On their first day again from summer season recess, California lawmakers made clear that the finances crunch isn’t over.
The Senate appropriations committee despatched dozens upon dozens of payments — which have a price ticket of at the least $50,000 to $150,000 and which will even be politically dicey — to the dreaded suspense filethe place many might die rapidly on Aug. 15.
CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn experiences that lots of the payments had been additionally opposed by the governor’s Division of Finance, together with ones that value comparatively little in California phrases. Amongst them:
The Meeting appropriations committee meets Wednesday. The 2 committees culled tons of of payments in Might’s suspense file hearings, additionally because of the deficit. To stability the 2024-25 finances, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom needed to make widespread cuts and dip into reserves.
One purpose for state spending will increase: Essential contracts with worker unions.
On Saturday, the union representing state scientists stated that it has reached a tentative labor settlement with the Newsom administration, after a four-year battle for higher pay and advantages. Assemblymember Liz Ortegaa Hayward Democrat and chairperson of the labor committee, stated a contract was “long overdue.”
If the deal is ratified later this month by the almost 5,000 members of the California Affiliation of Skilled Scientists, they are going to get a retroactive wage bump of at the least 9.2% and as a lot as 23% over the following three years. The union at one level sought raises of as much as 43%. It walked out final November (thought-about the state’s first civil servant strike), then rejected a suggestion in December to extend pay by as a lot as 10%. One main purpose for the holdout: The pay inequities between the 5,600 scientistsabout half of them ladies, and state engineers, who’re principally males. In 2022, the engineers union gained a contract with a 7.5% increase over three years.
Amid the state finances crunch, state lawmakers are nonetheless gathering freebies. As they had been contemplating a invoice this 12 months to loosen Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on the ticketing and reside live performance industries, some lawmakers had been receiving free tickets themselves, experiences Politico.
The invoice, which adopted Ticketmaster’s mishandling of ticket gross sales for pop singer Taylor Swift’s tour, ended up getting so watered down that its preliminary backers withdrew their help. Based on Politico, the committee chairperson on privateness and client safety, Democratic Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of San Ramon, obtained live performance tickets at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara the day Taylor Swift was scheduled to carry out.
As a part of its evaluation into legislators’ 2023 monetary disclosures, Politico discovered that Assemblymember Mike Fong of Monterey Park and Sen. Invoice Dodd of Napa, each Democrats, obtained probably the most in free tickets.
You’ll be able to try CalMatters’ personal deep dives into these information as they relate to free journeys lawmakers take and what properties they personal.
CalMatters covers the Capitol: We’ve guides and tales to preserve monitor of payments and your lawmakersdiscover out how effectively legislators are representing you, discover the Legislature’s report variety and make your voice heard.
