July 31st, 2010

State workers are getting the cut again as furloughs are coming back in to effect. Less than a month after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ended furlough days , he is bringing them back for the more than 200,000 state workers. Several state workers employee unions sued to block the order , but a Sacramento court in 2009 agreed that the crisis was an emergency which allowed the governor to mandate furloughs to address it. This new scaled down version of the previous policy will take effect Sunday. This order marks the third time Schwarzenegger has cut state employees pay and hours.

The decision was made this week to reinstate the furloughs after Controller John Chiang stated that he would start issuing IOU’s in August or September in attempts to conserve funds. The states funds could run out as soon as October.

Like the previous furlough policy the new policy laid out in Executive Order S-12-10 requires state employees to take three unpaid days off per month with no termination date set. Furloughs could end when lawmakers pass the 2010-2011 budget which could be weeks or months after the legislature reconvenes next week. Around 156,000 state employees are covered by the new program which will reduce that staes monthly payroll costs around $147 million per month , around $80 million of that being general fund savings.

As with the last furlough policy GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger exempted employees with the Department of Forestry , Fire Protection , and California Highway Patrol. Also exempted are employees at the Board of Equalization , Franchise Tax Board , State Compensation Insurance Fund , Employment Development Board , California Housing Finance Authority, and California Earthquake Authority. The order also excludes around 37,000 state workers in six unions , also including those representing Firefighters ands Highway Patrol Officers that recently reached tentative labor agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration.

So once again state employees will make up for the shortcomings of the failed budget and pay for it out of there own pockets.

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July 15th, 2010

We have some raw data we are still working on. Covering California State Expenses & Revenues for the following years

We will see about making some graphs / reports out of the data soon.

For now.

Historical_Expenditures_May_2010_Source.csv
Historical_Expenditures_Source.xls
Historical_Revenues.html
Historical_Expenditures_May_2010_Source.html
Historical_Personnel_Years.csv
Historical_Revenues.xls
Historical_Expenditures_May_2010_Source.xls
Historical_Personnel_Years.html
Historical_Expenditures_Pivot.xls
Historical_Personnel_Years.xls
Historical_Expenditures_Source.csv
Historical_Revenues.csv

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June 16th, 2010

State workers who are already suffering with furloughs , pay cuts , and even layoffs are getting hit in the pockets yet again.  State workers can expect an increase of up to and possibly more than 16 percent to there health care premiums.

Tuesday a CalPERS committee suggested an assortment of health care premium increases as well as other measures to rein in its rising health care costs to its 1.3 million public employees , retirees , and there families. The state and its unions are fighting for new contracts to find out how much of the $6.7 billion premium costs will be passed on to them. These new costs are sure to bring some already struggling families down even farther.

The rates for basic plans for preferred provider organizations (PPO’s) are going to increase 8.7 percent and rates for a basic plan through the health maintenance organizations (HMO’s) will rise 10.6 percent. The premiums for medicare beneficiaries are set to go up 3.4 percent. For the people that are electing to use some Blue Shield policies these times can be even harder for them as the rates for the company’s Access Plan will rise 16.4 percent and even higher in some areas.

CalPERS is expected to put measures in place to encourage beneficiaries to help cut costs such as using lower cost hospitals and also by filling more prescriptions by mail.

The committee declined some of the recommended staff changes , such as penalizing those who opt to buy name brand drugs instead of generics. Though the changes in the the benefits will save many millions of dollars , how much was being determined Tuesday night in preparation for today’s meeting for the CalPERS Board Of Administration. The board will then decide whether or not to accept the recommendations of the committee.

It was predicted earlier this week that most workers and companies will see a 9 percent increase to there health care premiums next year. Once again kicking the state employee while they are already down and taking money from there pockets.

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June 15th, 2010

Your Kids Are Suffering

California schools have been seeing more and more cuts over the past few years and it is getting worse. These cuts are affecting your child’s current well being and future to close a minor gap in the current budget deficit and take more from your pocket.

A survey was recently taken in the California school districts , county offices and charter schools to see how they are managing there budgets. This survey was returned by 387 of those agencies which represents 26 percent of the statewide enrollment.

Almost half of these surveys indicated that they reduced the number of teachers , increasing the evermore growing class sizes reducing the effectiveness of your child’s education. The current unemployment rate is already at a historical high of 12.6 percent and growing. Laying off all these teachers is leaving them nowhere to go , no jobs for them to obtain , and forcing them to obtain unemployment. This is not completely solving the budget deficit merely shifting it from one category to another at the expense of our children.

They also have reduced and in some cases eliminated school nurses causing the low income families that are already struggling , to seek medical attention for there children from local hospitals that could have otherwise been administered at school costing parents more money that they already do not have. Also forcing some of these nurses and medical staff to obtain unemployment while searching for jobs.

They have also reported they have had to cut art classes , music classes , and electives. These are very important classes for shaping the future of your child which now have to be obtained publicly at the expense of the parent and taking even more from your pocket. Most of the lower and middle class citizens will not be able to afford to obtain the classes for there children hurting not only the kids currently but also hurting our future.

We need to re-evaluate these budget cut decisions to our children’s education , teachers , staff , and our futures and find a solution that will help solve the budget not displace it.

The top five cuts are as follows:

• Building, grounds maintenance: 65 percent
• District administration: 58 percent
• Instructional materials: 58 percent
• Counselors, Nurses, Psychologists:
  48 percent
• Art, music and drama: 48 percent

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June 12th, 2010

Calwork’s is currently on the chopping blocks and is set to be cut this year. This will make California the only state that does not have a welfare to work program. There are currently 1.4 million people on the Calwork’s program , two thirds of those people are children. The elimination of this program could cost mothers to lose or quit there jobs due to the loss of child care subsidies and be forced to leave children home alone. This could also cause families to live in shelters that will no longer be able to afford rent.

The maximum grant that two children and a mother can receive in Sacramento is currently $661. This is already less than it was in 1988.

Effective in July adults that are showing no sings of improving or the initiative will be dropped from the program in three months. Also to the parents that do not comply with the programs rules there children’s grants will be cut 25 percent after six months and 50 percent after nine months.

The elimination of Calwork’s would save the states budget 1.6 billion dollars that makes up roughly 2.4 percent of the states budget which is already lower than the 3 percent that it was in 1999. This will shift as much as 1 billion in costs to the local counties which are required by law to provide assistance to low income families. The elimination of Calwork’s is estimated to cost roughly 14,000 county employees who administer Calworks to loose there jobs and around 90,000 Calwork’s clients to loose there jobs.

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June 5th, 2010

Americas Health Care Bill I’m still trying to read it all,

How many people out there do not have adobe acrobat these days?

I have converted the document to word and pasted it below for those who don’t have acrobat.

◊Americas Health Care 111 hr4872 Word Doc

Currently working through the prescription section.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Americas Debt
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