Nestande

By PE Politics
May 22, 2012 12:15 PM

Calling for an “honest conversation” about spending cuts, Assemblyman Brian Nestande and others Tuesday proposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit lawmakers from deferring scheduled payments to schools from one fiscal year to another.

The state has built up more than $10 billion in school-funding deferrals as lawmakers try to avoid permanent general-fund cuts.

But critics say the deferred money has scrambled district finances and costs them hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on borrowed money to pay their bills until the state money arrives.

“It’s really the largest shell in the shell game” of a state budget, Nestande, R-Palm Desert, said at a Capitol news conference. “Deferrals are just avoiding the tough decisions.”

Joining Nestande was Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, and other deferral critics, including Sharon Scott Dow, a representative of the Advancement Project. The group is led by wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger, who has spent more than $8.2 million to qualify an initiative that would raise income taxes to increase funding for schools..

Nestande and Olson did not say what should be cut to pay down the school deferrals. They ruled out raising taxes to generate more money for schools, notwithstanding their co-press conferee.

To read entire story, click here.

Sacramento — California’s public schools could see as much as a month of classroom time slashed from the calendar if voters reject a plan to raise taxes in November.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed giving school districts the option of cutting up to 15 days from the school year if voters reject his proposed income and sales tax initiative. The significantly shortened year would help offset a multibillion-dollar automatic midyear cut that would be implemented upon rejection of the taxes.

Districts statewide already have the option of cutting five days from the 180-day school calendar in order to reduce costs, and the proposal for three more weeks would be in addition to that. Public schools would take the biggest hit if the taxes fail, as nearly $5.5 billion out of the $6 billion in automatic cuts would come from their budgets under the governor’s plan.

Brown on Tuesday noted that the Legislature would ultimately decide what the so-called “trigger cuts” would entail, but he said that giving schools such an option is the only way to deal with the uncertainty.

“I’m doing the only thing that can be done, and that is assume the taxes and put in the trigger cuts,” Brown said after making a pitch for his tax plan to a gathering of the California Chamber of Commerce. “Is it the best way? It’s the only way that I can see going forward.”
Opposition to cuts

Polls of state voters in recent months have shown overwhelming opposition to the governor’s proposal for automatic spending cuts.

Education leaders said there are myriad problems with the proposal, including that Brown would want school districts to bargain with teachers unions to make such a reduction. That would result in districts having to make vast concessions for the unions to agree to what essentially would be a one-month reduction in pay, said Jill Wynns, president of the California School Boards Association.

“I don’t know what we would have to give, but … I guarantee in the future people would say, ‘How could that have gotten into the contract?’ ” Wynns said.

Shortening the school year any more would put the state and its students at a significant disadvantage for learning, and Californians would be fooling themselves to think otherwise, she said.

“From my point of view this is a huge game of pretend. We’re pretending you can have a world-class public school system without paying for it, and that’s just wrong. It’s a lie,” she said.

The Legislature first allowed school districts to shorten the 180-day year by five days as part of the February 2009 budget agreement, when the state was on the brink of financial collapse. Districts have the option of doing that until the 2014-15 school year.

In the current school year, 35 percent of school districts statewide have reduced their calendars between one and five days, according to a report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. As part of the budget deal last year, the Legislature gave districts the option of reducing this school year by an additional seven days, but no districts took that option, according to the analyst.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 23, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

As the state budget’s deficit widens, Gov. Jerry Brown is being thrust into a three-front political battle.

He must not only persuade voters to pass his sales and income tax package, but, implicitly, persuade them to reject a rival tax measure just for schools.

Meanwhile, Brown is pressing liberal Democratic legislators to ignore their political DNA by making deeper cuts in health and welfare programs, not only to close the deficit but to bolster appeals to voters for new taxes.

“It’s not easy,” Brown told hundreds of business and civic figures gathered Tuesday in Sacramento for the annual Host Breakfast.

“We’re getting there,” Brown continued. “We’re making the cuts. But we also need the revenues.”

Brown had been cultivating business groups to support his original tax plan, but they cooled when he shifted gears to satisfy rivals on the left, reducing the sales tax element and sharply boosting income taxes on high-income taxpayers, including many attendees at Tuesday’s event.

Despite Brown’s assertion, cuts in welfare benefits, medical care for the poor, child care, developmental disability services, and in-home care for the aged and disabled are a tough sell among liberal legislators who support those services.

Brown’s new budget counts on those reductions to narrow the deficit by more than $1.5 billion but legislative leaders have said that softening their impact is their highest priority, characterizing them as “life-and-death” issues.

Past efforts to make cuts in those areas have been difficult. Most involve federal funds as well as the state’s money, and some have run afoul of Washington’s unwillingness to grant waivers, while others have been blocked in court.

To read entire column, click here.

BY MICHELLE L. KLAMPE
STAFF WRITER
mklampe@pe.com

Published: 21 May 2012 10:14 PM

A record number of California schools, including 31 in the Inland Empire, may not be able to pay their bills in the next couple of years, the California Department of Education announced Monday, May 20.

Nearly 20 percent of California school districts and other local education agencies such as county education offices are in financial jeopardy, according to a list compiled by state officials using financial reports from March. The list includes 18 of 23 school districts in Riverside County and 13 of 33 school districts in San Bernardino County.

Twelve districts — none in the Inland Empire — have indicated they cannot meet their financial obligations this fiscal year or next, a budget status known as negative certification. Another 176 districts indicated they may not be able to pay their bills this year or in 2012-13 or 2013-14, a qualified certification.

Districts with a qualified budget could become insolvent within two years unless they make additional cuts or bring in more revenue. Districts with a negative budget cannot pay their bills this year or in 2012-13. Under both conditions, districts face increased supervision and sometimes intervention from the county office of education to ensure they don’t become insolvent.

The number of agencies on the financial edge has increased by 61 since the list was last released in February and up 45 over the previous year’s list, state officials said. In 2006-07, just 24 school districts had a negative or qualified certification, and none were in the Inland region.

“Having 13 is crazy,” said Dan Evans, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County office of education. “That is a stunning number that should give everybody pause to say, ‘What’s going on here?’”

State and local education officials said the dramatic increase is a by-product of the prolonged state budget crisis and the unknowns surrounding tax measures being proposed to help fund schools. Paul Jessup, deputy superintendent of the Riverside County office of education, said moving school districts back onto solid financial footing will be difficult as long as the state’s financial woes continue.

“We’re in desperate need of an honest state spending plan,” he said. “We keep on getting budgets built on hope. Hope is not a plan.”

Districts have been required since the 1990s to file two financial reports, known as interim reports, one each by Dec. 15 and March 15. Districts review their fiscal health for the current year and two subsequent years. The reports look at cash flow, reserves, deficit spending, enrollment and attendance, status of labor agreements and more.

The county office of education reviews the reports and submits them to the state Department of Education. When districts have qualified or negative certification, they face additional oversight from the county office, which can step in to veto decisions on spending. In the worst case scenarios, a school district that has run out of money can seek an emergency loan from the state Department of Education.

To read entire story, click here.

Molly Munger talks about her tax proposal earlier this year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By Steve Lopez
May 16, 2012

In March, when I wrote that the tax increase proposals by Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger were unimaginative if not doomed, I got an email from Munger.

She did not agree, at least with regard to her initiative.

“Unimaginative?” she wrote, inviting me to meet with her.

This week, I decided to take her up on her offer after watching Brown admit that the financial mess he told us about in January was nothing compared to the mess we’re in now. Frankly, I don’t know how the January estimates were so far off the mark, with a $9-billion hole turning into a $16-billion hole in less time than it takes to grow tomatoes. Why should we trust the next set of numbers Brown throws at us?

The governor’s latest proposal is for $11 billion in cuts, and they would come with a warning that if we don’t pass his temporary sales and income tax hike in November — which would raise as much as $6 billion — the suffering will intensify and public schools will be hit even harder.

Look, I know this mess isn’t Brown’s fault, but I’m getting tired of his threats and his shortsighted “fixes.” It’s like having the foundation of your house flooded by a broken water main, and the plumber suggests you spend $75 to fix the leaky bathtub faucet.

And as Munger points out, even if the public backs Brown’s plan, schools are still going to be in big, big trouble.

“We’re bleeding, and it’s a tiny Band-Aid,” she said when we met Monday afternoon at Buster’s in South Pasadena, not far from where she lives.

Her plan would raise $10 billion a year by increasing income taxes on a sliding scale, all of it to retire school bonds and support education.

Brown on the other hand would temporarily raise income taxes on the wealthy and sales taxes on everyone, but only some of it would go to schools and the rest to various other services.

Does either have a chance?

I’m not terribly optimistic, but for all the parrots out there who do nothing but chirp about how California has a spending rather than a revenue problem, the fact is that Brown’s proposed $91-billion general fund budget would be roughly 10% smaller than the budget just five years ago. And as my colleague George Skelton has pointed out, general fund spending per $100 of income is lower today than it was in Ronald Reagan’s last year as governor.

So it’s at least possible that Californians would be willing to bite the bullet and raise taxes on themselves if they thought schools would benefit. But which bullet? It’s hard to believe that having two proposals on the ballot won’t lower the odds of either one passing.

Munger told me she and Brown have chatted, and the governor “talked about how campaigns can get very tough.”

Whoa! Was the governor threatening her to back off and clear the way for him or he’d wage a nasty campaign against her?

Munger keeps her cards close. She wouldn’t answer me directly, but said rather than one of them backing off, or waging a kickboxing competition, she’d rather see a scenario in which she supports the governor’s proposal and he supports hers. Even though if his got more votes, hers would be null and void.

And?

To read entire story, click here.

Norma Torres

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 05/13/2012 01:54:51 PM PDT

Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Chino, faces three opponents in the June 5 primary race for the 52nd Assembly District seat, including a former Republican who has now registered as a Democrat.

Torres, a former Pomona mayor, is being challenged by Chino resident and restaurant owner Ray Moors, a Democrat; Pomona Planning Commissioner Kenny Coble, a Republican; and Ontario-Montclair School District board member Paul Vincent Avila, a Democrat.

If no one wins a majority of the votes cast in the primary, the top two finishers, no matter the party, will face each other in the November election.

The 61st Assembly District – Torres’ current district – is nearly identical to the new 52nd Assembly District, which includes Pomona, Claremont, La Verne, Ontario, Montclair and parts of Fontana.

Torres has introduced legislation to keep 9-1-1 dispatch calls private, to strengthen DUI laws, and to require the arrest of those caught with loaded firearms at airports.

She’s voted to support lessons about gay history in public schools and to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

Campaign donation reports show Torres has consistent support from labor organizations, with a balance of $172,858 in her campaign chest for 2012.

“I think what I’m most proud of is the outreach to my community,” Torres said. “We’ve conducted a lot of workshops and hosted coffee shop meetings for our community to come in and meet with me one-on-one. It’s a much better way to engage with my constituency.”

As a Republican running against Torres in the November 2010 election, Moors received 29,000 votes to Torres’ 44,000 votes.

For the primary, he’s running as a “conservative, pro-business” Democrat, with a platform to introduce self-insured health and workers’ compensation plans for state workers in order to create jobs and shore up the budget deficit.

Moors said the new state agency would pay for each claim instead of a premium to an insurance company.

To read entire story, click here.

BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 11 May 2012 10:04 PM

Michael Fine, Riverside Unified School District’s deputy superintendent for business services, can tick off the hard numbers of what four years of recession-era state budgets have meant for his 42,000-student district.

The district has lost $110 million and confronts an annual $20 million gap between revenue and spending. The school year, which spanned 180 instructional days before the recession, is now 176 days.

There are 187 fewer teachers and other certificated personnel, an 8 percent reduction, and all staff has had at least five days of furloughs. Class sizes have gone from 20 students to 26 in kindergarten through third grade, he said.

“We have gone so far the wrong way on this, in my opinion,” Fine said.

California’s economic struggles have lasted longer than many officials expected. In Sacramento, the budget tumult of recent years has had another result: widely differing interpretations of the statewide impact of the downturn’s toll on state programs used by tens of millions.

Both parties agree that cuts have been made. But Democrats and Republicans are billions of dollars apart in their assessments of how much the state has reduced actual spending.

A thicket of fund shifts, borrowing, payment deferrals and fluctuating federal aid that have defined recent budgets hamper comparisons of spending changes from one year to the next.

“There have been cuts, no doubt,” said deputy legislative analyst Jason Sisney of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “The truth is it’s almost impossible to track spending apples to apples. It really just shows how complicated the budget has become.”

The debate will continue after Gov. Jerry Brown releases a revised version of his January budget plan Monday that is likely to project a significantly larger deficit through June 2013.

And in the coming months, Brown, fellow Democrats and allied groups will try to persuade voters weary of the state’s budget problems that they should approve temporary sales and income taxes to help schools and other state programs, or else face midyear trigger cuts.

LAWMAKERS DIFFER

State Sen. Bill Emmerson, R-Hemet, the top Republican on the Senate budget panel, said Democrats exaggerate the scope of spending reductions to justify a need for more revenue.

Many so-called cuts, Emmerson said, have actually been backfilled by money from other state funds, the federal government, or by money from deferring payments to schools, among other steps. Some have been blocked by the courts or otherwise never took effect.

“When my Democratic colleagues talk about the general fund being reduced by $40 billion, those aren’t the numbers I see,” Emmerson said. “If you look at total general fund spending, that has not decreased. If you look at specific programs, that has ratcheted down.”

To read entire story, click here.

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/10/2012 09:02:22 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Final layoff notices for 224 teachers were approved at an emergency school board meeting Thursday so the notices could be sent before a state-mandated deadline.

The decision, made by the board of the San Bernardino City Unified School District at a sparsely attended meeting, was an expected consequence of earlier budget decisions.

The number is lower than the record 251 preliminary layoffs approved March 7, and it’s significantly higher than the number of people they think will actually be forced out.

But a combination of budget constraints and legal requirements mean teachers need to be given the notice now, said board member Judi Penman.

“I know it’s painful, and it’s painful for us, too, because we’re the bad guys,” Penman said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to retain everyone, or ask everyone to come back, but we don’t know that yet. …The bottom line is we have to follow the law.”

State law requires districts to notify teachers no later than May 14 in most cases – a day before the board’s next scheduled meeting Tuesday – if being laid off is a possibility.

Laid-off teacher Malissa Esquibel said district administrators should have worked faster to account for teachers who accepted early retirement offers, which is expected to significantly reduce the number of layoffs.

“Once they lay people off, we lose our school site, and you get seniority based on your school site,” Esquibel said. “They don’t put us on track where we used to be – they say they’re going to try but they can’t guarantee it.”

Besides extra stress, that means a greater chance of being laid off in the future, said Esquibel, a fourth-grade teacher at Muscoy Elementary who has received a preliminary layoff notice each of her four years of teaching and a final layoff twice.

Sending large numbers of “final” layoff notices and then rehiring those people before the start of the year has become an annual ritual in recent years, as districts statewide deal with tight funds and an uncertain budget based largely on numbers the Governor’s Office doesn’t release until layoff notification deadlines have passed.

To read entire story, click here.

Michel Nolan, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Posted: 05/10/2012 09:30:11 AM PDT

Former Cal Poly Pomona administrator Tomas D. Morales on Thursday was named president of Cal State San Bernardino.

“I am really excited to come out there,” said Morales, current president at the College of Staten Island, the City University of New York.

“This opportunity presented itself, and I consider the Cal State campus a special place, with such a warm community,” Morales said Thursday in a phone interview from New York.

“I am so impressed with the quality of the faculty – they are exceptional.”

Morales, 58, succeeds the retiring Al Karnig, CSUSB president since 1997.

Karnig said it is fortuitous that Morales has some experience in both student and academic affairs.

Karnig said the 15 years he has been the university’s president is a substantial period of time.

“I have a great deal of ambivalence about retiring,” he said.

Karnig has had a transformational impact on the university, according to Morales.

“I feel blessed to follow in his footsteps,” Morales said.

Morales has been an educator and administrative leader in higher education for more than 32 years.

From 2001 to 2007, Morales served in various capacities at Cal Poly Pomona, including vice president for student affairs, provost and vice president for academic affairs, professor of education and principal deputy to the president.

Cal Poly Pomona President Michael Ortiz, who worked with Morales for five years,
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said people in San Bernardino will love him.

“He’s very outgoing and makes friends easily,” Ortiz said. “He is very focused on students and meeting the needs of students. He’s an avid reader and someone you rely on to have innovative vision because of his studies of the best practices in the world.”

To read entire story, click here.

BY DAYNA STRAEHLEY
STAFF WRITER
dstraehley@pe.com

Published: 07 May 2012 10:39 PM

The Riverside Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 late Monday to send final layoff notices to 84 teachers for the 2012-13 school year, said Tim Martin, president of the Riverside City Teachers Association.

Board members Tom Hunt and Patricia Lock-Dawson opposed the resolution to lay off teachers, he said, just as they had opposed sending preliminary notices.

The 84 teachers to get final layoff notices before a May 15 deadline are among 106 who got preliminary notices before a March 15 deadline set by state education law. The district must adopt a balanced budget by June 30.

Martin said he and other teachers had hoped to convince the board to use some of the district’s reserve fund to continue the current support levels and a full school year for students in 2012-13. If voters reject tax increases proposed for the November ballot, then teachers would have been willing to discuss such budget reductions, he said.

To read entire story, click here.

Kelly Puente, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/07/2012 03:07:22 PM PDT

LONG BEACH – The California State University Board of Trustees today will again consider freezing CSU presidents’ salaries in an attempt to curb public outcry over recent pay hikes.

But critics aren’t satisfied.

The meeting at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach is expected to draw student and faculty protesters, outraged over what they say are exorbitant presidential salaries in a time of tuition hikes, enrollment freezes and cuts to courses.

Under the proposal, state- funded salaries for the 23 campus presidents would be frozen, but new presidents could still receive higher salaries than their predecessors with supplements from nonprofit campus foundations. The policy would be in effect until 2014.

Cal State San Bernardino is among those campuses that will have a new president, after Al Karnig retires in June.

A special board committee on presidential selection and compensation will discuss the proposal today, and the full board is scheduled to vote on it Wednesday.

CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said the proposal is designed to limit state funding while allowing the CSU to adjust salaries to attract top talent.

“(The CSU) is trying to be mindful of what’s going on with the state budget crisis, so we’ve frozen salaries on the state side, but we do need to compete in a national market for presidential compensation,” he said.

Campus auxiliaries would gather private donations specifically to pay for the president’s salary, he said. Scholarships, which are a primary mission of foundations, wouldn’t be affected.

The plan doesn’t limit how much compensation a president can receive in private funding, but Uhlenkamp said the CSU plans to stay within a 10 percent increase from the predecessor’s salary.

Critics said the board is simply playing a shell game. No matter who pays for the raises, it’s money that could be used to build academic programs, said Lillian Taiz, the president of the California Faculty Association, which represents 24,000 professors and other staff that haven’t had a raise since 2008.

“They’re clearly not backing away from the model of unlimited raises for campus presidents,” Taiz told The Associated Press.

To read entire story, click here.

Monday, May 7, 2012 – 10:30 a.m.

Former Massachusetts Governor and apparent Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney is displaying strength in three newly-released polls this morning.

A Politico/George Washington University/Battleground Poll gives Romney a 48%-47% lead over President Barack Obama.

Rasmussen Tracking gives Romney a 47%-45% lead.

And Gallup Tracking shows Romney with a 46%-45% edge.

This is the first time a series of polls has given Romney an ever-so-slight edge.

Two older polls by Democracy Corps and Fox News show both Romney and Obama tied at 47% and 46% respectively.

It should be noted that Romney has opened up a double-digit lead with independents.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Monday, May. 7, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Let’s get ready to rumble.

In this corner is California Gov. Jerry Brown.

In that corner is Molly Munger, a very wealthy civil rights attorney.

Brown and his union allies want voters to raise their own sales taxes, plus income taxes on the most affluent, to narrow a chronic budget gap.

Munger and the state PTA want to raise income taxes on all but the lowest-income Californians to provide more money to schools.

Brown, desperate to eliminate competition that might confuse voters, merged his initial tax proposal into that of a rival group that wanted to tax the rich even more. But his private and public efforts to push Munger aside failed.

Munger dropped $6 million into collecting signatures for her measure and assumedly is prepared to spend many millions more to pass it in November. But she probably can’t win because polls indicate that as Californians still feel the effects of severe recession, they’re unwilling to pay more taxes themselves.

Indeed, the relatively small sales tax component of Brown’s measure is a turnoff for voters and is the major reason why polling shows his overall approach enjoys less than overwhelming support. Were it just a bite on the rich – as Brown’s former rivals wanted – it would stand a better chance.

That sets up a situation in which Munger could torpedo Brown’s proposal by indirectly joining forces with the anti-tax activists who want Brown to lose but lack big money for an all-out assault.

She could do that by telling the truth. She could spend millions to amplify the theme of her recent public utterances, which is that Brown purports to help the schools with his measure, but really doesn’t do much of anything for them.

To read entire column, click here.

Kelly Puente and Ryan Hagen, Staff Writers
Posted: 05/02/2012 12:28:26 PM PDT

California State University faculty have voted to authorize a series of two-day strikes at each of the 23 campuses, if contract talks fail.

The California Faculty Association, which represents professors, librarians, counselors and other staff, announced the strike vote Wednesday at a noon news conference at Cal State Long Beach. The authorization was overwhelmingly approved by 95 percent of those who participated in a two-week voting process that ended on Friday.

“The message to Chancellor (Charles) Reed is absolutely clear: The CSU faculty have run out of patience and it is time to address the issues before us so that our faculty can get back to the business of providing quality higher education to the students of California,” said CFA President Lillian Taiz.

Inland Empire professors and students showed the same support, said Marcia Marx, president of CFA’s Cal State San Bernardino branch.

“We’ve had to take extreme measures to get our (CSU) leadership to realize that the faculty are pretty darned upset,” Marx said. “We’re rational, caring people that don’t want to be taking a lot of our time to be immersed in this. We want to do our research and teach our classes and do the things we’re good at…but we don’t want our university turning into limited access only for the wealthy.”

The decision was inevitable after 22 months of unsuccessful contract negotiations, said Michael Keith, a chemistry professor at Cal Poly Pomona.

“The problem is that the chancellor and board of trustees seem to be thinking that we’re a widget factory and the good thing is to turn out as many widgets as possible at the lowest possible cost,” Keith said, “not thinking that we’re talking about an education here and the quality of the education is important.”

The rolling strike would affect all 23 California State University campuses in the fall. Under the plan, campuses would go on strike for two days each, one immediately following another.

CSU spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said the strike vote is premature considering the union and administration have formal bargaining sessions scheduled for today and Friday.

Uhlenkamp said the administration is hopeful that a settlement can still be reached before the strike is implemented.

“(Wednesday’s) announcement is more rhetoric from CFA leadership and has no bearing on negotiations,” he said. “The CSU labor team has indicated that there are a limited number of items that still need to be resolved, so we are optimistic about a resolution that could happen in the near future.”

CSU officials said the college system is struggling to offset a $970 million loss in state funding since 2008. The 400,000-student system has cut back on admissions and raised tuition by 23 percent in recent years, spurring a string of student protests in California.

Union leaders, however, noted that the CSU board of trustees approved 10 percent pay hikes for two campus presidents in March. Last year, trustees sparked a public outcry when they approved a $400,000 compensation package for San Diego State President Elliot Hirshman, while in the same meeting also voting to raise tuition.

Key bargaining positions for the union include job security, class sizes and a stable teaching force. Union representatives said the administration has proposed to freeze faculty salaries at current levels, which haven’t changed since 2008, with a proviso that talks on pay and benefits would be reopened for 2012-13.

The union has proposed a 1 percent raise.

To read entire story, click here.

Supporters of a tax measure backed by wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger have started submitting the voter signatures they’ve collected in their qualification campaign.

The campaign announced late today that it is submitting 241,049 signatures to elections officials in Los Angeles County. Backers hope to submit signatures of 775,000 voters in all. Roughly 504,000 valid signatures are needed to qualify the proposal for the November ballot.

Campaign spokesman Nathan Ballard said supporters are wrapping up signature-gathering efforts this week. He said he is “optimistic” that they will hit that target.

Munger’s measure, which is supported by the California State PTA, would raise income taxes on a sliding scale on all but the poorest California workers for 12 years, with most of the estimated $10 billion in revenues going directly to schools and early development programs. A portion of the money would be used to pay down school bond debt for the first several years.

To read entire story, click here.

Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/02/2012 12:13:28 AM PDT

POMONA – Members of the Pomona Unified School District board of education adopted a resolution Tuesday evening authorizing district administrators to issue preliminary layoff notices to about 180 classified employees.

“This is a very difficult recommendation to make,” said Darren Knowles, Pomona Unified’s interim administrative director of personnel services.

This along with other steps is a way of addressing the difficult financial situation the district faces, he said.

School board members approved the resolution on a 4-1 vote. Board member Frank Guzman voted against the resolution.

Classified employees include clerical staff, maintenance personnel and instructional aids.

Among those most affected by the noticing process will be campus security assistants, child development instructional aids and clerk typists.

Originally the list of affected employees contained 200 positions but was lowered to 180.

Knowles said originally 54 campus security assistants, commonly referred to as proctors, were going to be issued notices but the number was reduced to 34.

The 20 positions cut will become 20 newly created campus security officer positions.

The positions will require special training and those who fill the positions will have to pass a physical agility test, Knowles said.

Gradually all campus security assistant positions will be phased out in favor of the security officer post ions, he said.

The new positions will be phased in at the district’s high schools and with time security officers will be placed at middle and elementary schools as part of a programs modeled after one at Chaffey Joint Union High School District, Knowles said.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 2, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Thousands of California teachers were given layoff notices a few weeks ago because state law requires the slips to be sent out each spring if administrators and trustees believe cuts are needed to balance their budgets.

Later this month, the districts must decide whether to continue or rescind those layoffs on the assumption that by then they’ll know the state of their 2012-13 finances.

That’s problematic in any year, because the Legislature, which supplies most of the schools’ money, typically doesn’t settle the state budget until weeks or even months later.

A law passed by voters in 1988 is supposed to govern what schools receive, but its numbers are subject to annual manipulation, such as “deferring” payments for a year or more.

State and local school financing has dropped by about $700 per pupil since 2008 and 20 percent of state appropriations are being deferred, thus requiring districts to use their reserves or borrow money.

This mess precludes even diligent officials from making rational decisions about staffing levels, building maintenance or other cost factors. At best, they can only guess and hope to adjust if they’re wrong.

This year is even worse than usual.

The 2011-12 budget assumed revenues that everyone knew at the time were most likely falsely optimistic – and that’s proved to be the case. The 2012-13 budget now being formulated will assume that voters pass Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax package in November, and he’s hinging passage on the false assertion that it will give a big boost to schools.

As the Legislature’s budget analyst and others have pointed out, passage of taxes would give K-12 education only $2.2 billion to catch up on some deferrals, not any new operational funding.

To read entire story, click here.

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/29/2012 03:53:26 PM PDT

Cal State San Bernardino student Natalie Dorado and 12 students from other state university campuses plan to go on a hunger strike Wednesday until university officials discuss freezing tuition, reducing administrators’ compensation and other demands.

The students will only consume fluids from then until members of the California State University board of trustees meet with the students and seriously consider four demands that Students for Quality Education said they first made March 20, leaders of the student union said.

“We’re striking until they meet with us to discuss these demands and provide legitimate feedback,” said Dorado, 22, student intern for the CSUSB chapter of Students for Quality Education. “We want a meeting that has substance – we don’t want a meeting where they listen to us and nod their heads.

“I’m definitely optimistic they’ll see these are good changes.”

The university system is suffering from a loss of state funding, but the proposed solutions demonstrate poor understanding of the situation, said Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesman for the Chancellor’s Office.

“We’re advocating for re-investment by the state in higher education, and we will do so next week in Sacramento,” Uhlenkamp said Friday. “Tuition increases are a direct reflection of what happens with the budget.”

The student union, which is affiliated with the California Faculty Association but said it is acting independently, lists four demands for the 23 Cal State campuses:

A five-year moratorium on fee increases.

Eliminate housing and car allowances.

Reduce administration and executive salaries to 1999 levels.

Remove all restrictions to free speech on campus.

The free speech restrictions, which involve a one-hour limit on “sound” during protests and a 30-minute limit to the public comment period at state trustee meetings, weren’t problems at the Inland Empire’s two CSU campuses, leaders there said.

But Dorado’s brother, Daniel, the student intern for the Cal Poly Pomona chapter of SQE, said he supported the four demands as a first step and a symbol.

“We want to see action – we want to see change,” he said. “We’re not waiting for them to mull it over. This isn’t something to take lightly.”

To read entire story, click here.

Sunday, April 29, 2012 – 09:30 a.m.

Here’s some interesting factoids from across the financial and political transom:

First Quarter GDP Revised Lower

First quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was revised lower last week to 2.2%. The revised number was mainly supported by strong auto sales. A component that may not be sustainable looking ahead.

Why? Consumer spending has been outpacing non-existent wage growth.

Neither California Tax Initiative Garnering Necessary Early Support

Two tax initiatives proposed by California Governor Jerry Brown and Millionaire Attorney Molly Munger don’t appear to be gong over well with voters.

In a recent statewide poll Brown’s plan, which raises $6-9 billion in new revenue for the general fund, barely garners more than 50%. Munger’s idea, of raising taxes to directly fund education, polls even worse.

As a rule of thumb, propositions need to be polling north of 55% heading into an election period. So both measures still have time until early October absentee ballots hit voters.

But it doesn’t look good for either.

Miller Hitting Mailboxes Hard in CD-31

Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) is hitting mailboxes hard in the newly redrawn 31st Congressional District. Miller is working to introduce himself to voters in areas he hasn’t traditionally represented.

Miller’s campaign war-chest of more than $1 million is creating a definite advantage for him over Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga).

Upland Corruption Case Closing With A Thud

Former Upland Mayor John “J.P.” Pomierski’s guilty plea to a federal bribery charge was met with a sort of anti-climax this week. He will likely be sentenced to somewhere between 18 to 28 months in federal prison in August. The final defendant in the case, Anthony Orlando Sanchez, is expected to plead guilty this week.

Is the ARMC Investigation Up Next?

More than a year ago federal agents swooped down on San Bernardino County-owned and Operated Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) with search warrants in hand.

Boxes of evidence was seized.

The focus was reportedly the improper administering of free services to various officials and V.I.P.’s.

It’s been all quiet on the investigation front. But it was rumored months ago that no action would be taken on the ARMC matter until the Upland corruption case had concluded.

Super PAC’s Weigh In For Mitzelfelt, Miller

So far congressional candidates Brad Mitzelfelt (R-Wrightwood) and Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) have been the only two candidates to garner welcome independent expenditure support for their campaigns by way of Super PAC’s.

Miller, who is running in CD-31, received a boost from National Realtors Congressional Fund, while Mitzelfelt, who is running in CD-8, received a smaller, but welcome, boost from the Jobs and Opportunity Freedom PAC.

State Assemblyman Paul Cook, who is also running in CD-8, can’t be too pleased about this development.

Munger

BY JEFF HORSEMAN
STAFF WRITER
jhorseman@pe.com

Published: 28 April 2012 07:31 PM
A Text Size

The woman behind a state ballot measure that would raise income taxes to boost public school funding told Inland Democrats on Saturday that her initiative would do more for children than a competing tax plan offered by Gov. Jerry Brown.

“If there’s one thing that’s built America, it’s investing in our public education,” Molly Munger told a meeting of the Democratic Luncheon Club of San Bernardino at Elks Lodge No. 836 in that city.

“We’re going to be able to make a transformational investment in our schools.”

A civil rights attorney with a liberal advocacy group that has offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento, Munger has spent at least $6 million of her own money — including on television ads — to promote “Our Children, Our Future,” an initiative she’s trying to get on the November ballot.

Her father is Charles Munger, a vice president at Berkshire Hathaway. The company’s CEO, Warren Buffett, recently advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy, noting he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.

The measure calls for raising income taxes on a sliding scale over 12 years for nearly all incomes to generate more than $10 billion annually for public schools and early childhood education. The state PTA has endorsed the plan.

Munger’s presentation Saturday included a chart stating a family of four earning $50,000 or less would pay nothing in new taxes after deductions on a joint return. The same family with $1.5 million in income would pay $26,354 more, according to the chart.

The funds would bypass Sacramento lawmakers and go directly to local schools. About a third of the money in the first four years would go toward paying down state bond debt.

The initiative faces competition in November from Brown’s plan, which would raise California’s sales tax a quarter cent for five years and raise income taxes for seven years for people earning more than $250,000 a year.

Some of Brown’s supporters have asked Munger to drop her proposal so it doesn’t take votes from Brown’s plan. In an interview before her speech, Munger said she will not back down and the 504,000 or so signatures needed to put her initiative on the ballot will be submitted in the next 10 days.

To read entire story, click here.

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/27/2012 07:31:51 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Associate Superintendent Mel Albiso, a 22-year veteran of the school district who in recent years was sometimes the target of heavy criticism from employees, has accepted an early retirement offer.

Albiso, 56, will retire at the end of the school year and receive an annuity for five years based on his salary of $151,188 per year.

The school board made the offer, known as a Supplemental Early Retirement Plan, or SERP, to all employees of the San Bernardino City Unified School District as a cost-saving measure to reduce the number of employees and minimize layoffs.

“I’ve been contemplating retirement, and I think this is what’s best for the kids and the district,” Albiso said. “It was never my intent
to stick around too much longer.”

The board accepted Albiso’s offer April 3.

That’s less than a year after Albiso accepted last year’s SERP but was lured back when board members offered 7percent compensation increases to him and John Peukert, assistant superintendent of facilities and operations, to prevent their retirements.

The district needed their experience and would spend more if they gave SERPs to the two administrators and hired replacements, the six board members who approved that deal argued amid heavy criticism at the time.

All of the four members who remain on the board and Danny Tillman, the only member to vote against it, were unavailable or declined to comment on the changed circumstances this year.

Albiso said Friday that top administrators hired in the summer of 2011 now had the experience to lead the district effectively.

“I think they’ll be fine,” he said. “They have some new assistant (superintendents) in, and that’s what they told me, is they wanted some cabinet-level stabilization.”

To read entire story, click here.

SAN BERNARDINO – Scratch another $300,000 from the school district budget.

Following its earlier ruling that former Personnel Director Abe Flory was wrongfully terminated and should be given more than $550,000 in back pay and interest, the Personnel Commission decided Wednesday that the San Bernardino City Unified School District must pay Flory’s legal costs – more than $250,000 in attorney fees and nearly $13,000 in court reporter fees.

The independent panel, which is tasked with ensuring the district follows the merit system, also extended his back pay from February – when a hearing officer recommended giving him back his roughly $120,000-per-year job more than four years after he was fired and calculated how much he’d accrued during that time – to his first day on the job.

Flory is expected to start May 1.

But district officials, who have long disagreed with the commission over the extent of its powers, were at a conference Thursday and Friday and did not say whether they would challenge the decision.

Flory said he looked forward to starting soon and pushing for a stronger merit system.

“This is a victory for me, but also for classified workers and the merit system,” said Flory, who was fired after 29 alleged acts that district officials described as insubordination, dishonesty and unwillingness to perform his job but Flory characterized as whistle-blowing.

The district had resisted paying Flory’s attorney fees, which covered a team of four lawyers earning up to $425 an hour. By contrast, the district’s lawyers charged $185 an hour, but billed more than three times as many hours, for a total charge just under $400,000.

A lot of good money was wasted on the case, said commission Chairman Gino Barabani.

To read entire story, click here.

California voters are inclined to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s sales and income tax increase, but by a less than overwhelming margin, a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California has found.

The PPIC poll of likely voters found 54 percent in favor of Brown’s tax measure, for which signatures are now being gathered, and 39 percent opposed. The poll also indicated that a rival measure sponsored by civil rights attorney Molly Munger and the state PTA to raise income taxes on most taxpayers for schools faces an uphill struggle.

Brown has attempted to persuade Munger to drop her initiative, but she’s poured millions of dollars into signature-gathering and is likely to turn in signatures soon.

Brown has portrayed his measure as one that would save schools from massive cuts, building on an assumption — confirmed by the PPIC poll — that K-12 education is the most popular area of the state budget. But Munger contends that Brown’s measure would actually give schools little or no new money.

To read entire story, click here.

By Ed Mendel
Monday, April 23, 2012

An annual look at CalSTRS, the nation’s second largest public pension system, once again raises the question of whether there is an urgent need to begin putting more money into the pension fund.

Actuaries estimate that the total annual contribution to the pension system, 19.4 percent of payroll, would have to be increased by an additional 12.9 percent of pay (about $3.25 billion) to fully fund pensions promised over the next three decades.

Each year that a contribution increase is delayed, the additional amount needed for full funding is expected to grow roughly half of one percent of pay, Milliman actuaries Nick Collier and Mark Olleman told the CalSTRS board earlier this month.

“Each year we defer there is an additional cost . . . all other things being equal,” Collier said.

Unlike nearly all public pension systems in California, the California State Teachers Retirement System lacks the power to set annual contribution rates that must be paid by employers, needing legislation instead.

So arguably CalSTRS, continuing a five-year quest for a rate increase, might have a tendency to paint a bleak financial picture, hoping to prod legislative action without unduly alarming teachers, who rely on pensions and receive no federal Social Security.

A CalSTRS news release on the actuarial report, based on data as of last June 30, focused on a growing pension shortfall. The projected assets only cover 69 percent of costs expected over the next three decades, down from 71 percent in the previous year.

The funding shortfall is $64.5 billion, up from $56 billion. The gap widened, despite stellar investment earnings last fiscal year (23 percent), due in part to lowering the annual earnings forecast from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent in the decades ahead.

The funding level and the shortfall or “unfunded liability” are standard measures of pension fund health. And CalSTRS is indeed underwater: The fund peaked at $180 billion in 2007, dropped to $112 billion in 2009 and was $152 billion last February.

But it’s important to remember that the new “unfunded liability” of $64.5 billion is only a floating estimate of the shortfall, not an actual debt that must be paid like a 30-year mortgage.

The big variable is the earnings forecast. The huge CalSTRS shortfall is mainly due to earnings that averaged 5.5 percent during the last decade, well below the old forecast of 7.75 percent.

Critics say a CalSTRS board decision in February to lower the earnings forecast to 7.75 percent is still overly optimistic, concealing massive debt. Whether earnings targets can be hit is part of the debate about “sustainable” public pensions.

Just as being 2 percentage points under the target created the CalSTRS shortfall, the Milliman actuaries estimate that earnings averaging 2 points above the target, 9.6 percent, would fully fund CalSTRS in 30 years without a contribution increase.

More dramatically, CalSTRS could be fully funded without a contribution increase in five years if earnings averaged 16 percent.

“It’s not impossible,” said Collier. “But it’s not realistic to expect investment returns to bring us out of it.”

CalSTRS building in West Sacramento

CalSTRS, one of the nation’s oldest public pension funds, was formed in 1913 and has its centennial next year. Part of its long history is recovering from funding levels less than half of the current 69 percent — a scant 29 percent in 1975.

“One of the things that has come up when we have had discussions with stakeholders and the Legislature about the issue is ‘Why can’t you invest your way out of it?’ You did it before,” Ed Derman, CalSTRS deputy chief executive, told the board.

Among the changes as CalSTRS matured, said the actuaries, is the value of the investment fund compared to the size of the payroll. The ratio was about one to one in 1975, but now the investment fund assets are about six times greater than the payroll.

The Milliman actuaries, following the lead of the California Public Employees Retirement System and a new state actuarial advisory panel, included an “asset volatility ratio” in the new report to show how small losses create the need for bigger contributions.

To read entire story, click here.

Ramos

Thursday, April 19, 2012 – 10:15 a.m.

The former chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has some bumps in the road ahead in his quest for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, according to sources.

James Ramos, who is challenging Third District Supervisor Neil Derry, is about to feel the baggage from underneath the train, all courtesy of his voting record on the San Bernardino Community College District Board of Trustees, where he currently serves as an elected member.

According to official minutes, Ramos is apparently playing a part in a board policy to pay its elected members for meetings they don’t even show up for.

Even himself.

The meeting stipend currently sits at $400 per meeting.

An amount that’s a pittance for a man like Ramos who earns in excess of $1.5 million per year from his Indian Gambling casino.

The practice smells of arrogance.

Especially when its public education money being spent.

Another little tidbit involves sending college students in buses to attend protests in Sacramento.

Yes, Ramos voted with his colleagues to pay for buses to ship students to the State Capitol to engage in protests.

Like we’ve said here before.

One can’t make this stuff up!

Molly Munger, the wealthy tax proponent whose initiative has frustrated Gov. Jerry Brown, has launched a second ad portraying her measure as an outsider effort.

With upbeat music and a young girl as narrator, the 30-second “Our Children, Our Future” ad attacks Brown’s plan without ever referencing it. Munger’s initiative would hike income taxes on all but the poorest residents along a sliding scale to raise $10 billion annually.

Of efforts to fix schools, the ad says, “We’ve waited years for the politicians to do it. Now, we can do it ourselves. Our Children, Our Future sends every K-12 dollar straight to our schools, not to Sacramento.”

Munger has contributed $6 million so far to the campaign, which must gather 504,760 signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot. The campaign said the $1.2 million ad buy will air on broadcast and cable stations in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Spokesman Nathan Ballard said the campaign is “on track” to qualify its measure.

To read entire story, click here.

BY SANDRA STOKLEY
STAFF WRITER
sstokley@pe.com

Published: 14 April 2012 05:22 PM

School bus driver Gina Meese smiled faintly as she talked about one of her pint-size elementary school passengers.

“Every day, he gets off the bus, turns around and says ‘Goodbye Mrs. Bus Driver. I’ll see you tomorrow ,’ “ she said.

“I don’t know what I’ll say to him on that last day of school,” she added.

At the end of this semester, Meese, 54, will be one of 18 school bus drivers laid off; the result of the Jurupa Unified School District curtailing bus service for most middle and high school students. Elementary service will remain.

Jurupa is the latest Inland-area school district to totally or partially cut home-to-school bus service in the face of staggering state budget cuts and soaring transportation costs.

The Lake Elsinore Unified School District board voted earlier this year to eliminate all busing except for special education students, which is required under federal law. Other districts that have either cut transportation services entirely or partially or increased walking distances to eliminate some routes include Riverside Unified, Corona-Norco Unified, San Jacinto Unified, Redlands Unified and Alvord Unified.

The Moreno Valley Unified School District and Menifee Union School District both are scheduled to take up the issue this month.

All of which leaves drivers and officials of the union that represents them wondering if the big, yellow school bus is becoming an endangered species on Inland roads.

“It certainly sounds like it,” said Allan Clark, president of the California School Employees Association, which represents support employees, including between 8,500 and 9,000 transportation workers, the majority of whom are bus drivers.

State budget cuts

State transportation funding, like most education funding, is in a state of flux as Gov. Jerry Brown and legislators grapple with a multibillion dollar deficit.

One major issue is that in the post-Prop. 13 era in California, state money has not fully funded transportation costs. School districts must subsidize the cost of home-to-school busing out of the general fund used to pay salaries and day-to-day school expenses.

In January, 2012, Brown cut $248 million in state funding for transportation as part of trigger cuts mandated if state revenue fell short of projections.

That money was later restored by legislators. Brown cut transportation money from the 2012-2013 budget he proposed in January.

But in budget hearings, Department of Finance representatives promised the money would be restored for 2012-2013, although not specifically targeted for transportation. That means districts are free to use it for any purpose.

Clark said that as more and more districts ponder how much district money — if any — they want to spend on transportation, school officials need to keep in mind that much more is at stake than simply keeping the buses on the road and saving bus driver jobs.

“Transportation cuts concern us due to safety issues and a student’s ability to get to school,” Clark said. “We know through many years of collecting data that in California, a school bus is the safest transportation to school. It’s even safer than parents driving.”

Experienced driver

To read entire story, click here.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
April 12, 2012

With just weeks left to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot, civil rights attorney Molly Munger has poured another $2.15 million into her proposal to raise income taxes to fund schools.

Munger, president of The Advancement Project, is the sole financier of the “Our Children, Our Future Measure.” The proposal would raise taxes on a sliding scale for almost all California earners, routing the revenues directly to school districts and early childhood development programs.

Supporters of Gov. Jerry Brown’s rival tax measure, which would temporarily raise income taxes on high earners and increase the state sales tax by a quarter percent, have tried to persuade Munger to drop her measure to avoid confusion and mixed messaging that could arise with more than one tax hike in front of voters in November.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

The Capitol is preoccupied with Gov. Jerry Brown’s efforts to persuade voters to raise taxes and the complicating effects of a rival tax measure sponsored by civil rights attorney Molly Munger.

With deadlines looming, will Brown and his union allies collect enough signatures to place their measure on the June ballot? Will Munger cave in to pressure from Brown, et al., to back off? If both are on the ballot, would it doom both?

The uncertainty is paralyzing the Capitol as legislative leaders refuse to mop up the red ink that’s already leaking from the current year’s budget.

The 2011-12 budget was “balanced” – quotation marks denoting its flimsy use – last year on a last-minute, miraculous assumption that the state would receive an extra $4 billion in revenue, despite the lack of any credible evidence, thereby allowing legislators to be paid.

A few months later, the administration downgraded its income forecast but, as a new report from Controller John Chiang shows, revenue is running below even those lower numbers.

Nevertheless Capitol politicians are still crossing their fingers, hoping that a surge in income taxes in April will shield them from cutting more spending.

In other words, they’re hoping for another miracle whose chances are somewhere between minuscule and none.

The current assumption is that the state will get a $9.1 billion injection of in- come taxes this month, on top of the $33.6 billion received the previous nine months – an immense $438 million every working day.

However, according to a daily count maintained by Chiang’s office, April receipts have never reached that level on any day. The average per working day through Monday was $132 million.

To read entire story, click here.

By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B

CalSTRS’ investments earned big profits last year, but the gap between its assets and its obligations to pensioners still widened, according to figures its board will discuss later this week.

Although the California State Teachers’ Retirement System earned about 22 percent on its money for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, its unfunded liabilities rose $8.5 billion to $64.5 billion.

Despite the strong returns, CalSTRS Deputy CEO Ed Derman said during a Tuesday conference call that the fund still needs a cash infusion to fulfill pension promises to its members long-term.

“We can’t reasonably expect to invest our way out of it,” Derman said, estimating the fund would need to rattle off three decades of 10 percent annual returns to climb out of the hole through investments alone.

In the report scheduled for Thursday’s CalSTRS board meeting, actuaries said the unfunded share rose from 29 percent at the end of 2009-10 to 31 percent last year in part because of losses carried over from stock market crash.

CalSTRS also lowered its investment return expectations by a quarter-point and allocated money to a supplemental benefits account. Those moves added about $4.5 billion more in unfunded obligations.

To read entire story, click here.