Free Republic

There are supposed to be two ways to close a deficit: raise taxes or cut spending. But a move is afoot in the Legislature to trim California’s budget shortfall through Sacramento's time-honored third way: making rosier revenue assumptions. The Legislative Analyst's Office gave lawmakers just such an opening. Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) said Thursday that Republicans and Democrats alike had agreed to cut $1.4 billion from the deficit by penciling in the rosier revenue forecast by the LAO, which anticipates more tax revenue than is projected by the state Department of Finance.

Six out of nine regions in California have a shortage of primary care physicians, and the problem may be worsening: With nearly 30 percent of our physicians more than 60 years old, more doctors are nearing retirement here than in any other state. The findings are part of a report on the state's physician supply, published last week by the California HealthCare Foundation. The report highlights geographic, ethnic and linguistic disparities among California's residents and physicians, as well as how the state compares to the rest of the nation. California's ratio of physicians to population increased 7 percent from 1998...

Just as education experts are encouraging more classroom time to improve student grades and test scores, many California districts are moving in the opposite direction by shortening their school year amid a sustained and draining budget crisis. Sixteen of the state's 30 largest school districts, including San Francisco, San Jose and Fremont in the Bay Area, are reducing the number of days in the academic year, according to a survey by California Watch. The changes are expected to affect about 1.4 million students. Educators say a shrinking school year, along with other cuts, could depress hard-won academic gains in recent...

One of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County has come under public scrutiny for paying its top officials some of the highest salaries in the nation, including almost $800,000 annually for its city manager. The city of Bell pays Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo $787,637 annually, and also pays police Chief Randy Adams $457,000 a year, about 50 percent more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck or Sheriff Lee Baca make, the Los Angeles Times reported. Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia is paid $376,288 annually, which is more than most city managers are paid. Rizzo, who has run...

Story at link: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/18/2897609/californias-pioneering-e-waste.html#ixzz0u9NMWP00

For the last seven years, demands that state worker pay be reduced when California has no budget have been met with a consistent response from union-friendly state controllers: Their computer can't do the math. It's an argument that has outraged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bemused computer experts and elicited the skepticism of various court judges — especially as the payroll system has adapted to other complex programming tasks, such as calculating dozens of raises for unionized employees and slashing the pay of elected officials and their appointees to zero during Sacramento's budget crises. Although many computer experts agree that the state's...

California lost far more jobs last year than the state initially reported, according to a new report that provides an early glimpse into statewide employment trends. That would translate into 292,000 more lost jobs. "If it comes to that number, it would be one of the biggest revisions ever," said Paul Wessen, an economist with the state EDD. "I can't remember a revision this big since the early 1990s, when we lost a lot of aerospace jobs."