California update

In major cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown slashes services for poor, sick and elderly

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. 

The governor signed the new laws to tackle $11.2 billion of the state's estimated $26-billion deficit, even as he scrambled to find Republican support for the other half of his budget plan: a ballot measure asking voters' blessing to renew expiring taxes. Time is running out to place such a measure on the June ballot, he said. 

State officials will now begin notifying many Californians that their government benefits are to be cut within 90 days — at just about the start of the new budget year. Come July, welfare grants will be reduced by 8%, and parents will be kicked off the rolls after four years instead of the current five.

California budget: GOP leader presents Brown with demands as stalemate continues

Budget talks in Sacramento appeared no closer to completion Friday, but the dynamics were quickly shifting and nerves were fraying as the stalemate has now dragged on two weeks past Gov. Jerry Brown's initial deadline. 

Brown needs a handful of Republicans to place a tax measure on the June ballot in order to close roughly half the state's budget deficit. The governor signed budget-cutting legislation Thursday to close $11.2 billion of the estimated $26-billion shortfall. 

But the top Democrat in the state Senate threatened Friday to "pull the plug" on negotiations on a tax measure. Hours later, Republicans delivered a refined set to demands to the governor.

California budget: Republicans release list of demands

Capitol Journal: California must enforce 'use' law — now

Two ways to a tax vote

Gov. Jerry Brown seems determined to let voters, not legislators, decide whether to extend a set of temporary tax increases in lieu of making deeper cuts in state services. So if he can't persuade a handful of Republican lawmakers to schedule a ballot measure on the tax extensions in June, he may mount a petition drive to put the issue before voters in November. The delay might reduce the chances of the measure passing, but it's still a better option than the all-cuts budget that Brown previously described as the only alternative.

California employers could be hit with big tax bill for jobless benefits, auditor warns. 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.

Pension, healthcare deal reached with L.A.'s largest city union

A death sentence in California rarely leads to an execution. Let's stop the charade.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have given Alcala and the others the alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Had I done that, Robin's mother, Marianne, would have been spared the pain of 30 appeals and writs and retrial. She could have dealt then and there with the fact that her daughter's killer would be shut away, never again to see a day of freedom, and gone on to put her life together. And the people of California would have not have had to pay many millions of tax dollars in this meaningless and ultimately fruitless pursuit of death. 

It makes me angry to have been made a player in a system so inefficient, so ineffective, so expensive and so emotionally costly. 

I watch today as Gov. Brown wrestles with the massive debt that is suffocating our state and hear him say he doesn't want to "play games." But I cringe when I learn that not playing games amounts to cuts to kindergarten, cuts to universities, cuts to people with special needs — and I hear no mention of the simple cut that would save hundreds of millions of dollars, countless man-hours, unimaginable court time and years of emotional torture for victim's family members waiting for that magical sense of "closure" they've been falsely promised with death sentences that will never be carried out.

Allowing phones in the cells might be a sound call

California adds nearly 100,000 jobs in February as hiring accelerates

A hiring surge led by California's hallmark industries — high tech, movies and tourism — generated nearly 100,000 net new jobs in February and offered the strongest sign yet that the state economy is on the mend. 

The 96,500-job jump was the biggest monthly increase since the current record system began in 1990, state officials said. California had added a paltry 700 jobs in January.

Mayor's deal with big union could spur agreements with other city workers

California employers could be hit with big tax bill for jobless benefits, auditor warns

Billion-dollar Wilshire Grand project could light up downtown Los Angeles with ads

Record Sierra Nevada Snow and Agricultural Impacts

New L.A. schools chief to take lower pay

While screaming about taxes, consider a few other issues. Many readers blame illegal immigrants for California's fiscal mess. But an analyst says the state's woes have more to do with high medical costs for the elderly and an outdated property tax system.