
Some institutional shareholders of News Corp. are steaming mad over perceived board failures in corporate oversight revealed by the phone hacking scandal, but they are virtually powerless to compel any change... Anne Simpson, senior portfolio manager-global equities, at the $241.3 billion Sacramento-based California Public Employees' Retirement System, said in a statement, "News Corp. does not have one-share/one-vote. This is a corruption of the governance system. Power should reflect capital at risk. CalPERS sees the voting structure in a company as critical. The situation is very serious and we're considering our options. We don't intend to be spectators -- we're owners." (Pensions & Investments)

The State Worker: Six reasons pension reform might not make next year's ballot
Six factors are working against getting a statewide public pension "reform" initiative on the ballot next year. (Sacramento Bee)

Californians would rather ease penalties than pay more for prisons
Cash-strapped Californians would rather ease "third-strike" penalties for some criminals and accept felons as neighbors than dig deeper into their pockets to relieve prison overcrowding, a new poll shows. (Los Angeles Times)

Minnesota reset: State government powers up after 20-day shutdown, some services back now
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota's government is reopening for business after a nearly three-week shutdown closed state parks, laid off some 22,000 public workers and demonstrated the wide reach of state agencies. (Washington Post)

Questions remain for how budget will affect state workers (Minnesota Public Radio)

State budget cuts wallop San Francisco courts
The judicial system in San Francisco County is preparing to close 25 of its 63 courtrooms and lay off 200 employees, or 40 percent of its staff, as a result of deep budget cuts triggered by California state legislators. Katherine Feinstein, the court's presiding judge, says basic judicial responsibilities will be compromised because of what she calls an "unprecedented dismantling" of the system. She estimates that paying tickets could take hours, obtaining court records will take months, and divorces will take at least a year and a half, up from about five months now. (Stateline.org)

CalSTRS wants (no) change in anti-spiking bill
Two amendments pushed by the CalSTRS board would remove most current teachers from coverage by a bill aimed at curbing spiking, the manipulation of final pay or service credits to boost pensions. A pay cap would be changed to apply mainly to highly paid administrators, not teachers, and to cover new hires, not current employees. A limit on the types of pay used to calculate a pension also would be changed to apply only to new hires. (Calpensions)

Minnesota shutdown near an end
Minnesota is one signature away from reopening. (CNNMoney)

CalPERS, CalSTRS report big gains in investment returns
California's two statewide retirement systems earned a combined $66 billion on their investments in the past year - but still can't shake criticism that public pensions are a black hole for taxpayers. CalPERS and CalSTRS on Monday reported 20 percent-plus investment returns for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Both funds said it was their best performance in more than a decade. (Sacramento Bee)

CalSTRS wants (no) change in anti-spiking bill
Two amendments pushed by the CalSTRS board would remove most current teachers from coverage by a bill aimed at curbing spiking, the manipulation of final pay or service credits to boost pensions. (Calpensions)

Prisoners' hunger strike in its third week
Reporting from Sacramento-- More than 400 inmates at four California prisons are in the third week of a hunger strike to protest long, punitive stays in isolation cells. (Los Angeles Times)

Dan Walters: California's huge pension debt will be jarring
When Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans failed to reach agreement on closing the state budget deficit, they also failed to resolve several budget-related issues - most prominently what, if anything, should be done to rein in public employees' pensions. (Sacramento Bee)

New York Unions Press Members to Accept Deal
New York labor leaders, spooked by public workers' rejection of negotiated concessions in Connecticut, are beginning a carefully planned campaign to persuade more than 100,000 state employees to accept a wage freeze and other measures in order to avoid sweeping layoffs. (New York Times)

State retirement system wins recognition from national group
Even though the state retirement account is still not fully-funded, the agency that administers it, the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI), is celebrating a good fiscal year following several devastating ones. It looks like others outside the Gem State have taken notice of PERSI's performance; the National Institute on Retirement Security, a Washington, D.C.- based think tank, named Idaho's retirement system as one of the best and most sustainable in the country. (Idaho Reporter)

Dan Morain: Madness, Exhibit A: Prison doctor's pay
The man who was the highest-paid California state employee not working for a public university answered his own phone on the first ring, and was more than happy to tell me his side of the story. (Sacramento Bee)

State to pay $750,000 in sex and race harassment case at medical board
The state has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a 2005 lawsuit that details allegations of rampant sexual and racial harassment within a Sacramento investigative unit of the Medical Board of California. The lawsuit alleges that two former members of the unit faced harassment and retaliation at the workplace in part because of concerns they raised about the behavior of a supervising investigator in the department. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Superintendent takes strong first step -- will state?
It's hard not to like Rick Fauss' style. Fauss, the new superintendent of the Redding School District, had been on the job less than two weeks when he started treating a wound that had festered in the district for more than a year. In his very first school board meeting this week, the sole item on the agenda was a discussion (in closed session) of how to handle Wanell Stolz, the former Sequoia Elementary School librarian who was arrested last year and is facing a trial in August on charges of embezzling from the school and its parent club. Last month, the school board voted to bring Stolz, who'd been on a voluntary leave of absence, back on the school payroll as a librarian and lay off a colleague of hers -- one of the great majority of educators who are not accused felons. (Redding Record Searchlight)

Editorial: With pay hike, has CSU gone fully tone-deaf?
Have they no sense of proportion? Have they no decency? They clearly have no sense of timing. (Sacramento Bee)

Doh! Minnesota shutdown could claim beer next
If you're a fan of Miller beer and heading to Minnesota any time soon, you might want to stock up. The MillerCoors brewing company will soon be forced to pull 39 brands of beers from every restaurant, bar and liquor store in the state of Minnesota. It's all because the state says the company didn't renew its brand label registration far enough in advance before the state's government shutdown. (Chicago Tribune)

The State Worker: Union spins furlough court decision its way
The union spin machine went into "turbo" this week after SEIU Local 1000 lost most of a key furlough lawsuit decision. (Sacramento Bee)

Prison doctor gets paid for doing little or nothing
Reporting from Sacramento -- The highest-paid state employee in California last year, a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don't trust his clinical skills. (Los Angeles Times)

CSU hikes tuition, and boosts a president's salary by $100,000
Minutes after voting to raise student tuition by 12 percent for the fall, California State University trustees on Tuesday decided the salary for a new campus president should be $100,000 greater than his predecessor's. (Sacramento Bee)

Population cap at PDC's secure area reduced
As part of Gov. Jerry Brown's call for deep spending cuts to balance the state's books, the population cap at the Porterville Developmental Center's (PDC) secure treatment area will see a 23 percent reduction over the next fiscal year. (Porterville Recorder)

CalSTRS turned a 20% profit in fiscal 2010-11
CalSTRS, still trying to recover from the market crash of 2008, earned a 20 percent profit on its investments in the just-ended fiscal year. But the staff of the teachers' pension fund warned that it will be tough to duplicate these latest results. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS says its pensions have $4 billion impact in Sacramento area
With the cost of public pensions still a hot political issue, a study commissioned by CalPERS shows that government retirement checks represent a potent economic benefit to the Sacramento area. The study, to be released today, says retirees in the six-county Sacramento area received pension checks totalling $2.08 billion last year. (Sacramento Bee)

CalPERS adds $12 billion to California economy, study says
Reporting from Sacramento-- The California Public Employees' Retirement System pumped nearly $12 billion into the state's economy last year through benefits paid to retirees and other beneficiaries, making it "a significant economic engine in most California communities," a new study says. (Los Angeles Times)

California looks to UC, CSU for lending hand
The state just slashed $650 million each from the California State University and University of California, but it's now looking to the two systems to loan the state some cash. (Sacramento Bee)

Controller John Chiang: Cash receipts $350 million behind
It didn't take long for California's optimistic budget to fall behind in tax revenues. (Sacramento Bee)

What California has to show on high-speed rail -- pages of reports and a chorus of concerns
California is about to build the largest public-works project in the state's history: a system of high-speed, electric passenger trains. And even before a spade of dirt is turned, perhaps late next year, the state will have spent about $630 million. What does California have to show for it? Thousands of pages of strategies, studies and plans - and a chorus of concern over the California High-Speed Rail Authority's budget management and its ability to monitor an army of consultants. (Fresno Bee / Sacramento Bee)

Indiana governor revives agency mistakenly canceled
INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed an order restoring Indiana's largest state agency, the human services department, after it was accidentally eliminated due to a mistake in a new state law. (AP / Evansville Courier & Press)

GASB Gives Pitch on Pensions
WASHINGTON -- The Governmental Accounting Standards Board unveiled a pension accounting and reporting proposal Friday that would fundamentally alter how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities and pose challenges for them. The so-called exposure drafts would, for the first time, require state and local governments to report unfunded pension liabilities on their balance sheets, creating "sticker shock" and potentially raising concerns from politicians, rating agencies, and others about how the liabilities will be funded in the future. (Bond Buyer)

CalPERS' CIO Joe Dear is on the go
As chief investment officer of the nation's largest public pension system, Joseph A. Dear always seems on the run. Running the $232.2 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, means attending lots of meetings, which might explain why Mr. Dear stays on point. There is a not a lot of room for chitchat when the next meeting is only minutes away. It's not that Mr. Dear can't share a laugh at a good joke, but it's clear he doesn't have a lot of time to waste as he goes about CalPERS' business. And it's no coincidence that Mr. Dear's hobbies include running. (Pensions & Investments)

Viewpoints: Public pension vitriol is in fashion - and unfair
In a nation ever gripped by its latest obsession, there is a new fixation. It's not some starlet's stint in rehab or a fad diet. It is an attack on the generally modest checks collected by retired firefighters, teachers, public health workers and more. (Sacramento Bee)

Guard in court on charges of smuggling cellphones into Susanville prison
A correctional officer accused of smuggling cellphones and tobacco into a Northern California prison in return for cash payments made his first appearance in Sacramento federal court Friday. (Sacramento Bee)

California's fraud suit against Villalobos can proceed, judge rules
For nearly a year, Alfred Villalobos has been able to use the bankruptcy laws to sidestep a state lawsuit accusing him of bribing officials at the California Public Employees' Retirement System. Now California officials have won the right to pursue the $95 million case against Villalobos. (Sacramento Bee)

Flamboyant Financier Refocuses After Fall
Victor B. MacFarlane was a winner. Then he was a loser. Now, like many others brought low by the financial crisis, he is intent on being a winner again, though on a much humbler scale. For 18 years, Mr. MacFarlane's real estate development and asset-management firm in San Francisco invested huge sums for the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest pension fund, and other institutional investors. (New York Times)

'Move over' rule to be touted in traffic safety campaign
Stunned by three Caltrans worker deaths in less than two months, state officials will launch a statewide freeway safety campaign Monday, including digital billboards in Sacramento highlighting a little-known safety law. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown struggles to get rid of state cars
Gov. Jerry Brown said in January that he wanted to sell off half the state's passenger vehicle fleet, one of several highly symbolic measures Brown proposed to cut costs. (Sacramento Bee)

State starts delivering jobless benefits via debit card
The monthly unemployment check is disappearing for the 1.2 million Californians who receive jobless benefits, to be replaced by a state-issued debit card, officials said Thursday. (AP / Sacramento Bee)

Brown orders review of stunning salary numbers (News10)

CalPERS hires another firm accused of shenanigans
For the second time in three weeks, CalPERS has hired a company that's been accused of defrauding the pension fund. (Sacramento Bee)

CSU campuses on list of steepest tuition increases
California State University students won't be surprised to learn that CSU campuses dominate a new list of top public schools in the nation - for fastest-rising tuition. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Layoff notices begin to go out to state workers
OLYMPIA -- Dozens of state government workers have been given layoff notices as Washington agencies begin to implement budget cuts at the start of a new fiscal year. (Seattle Times)

California Republicans win tax argument, little else
Just before Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state budget with little fanfare last week, Assembly Republicans celebrated at Downtown Ford, standing before cars they said would become cheaper overnight because they blocked tax extensions. "This is a great day for California," said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks. "The death of these taxes is the rebirth of our economy." If Republicans judge themselves by taxes alone, they scored a victory this year. But Capitol experts say they also lost for the foreseeable future their best opportunity to reduce pensions, impose a stronger spending cap, or roll back regulations that affect businesses. (Sacramento Bee)

Hundreds of Calif. state workers earn 6 figures
Sacramento -- As California's elected leaders took drastic steps to cut spending last year, the state was paying hundreds of its workers six-figure earnings that far exceeded base salaries, according to newly released compensation data for public employees. (San Francisco Chronicle)

GOP governors sock away campaign cash
GOP governors are raking in big bucks amid some high-profile budget disputes that have tested new state chiefs such as Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Ohio's John Kasich. (USA Today)

Rethinking California's 'three-strikes' law
Seventeen years after California's "three strikes" law was sold to the public as a way to keep rapists, child molesters and murderers behind bars, some criminal justice experts are pushing for an overhaul of the sentencing mandate they say is long overdue. (San Francisco Chronicle)

PD Editorial: A need for pension progress in Sacramento
A down side -- one of many -- of the partisan budget agreement reached last week between Democratic lawmakers and the governor is that a number of important items got left on the bargaining table, Chief among them is pension reform. (Santa Rosa Press-Democrat)

Colorado lawmakers may offer CHP+ health plan to state workers' children
The Joint Budget Committee is exploring -- over the concerns of some Republican lawmakers -- shifting health care coverage for some the children of state employees to a program heavily subsidized by the federal government. (Denver Post)

Government paychecks, pensions now a dead weight to Sacramento economy
Through the decades, as flashier private sector jobs came and went, solid government paychecks and pensions formed the steady foundation of Sacramento's economy. Now that foundation has become a dead weight. (Sacramento Bee)

Skelton: Prickly allies for Jerry Brown
The heat has cooled between Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders of the Legislature. But for a while, there seemed to be a pending explosion. Brown quickly vetoed the Legislature's gimmicky state budget -- no California governor apparently had ever dared that -- and the leaders angrily countered that he was ineffective and confused. All's calm again, however, now that the Democrats have produced a more honest spending plan and Brown has signed it, praising them for "a hell of a job." But what does the public flare-up between a governor and legislative leaders of his own party say about Brown's leadership skills? (Los Angeles Times)

Ginger Rutland: Woe be to workers who blow whistles at CalSTRS
In 2006, Scott Thompson, a pension program analyst for the California State Teachers' Retirement System, received an irate phone call from a woman who claimed to be 91-year-old pensioner Acevia Craft. The caller was angry because CalSTRS had reduced her pension payment. The pension agency had done so at the behest of the IRS because Craft had not paid her taxes the previous year. Suspicious because the caller did not sound like a 91-year-old, Thompson alerted authorities. It turned out Acevia Craft had died in April 2005 and her children had buried her in her backyard so that they could continue fraudulently collecting their mother's CalSTRS pension. ... But less than a year ago, security guards escorted him from CalSTRS' gleaming new headquarters building in West Sacramento. The letter Thompson's boss handed him states that he was being placed on an "ordered leave of absence," during which time he would not be allowed on the premises. Ten weeks later, Thompson was dismissed from state service, a dismissal he is now fighting. (Sacramento Bee)

The Buzz: John Chiang-sponsored bills are a tough sell in California Legislature
Many California lawmakers have sharply criticized Controller John Chiang's decision in June to cut off their pay, but some appear to be going beyond words to signal their frustration.Five bills sponsored by Chiang were killed by Assembly Democrats during the past week. The moves highlight the tough crowd that Chiang faces in the Legislature after he cost each rank-and-file lawmaker $4,830 during a 12-day pay block. (Sacramento Bee)

Colorado, Minnesota COLA suits thrown out
Courts in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., ruled on Wednesday against retired public employees in Colorado and Minnesota who filed lawsuits over reductions to their cost-of-living adjustments, saying retirees do not have a right to specific COLA formulas. (Pensions & Investments)

Judge rejects union request to segregate employee pension payments
Saying unions were requesting a "drastic remedy which should be granted only sparingly," Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford rejected a union request to segregate public employees' 3 percent pension contributions from the state's retirement fund. A new law requring the payments goes into effect today. (Miami Herald)

Dan Morain: Brown's break with UFW a sign of the times
Democrats take it as an article of faith that the United Farm Workers of America is sacrosanct, even as the labor organization founders. So Democrats could be forgiven for believing Jerry Brown would sign the bill delivered to him by Senate leader Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez seeking to make it easier for the struggling union to organize farmworkers. In his first six months back in the corner office, however, Brown has shown signs of becoming an apostate. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Prison officers union still battling state
Like gout and miserably hot Sacramento summers, a big fight between the state's prison officers' union and the government is about to flare up - again. (Sacramento Bee)

Meg Whitman speaks out against governor, Obama
Republican Meg Whitman, stepping back into the political limelight after her failed, $180 million bid for governor, took her first public jabs at Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators Wednesday - calling their budget a gimmick-filled plan that lacks "real reform."(San Francisco Chronicle)

Dems go it alone, approve a budget
Gov. Jerry Brown said for months that he could broker a bipartisan budget deal. By agreeing to a majority-vote budget, passed by Democrats in the Legislature on Tuesday, he conceded he could not. (Sacramento Bee)

Dan Walters: California's new budget relies on shaky assumptions
The much-revised state budget that Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders have cobbled together solves their political problem, at least for the moment. (Sacramento Bee)

Opinion: Defending Public Pensions
Over the past year, politicians, pundits and an array of think tanks have put forth some frightening predictions about public employee pension plans. A misguided belief that pensions, particularly defined benefit plans, are causing the fiscal stress of many states is false. The widely held notion that 401(k) plans can provide adequate retirement benefits is, similiarly, a myth. Here are some other major and oft-repeated misconceptions floating around many statehouses these days:(ABC News)

Budget deal by Brown, Dems scraps tax election, may trigger cuts
Gov. Jerry Brown relinquished a cornerstone of his budget plan Monday by forfeiting a 2011 tax election and securing a deal with Democratic lawmakers that shortens the school year if tax revenues fall short of optimistic projections. After months of seeking GOP votes, Brown decided four days before the new fiscal year that a bipartisan deal was impossible. The Democratic governor wanted Republicans to pass a temporary extension of higher sales and vehicle taxes as a "bridge" to a fall election, but Senate Republicans would not vote for taxes. (Sacramento Bee)

GASB's Robert Attmore discusses new pension rules
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is poised to approve new regulations that will have a major impact on the way states calculate their pension liabilities. The changes are meant to make it easier to compare the health of pension funds from one state to the next. They also would have the side effect of making states' long-term finances appear in worse shape than their current balance sheets indicate.

CalPERS' $11-million legal bill raises eyebrows
Reporting from Sacramento-- The California Public Employees' Retirement System paid $11 million to a Washington, D.C., law firm and its advisors to conduct an internal review, an amount that has some of the fund's own directors proposing more stringent oversight of outside legal fees. (Los Angeles Times)

Starting today, our A.M. Reading feature will include The State Worker's Individurls page with links to public employee online reports, video and social media updates. The site draws from Bing, Google, Twitter, Yahoo! and You Tube. It's a quick way to survey news of interest in real time. Click here to see what we're talking about.

Six-figure pensions soar for California school administrators
Thousands of newly retired school administrators will earn more during retirement than most Californians will make during their working careers. The number of educators receiving $100,000-plus annual pensions jumped 650 percent from 2005 to 2011, going from 700 to 5,400, according to a Bee review of data from the California State Teachers' Retirement System. (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Christie calls pension overhaul his 'biggest governmental victory' in exclusive interview
TRENTON -- With his "biggest governmental victory" in the books, Gov. Chris Christie plans to fight the Democrats on their call for a millionaires tax, get the budget passed this week with no major disruptions, then turn to overhauling the education system. (nj.com)

Three Stockton men arrested for illegal deer slaughter
Game wardens have arrested three Stockton men, breaking up a ring that was illegally killing and butchering deer for commercial sale, the Department of Fish and Game announced Friday. (Sacramento Bee)

Brown's Countdown, Day 166: Governor mends fences with fellow Democrats -- again
By the spring of 1981, Gov. Jerry Brown's relationship with Democratic lawmakers had become so sour that the Senate leader ordered sergeants-at-arms to remove him from the chamber. Brown left before an escort was required. Thirty years later, Brown is back at the Capitol, and hostilities with members of his own party are flaring again. (Sacramento Bee)

VIDEO: Now Is the Time to Play It Safe: Calpers CIO
Now is the time to play it safe in the market given all the uncertainty in the economy, according to the chief investment officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System. (CNBC)

Jerry Brown says Proposition 13 could be tested if budget talks fail
Gov. Jerry Brown hinted Thursday that if the budget talks with Republicans break down, the initiative fight that would follow would not be limited to Brown's plans to raise sales, vehicle and income taxes. He said he expects labor groups to pursue changes to Proposition 13, tweaking the current caps on commercial property taxes, if no bipartisan deal can be reached. (Los Angeles Times)

Budget gimmicks explained: five ways states hide deficits
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a budget that he said was filled with gimmicks -- or as he put it, "legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings." Editorial boards have praised Brown for exercising responsible fiscal judgment. Meanwhile, Brian Joseph of the Orange County Register has written that Brown's own budget plan uses gimmicks, too. All this begs the question: What qualifies as a budget gimmick? (Stateline.org)

California budget cuts slash monitoring of gang parolees
While state prison officials plan to move tens of thousands of inmates to county jails in a highly publicized budget move, they began another money-saving effort last month: removing GPS tracking devices from hundreds of paroled gang members. Corrections officials had been monitoring about 950 gang members statewide through GPS, but budget cuts are forcing them to cut the number to 400 by July 1, said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (Sacramento Bee)

The State Worker: Employees' glee at Chiang's pay decision doesn't add up
California's state workforce is so vast and diverse that a journalist can quickly get into trouble making blanket assertions about it. But not this time. (Sacramento Bee)

John Chiang's pay blockage upends budget talks
Controller John Chiang has blocked pay for lawmakers, putting state budget negotiations into uncharted territory and upping the pressure on legislative leaders to strike a deal. Chiang rejected his own party's spending plan as insufficient to satisfy a voter-approved law requiring timely budgets. In doing so, the Democratic controller exercised unprecedented authority Tuesday, establishing a new role for his office under propositions 25 and 58 to determine whether a legislative budget is balanced. (Sacramento Bee)

Brown promises Democrats alternative budget plan
Gov. Jerry Brown told Democratic lawmakers Tuesday that he was preparing an alternative to his budget proposal and would present it to Democratic leaders as early as Wednesday. (Los Angeles Times)

State worker unions confront hard line on health coverage
Negotiators for Gov. John Kitzhaber are drawing a hard line on health care in contract talks, insisting that Oregon state workers must pay 5 percent of their health insurance premiums, union representatives on the Public Employees' Benefit Board said Tuesday. Citing the negotiators' demands, representatives for SEIU Local 503 and AFSCME Council 75 insisted on slowing progress on specific health care reforms during PEBB's meeting Tuesday. (Statesman Journal)

Q&A: Controller John Chiang ponders legislators' pay
Controller John Chiang, who battled former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on state worker pay, is in the middle of another wage fight. The Democrat could decide as soon as today whether to pay legislators their salary and living expenses dating back to Thursday. Under a new voter-approved law, Proposition 25, the state docks legislative pay each day lawmakers have not sent the governor a budget. We answer some common questions below: (Sacramento Bee)

States overhaul pensions but pass on 401(k)-style plans
There is an easy way to shore up state pension systems, or so many leaders elected last year believed: States should move to offering 401(k)-style retirement plans. Eight new governors and numerous new legislators said they would support shifting state employees to these plans, following a move the private sector made long ago. Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada and Oklahoma appeared especially ready to make the change. (stateline.org)

Quinn defends push to limit unionizing of state workers
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn today defended his efforts to limit collective bargaining rights for thousands of state employees, saying his proposal is a balanced approach aimed at ensuring a separation between rank-and-file workers and upper managers. (Chicago Tribune)

Jerry Brown leaves legislators to stew over budget veto
BLYTHE - Leaving the Legislature behind to stew over his budget veto, Gov. Jerry Brown touched down in the California desert Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a solar power plant. (Sacramento Bee)

State workers get bonuses for not quitting
Oklahoma paid state employees nearly $42 million in a tenure-like bonus last year regardless of performance, a Tulsa World analysis found. The amount exceeds the payroll totals of 119 of the state's boards, commissions or departments, including the state Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Rehabilitation Services and the Oklahoma Tax Commission. (Tulsa World)

Jerry Brown's burden of consistency
An honest state budget still eludes Gov. Jerry Brown, but he has acquired one priceless commodity: a reputation for consistency. Conviction and commitment. Says what he means, means what he says. (Los Angeles Times)

Anti-union Republicans seize their moment
When Wisconsin's polls closed in November and it became clear that a new Republican governor and legislature had taken complete control of a state long dominated by Democrats, it was clear to everyone that major changes for the public workforce lay ahead. The new governor, Scott Walker, made no secret in his campaign about his plans to battle the state's powerful labor unions head on. ... But while Wisconsin captured much of the national media attention on workforce issues, similar scenarios played out, if less dramatically, in states with new Republican majorities all over the country. (Stateline. org)

Anti-tax group threatens lawsuit if John Chiang pays lawmakers
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association demanded Friday that Controller John Chiang withhold pay from lawmakers and threatened to sue if he does not. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown leaves legislators to stew over budget veto
BLYTHE - Leaving the Legislature behind to stew over his budget veto, Gov. Jerry Brown touched down in the California desert Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a solar power plant. It was Brown's second straight day away from Sacramento, and he appeared to appreciate the space. "I came out here from our state Capitol at a time when lots of fur is flying, and lots of howls of execration: 'Oh no, you can't do that,' " Brown said on a sun-soaked site near the Arizona border. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Budget vetoed, now back to work
Need a reason to guffaw, or maybe just groan? Here's one: "A case of celebratory Hefeweizen beer was carted into the Assembly speaker's office for lawmakers shortly after the voting concluded" Wednesday night to adopt a 2011-12 state budget, The Los Angeles Times reported. This was not a budget worth celebrating. Instead, it was one more example of the disconnect between how the real world operates and how the Capitol does. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The State Worker: Is Jerry Brown's hiring freeze working?
We're nearly four months into Gov. Jerry Brown's state government hiring freeze. So how's it going? (Sacramento Bee)

Union chief says Jerry Brown's tax vote is 'fraught with peril'
As Gov. Jerry Brown presses Republicans for a mid-September election on taxes, a major Democratic labor ally warned Wednesday that going to the electorate is "terribly fraught with peril." (Sacramento Bee)

Radio hosts change tune on tax election, then so do GOP lawmakers
Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats in the Legislature have long complained that Republicans in the Legislature take their policy cues from radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou. (Los Angeles Times)

Ethics agency will not investigate complaint over Schwarzenegger affair
The state's ethics agency has rejected a request by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party to investigate whether former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger violated any state laws during an affair with a housekeeper that resulted in his fathering a child. (Los Angeles Times)

Justices split politically as court takes up collective bargaining law
As the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a Dane County judge's order blocking a law that curtails collective bargaining by public employee unions, questions from the justices appeared to fall mostly along the court's political divide. (Madison.com)

Probation for former Utah employees who made 'the list'
Latino advocates on Monday condemned a deal that allowed two former state workers accused of compiling and distributing a list of allegedly undocumented immigrants to be charged, enter pleas, and sentenced on Monday. Neither Leah D. Carson, 39, or Teresa Bassett, 59, will go to jail. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Prisoner release: California submits revised prisoner reduction plan to court
California officials file a plan with a federal court on Tuesday outlining how they'll reduce the state's prison population by as many as 32,000 inmates. A panel of federal district judges ordered the state to make the cuts within two years. They say severe crowding in state prisons causes deadly lapses in prisoners' medical and mental healthcare. (KPCC)

In hours of need, some mentally ill find closed doors
When emergency workers couldn't find a psychiatric bed in Hampton Roads for her suicidal daughter last year, Lee Ann Novak took her daughter home. The mother removed the doorknobs from the girl's bedroom and bathroom so she could check on her. She locked away knives and medications. She pulled the 17-year-old girl out of a bathtub of water when her head slumped beneath the water line. And then she stayed awake in their Virginia Beach home until the call came in the middle of the night that a psych bed was available in Hampton. (Virginian-Pilot)

A Disabled Boy Dead, and a System in Disarray
Jonathan Carey did not die for lack of money. New York State and the federal government provided $1.4 million annually per person to care for Jonathan and the other residents of the Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center, a warren of low-rise concrete and brick buildings near Albany. Yet on a February afternoon in 2007, Jonathan, a skinny, autistic 13-year-old, was asphyxiated, slowly crushed to death in the back seat of a van by a state employee who had worked nearly 200 hours without a day off over 15 days. (New York Times)

Dan Walters: Real data needed for California pension reform
The pensions received by California's public employees have erupted into a very hot political issue, so hot that it has become one of the key issues in the state budget stalemate. (Sacramento Bee)

In Costa Mesa, are extremists playing politics with people's lives?
These are not the best of times to be a public employee in America. From coast to coast, their paychecks, their pensions and their benefits are under attack. To my knowledge, though, no one's being pummeled like the clock punchers who toil for Costa Mesa in Orange County. (Los Angeles Times)

BRISTOL: Why unions need to make a comeback
In the face of one union defeat after another, the longtime head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO announced this week that he will not seek re-election in the fall. With his old-style bulldog personality, Robert Haynes is not the man to continue leading the state's largest labor organization. (The Sun Chronicle)

The State of the Unions
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry talks about the economy, jobs and the role of the public sector and private sector in hiring workers. (CNBC Squawk Box)

Opinionator: Fall of the Wild
GLEN ELLEN, Calif. -- Dead at the age of 40, Jack London left behind more than 50 books produced by his fevered pen, a string of opinionated lovers and a Sonoma Valley ranch he described as heaven on earth. For a few months, still, you can see the sunlit room where the author of "Call of the Wild" wrote his daily thousand words before noon ... California created the state park idea with Yosemite in 1864, before it was a federal reserve; it is destroying it in 2011 with a plan to permanently close one-fourth of its parks. (New York Times)

Gov. Chris Christie's helicopter flap: sympathy or scorn for Governor dad
Well, it's all over but the shouting. But the shouting, it appears is far from over. Gov. Chris Christie sought to defuse the controversy over his use of a State Police helicopter to attend his son's ballgame and a political fundraiser by coming clean - paying for the flights and releasing a list of all the flights he's taken. But he stopped short of apologizing and admitted no wrongdoing. (The Star-Ledger)

California controller says lawmakers won't get paid without budget deal
California's controller told lawmakers Thursday that he won't pay them if a budget deal isn't reached by midmonth, while Gov. Jerry Brown said talks are at a critical point. (Sacramento Bee)

Senate OKs bill with $5,000 fine for smuggling phones into prisons
The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to make smuggling a cellphone into prison a misdemeanor with up to a $5,000 fine - a bill similar to one that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed as too weak. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown says state needs more time to implement Supreme Court prison ruling
Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday he would likely ask federal judges for more time to reduce the state's prison population by more than 30,000 inmates. (Los Angeles Times)

$100,000 pension club of public retirees in California is booming
The $100,000 pension club is growing fast. Almost 9,000 retirees in the California Public Employees' Retirement System receive at least $100,000 in annual benefits, more than quadruple the number getting that much during 2005, according to a Bee review of CalPERS data. (Sacramento Bee)

Layoff notices go to law officers
With no budget deal in sight, Minnesota is warning 800 state troopers, conservation officers and other law enforcement officials that they may be out of work by July 1. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

'Wild Justice' episode leads to Colusa charges in poaching case
Two suspects in a nationally televised wildlife poaching case in Colusa County recently pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges. A related case of witness intimidation remains under investigation. The case reached a national audience on the National Geographic television series "Wild Justice," which profiles the work of California Fish and Game wardens. The Jan. 26 episode featured the program's most gruesome poaching case yet. (Sacramento Bee)

Viewpoints: Pension 'reformers' distort facts on benefits
Those who want to gut retirement security for public employees in California are issuing an ominous-sounding ultimatum: Slash pensions now or slash school budgets. Trouble is, as clear a choice as it may seem, it simply doesn't compute. Public employee pensions amount to just 3 percent of California's budget. The growing number of politically motivated proposals to overhaul California's public pension system will not make a dent in the state's current budget shortfall. Not by any calculation. Not now and not anytime soon. (Sacramento Bee)

California Highway Patrol, prison officers compete for pay, respect
The "pony riders" vs. "thugs" feud goes back a half-century, long before state workers unionized. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Can state find center on gifts to workers?
Somewhere in the California Public Employees' Retirement System bureaucracy, an official worries that if she accepts a bottle of water from a potential agency contractor she will run afoul of state law or agency policy. At the other extreme, CalPERS' former CEO Fred Buenostros allegedly allowed those with business before the agency to pay for elaborate foreign travel, finance his wedding and even buy a condominium for him in Tahoe. (Sacramento Bee)

Daily News Editorial: Cost efficient
A California state Senate committee late last week nixed a proposal that would have limited the freebies they could accept from lobbyists trying to influence legislation. Their reasoning? It would cost the state too much. So thoughtful of the men and women grappling with a budget deficit in the billions, right? They'd like you to believe that, anyway. But more likely is that it costs them too much. (Los Angeles Daily News)

California gift-limit bill dies quiet death in state Senate committee
A Senate committee on Thursday quietly killed a bill that would have stopped the flow of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts to state lawmakers and other elected officials. Senate Bill 18 by Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, would have prohibited lobbyists or the interests employing them from giving elected officials or their family members tickets to sporting events and concerts, gift cards, spa treatments, or golf, skiing or fishing trips.

Wisconsin collective bargaining law struck down by judge
MADISON -- The fight over stripping collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin's public workers will move into the state Supreme Court, and possibly back into the Legislature, after a judge ruled Thursday to strike down the law that passed while massive protests paralyzed the Capitol.

Gov. Walker confident CB law will happen despite judge's ruling
MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - Governor Scott Walker says he'll eventually prevail in his effort to limit collective bargaining by most public employee unions.

Our State Worker column in today's Bee looks at the Fair Political Practice Commission's investigation into gifts received by CalPERS administration and staff. Since the FPPC doesn't disclose details of investigations until they're done, there's plenty that we don't know about the CalPERS situation.

As today's column reports, board President Rob Feckner said he'll pay $800 for three meals that he forgot to report and a fourth that he undervalued in the last five years.

Our sense is that many of the alleged violations involve similar reporting lapses. But it only takes one or two big violations to create a new PR headache for the fund.

The State Worker: Gift-reporting rules affect thousands of state employees
This week's revelation that the state is looking into gift reports of four dozen CalPERS board members and staff opened a portal on two things that generally don't blend: civil service and gift-taking. But hundreds of state workers at the California Public Employees' Retirement System and thousands throughout state government are in a position to receive gifts that they must then report.

California prison system erroneously paroled high-risk inmates, report says
Prison officials incorrectly allowed 1,500 inmates to be placed on unsupervised parole last year, including 450 who should have been classified as having a "high risk for violence," a new audit of the state's parole programs has found.

Niello's isn't the only initiative of concern for unions, Democrats
Many Democrats and union supporters breathed a sigh of relief when former Assemblyman Roger Niello announced late Tuesday that he wouldn't follow through with a signature campaign for his initiative to restrict public employee pensions. That effort would have banned public employee unions from collective bargaining on pensions -- a key dispute in Wisconsin's labor battles, and a tactic many say is designed to destroy these unions. But there remain several initiatives filed with the Secretary of State's office that could keep these same people up at night.

State workers to pay more for health benefits
Amidst all of this year's furor over collective bargaining for state employees, there has been relatively little public attention devoted to what may be the most tangible loss for them in rewriting the rules: health care benefits they have long taken for granted. (stateline.org)

Bee exclusive: California National Guardsmen improperly collected fire pay, auditor finds
About 100 California National Guard members have been accused by the Guard's internal auditor of collecting fraudulent or improper pay totaling more than $500,000 from 2006 through early last year by violating dual compensation and travel expense rules. (Sacramento Bee)

Jerry Brown, Grover Norquist, spar on tax plan
Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday he is actively negotiating a budget deal with Republicans while conservative activist Grover Norquist roamed Capitol hallways urging GOP leaders to hold the line against taxes. The two never met, though they had plenty to say about one another. (Sacramento Bee)

U.S. Supreme Court says California must reduce prison population
In a move that one justice called "the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history," the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered California to cut its prison population by more than 33,000 inmates. (Sacramento Bee)

Editorial: Prison ruling doesn't need to undercut safety
No longer can California avoid the inevitable task of reducing the state's prison population. Serious constitutional violations "have persisted for years" in California's overcrowded prison system, wrote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in a 5-4 ruling Monday. (Sacramento Bee)

California watchdog agency investigating three CalPERS board members, dozens of others
Three CalPERS board members and dozens of current and former fund executives are under investigation by the state's political watchdog agency over allegations that they failed to accurately report gifts in keeping with state law. (Sacramento Bee)

More state boards await the budget saw
Having already riled university professors, mayors and healthcare workers with budget cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown has announced new trims that raised the ire of abalone divers, miners and feminists, among others.(Los Angeles Times)

SEIU trying to drag state's GOP toward the middle
As if you needed any more evidence that California's political scene is entering a weird new phase, get a load of the ideas rattling inside David Kieffer's shaved head. (Sacramento Bee)

Video by prison guards union links campaign donations to new contract
Last week, I found myself cruising the website of the California prison guards union. I was curious about whether the $7 million the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. spent on last year's elections -- including $2 million on Jerry Brown's governor's race alone -- might have had something to do with the contract the union just scored. And right there at ccpoa.org, I saw a video called "Winners." (Los Angeles Times)