Governor Jerry Brown rolled out his proposed budget for the next fiscal year this morning. After voters supported Prop 30 last November, he was emboldened to make K-12 and higher education a big part of his plan for spending the state’s money. To break down all of the Governor’s proposals, KALW’s Hana Baba called longtime Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters.
Earlier today Governor Jerry Brown announced that he had reached a deal with state lawmakers that would mean sweeping changes for California’s public pensions system, and affect hundreds of thousands of state workers. The new rules would cap pensions while increasing the amount employees pay in; they would also increase the retirement age by up to seven years.
Thousands of Californians spent years working for city governments and are now collectively owed billions of dollars in retiree health care benefits. But a new study by the nonprofit research group California Common Sense finds that many cities, including Oakland and San Francisco, haven’t ever set aside money to pay these costs.
