Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
The Associated Press
Created: 03/24/2011 06:09:59 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday that he has told his labor union allies they should be open to concessions that Republican lawmakers are seeking on public employee pensions in exchange for GOP votes on the budget.
Stone
10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, March 24, 2011
By GAIL WESSON and DUANE GANG
The Press-Enterprise
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone urged business and civic leaders to support the county supervisors’ efforts at pension reform at an economic development forum in San Jacinto on Thursday.
PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
March 24, 2011 | 6:06 pm
As Gov. Jerry Brown mulls his options on how to bring an election on taxes to the voters, Republicans are readying election measures of their own. GOP operatives filed two initiatives with the attorney general’s office Thursday — one to curb public employee pensions and another aimed at capping future state spending — in the event Brown walks away from talks with Republican lawmakers and opts for a November special election.
The billions of dollars in cuts to government services signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown address a portion of the estimated $26-billion deficit facing California. Brown is still negotiating with Republicans on a proposal to put tax extensions before voters.
By Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times
March 25, 2011
Reporting from Sacramento—
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law billions of dollars in budget cuts Thursday that will mean fewer government services, particularly for the old, the poor and the sick.
California’s debt to the U.S. for covering its unemployment checks the last two years could reach $13.4 billion by the end of the year. If the loans aren’t repaid by November, a payroll tax will kick in. It starts at $325 million next year and could rise to $6 billion.
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2011, 5:33 p.m.
Reporting from Sacramento—
California employers could face an annual payroll tax increase of as much as $6 billion if California’s unemployment insurance program fails to repay a federal government loan that has kept benefits flowing.
March 25, 2011
Jerry Brown shifted into full Zen mode this week, offering increasingly cryptic commentary amid a political atmosphere that grows ever more cloudy and gray.
In California and other Western states, 67.5% of households saw their net worth fall, compared with 62.5% in the U.S. overall. The median decline in the West was 27%, well above the 18.1% national median.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2011, 6:45 p.m.
The federal government has for the first time detailed the sharp drop in wealth that the Great Recession caused American households — and it shows that families in California and other Western states took the biggest and broadest hits by far.