In curveball, GOP leaders back Gov. Jerry Brown's pension overhaul

Throwing a political curveball, Republican lawmakers lined up behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to overhaul public pensions Wednesday, and called on Democrats to support the leader of their party.

Backed by the GOP caucus at a Capitol news conference, Republican leaders said they had introduced a series of bills that mirror the 12-point plan the governor introduced last fall. Lawmakers said the action was necessary, accusing Democrats of doing little more than paying lip service to the issue.

“Today, we are stepping up to the plate, showing Republicans are united behind the governor’s plan,” said GOP Assembly leader Connie Conway (R-Tulare). “Now it’s up to the governor to get the Democrats on board.”

The proposals, which would require public employees to pay more for their retirement and cut benefits for new hires, have rankled some Democrats and their political allies in organized labor. Brown sent proposed bill language to the Legislature nearly three weeks ago, but, as Republicans noted, no lawmaker in his own party has stepped up to formally introduce legislation.

Brown was out of state Wednesday, traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the winter meeting of the National Governors Assn. In a statement, Brown's office didn't even acknowledge the Republican support.

"Governor Brown believes the need for pension reform is urgent," said spokesman Evan Westrup. "We will continue to work with the Legislature to enact serious reforms."

A bipartisan legislative committee is studying the governor’s plan, but Republicans said progress was being hampered by union pressure.

Last year, Republicans had pushed some of the same ideas in budget negotiations with Brown but the talks fell apart. The governor had hoped to win GOP votes for his tax plan in exchange for changes to California’s pension system. At the time, Republicans said Brown’s proposals didn’t go far enough.

On Wednesday, GOP leaders said the dynamic had changed.

“There’s no strings attached to this,” said Republican Senate leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar). “It’s just good government reform needed in pensions and we’re willing to help that come about.”

RELATED:

CalPERS report undermines Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension overhaul plan

Gov. Jerry Brown risks backlash on pension plan

Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown outlines proposals to roll back public employee pension benefits during a news conference at the Capitol in October. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

D.C. lobbyist to host Jerry Brown fund-raiser

Gov. Jerry Brown has left the building.

Brown, not known for his jet-setting ways since being elected to a third term as governor, is taking his first extended taxpayer-funded trip out of state. The governor is en route to Washington, where he will attend a meeting of the National Governors Assn. and meet with President Obama at the White House.

Brown is also trekking east to raise money for his tax initiative, which he hopes to place on the ballot in November. Thursday night, Brown will be feted at the home of D.C. Lobbyist Tony Podesta, brother of former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.

A copy of the invitation was posted on Politico.com. It did not have a dollar figure for the fund-raiser, and Brown spokesman Steve Glazer refused to say how much the governor would raise at the evening reception, or how much attendees were being asked to donate.

Podesta’s website boasts of his “unique mastery of how the nation’s capital works.” The site also says Podesta is “active with the Democratic Governors Assn. and maintains close relationships with governors from coast to coast.”

The DGA spent nearly $500,000 on Brown’s behalf in 2010 through an independent expenditure committee.

Related Links:

After slow start, Jerry Brown ratchets up fundraising

Labor groups blast Brown's fundraising from the '1%'

Donations pour in to support governor's tax initiative

-- Anthony York in Sacramento

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown. Credit: Eric Paul Zamora/Fresno Bee

Poll: Jerry Brown's tax can pass, but not with rivals on ballot [Updated}

Gov. Jerry Brown's political aides on Wednesday continued a public campaign to convince rival tax proponents to back off, releasing a poll summary that showed that none of three proposed ballot measures will pass if they're all before voters in November.

Both Brown's temporary tax hike -- a half-cent rise in the sales tax coupled with increased levies on higher earners -- and a proposed tax increase on millionaires sponsored by some unions score more than 50% on the poll. Brown's measure is at 53% while the millionaire's tax polls at 55%, according to a statement from Sacramento-based pollster Jim Moore.

The third proposed tax hike, an across-the-board income tax hike to fund public education pushed by civil rights attorney Molly Munger, lags with only 31% support.

But if all three appear on the ballot, the release states, none cross the 50% threshold. Brown's wins 43% support, the millionaire's tax 42% and the income tax 17%.

The survey of 500 registered California voters has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

"If all three are on the ballot, it's a circular firing squad, and all of them will lose and the kids lose," said Steve Glazer, Brown's top political aide.

Petitioners are gathering signatures to place all three hikes on the November ballot. Glazer has been pushing for proponents of the other two to drop their effort before the ballot is finalized in the coming months.

The competing measures have contended that their internal polling shows that the crowded ballot would not doom their proposals. A spokeswoman for Munger did not immediately return a call for comment.  Nor did the California Federation of Teachers, a prime backer of the millionaire's tax.

[Update, Feb. 22 2:31 pm] The rival tax campaigns issued defiant statements Wednesday afternoon. The campaign for the millionaire's tax noted its measure polled highest even in the governor's own survey; Munger's campaign derided Brown's poll as "an advocacy poll" and called its proposal "the one true education initiative."

RELATED:

Jerry Brown unveils tax plan via Twitter

Jerry Brown's tax rivals not backing down

Jerry Brown's tax campaign raises $1.2 million

--Nicholas Riccardi in Sacramento

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at a Fresno luncheon. Photo Credit: Eric Paul Zamora / Fresno Bee

Jerry Brown woos Xi, Chinese companies

As he helped squire Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping around Southern California, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Friday that the state would open two trade offices in China and proposed setting up a task force with the Communist government there to improve trade and investment.

In a letter to Xi released Friday, the governor made clear he is talking about Chinese investments in the Golden State rather than just helping California businesses pour more money -- and jobs -- into the fast-growing nation.

"It is my hope that during your trip to Los Angeles you will not only feel warmly welcomed, but also that we together will be able to seize this special opportunity to begin a productive discussion on how to stimulate substantial new trade opportunities and flows of investment from China into California," Brown wrote.

Earlier Friday, Brown announced the state would open two trade offices, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai.

The offices, he said in a statement, will be financed by the private sector with state help.

The state closed a dozen foreign trade offices in 2003 after an analysis found they were not cost-effective.

ALSO:

Is Nevada taking Lake Tahoe hostage?

Lawmakers to Gov. Jerry Brown: Slow down

Confirmation uncertain for Cal State chairman

-- Nicholas Riccardi

Photo: From left, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, China Shipping Chairman Li Shaode, Chinese Vice President Xi Jingping and Gov. Jerry Brown at the Port of Los Angeles on Thursday. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown softens possible cuts to kindergarten

Gov. Jerry Brown is tweaking his proposal to cut transitional kindergarten, meaning that schools may lose less money than originally thought.

The transitional kindergarten program, scheduled to be phased in statewide starting in the fall, was supposed provide an additional year of school for children too young or unprepared for regular kindergarten. Brown has proposed eliminating it despite objections from parents and some education officials.

However, the state will provide a full year of funding for each child enrolled in regular kindergarten before the age of 5. Originally, Brown suggested schools would only get money for children after they turn 5, the standard cutoff point for enrollment.

This means about 42,000 children would be displaced, rather than an estimated 120,000, according to Brown's Department of Finance. The administration expects to save up to about $100 million, rather than $223 million, from the proposal.

Asked about the change during a Senate budget hearing on Thursday, the Department of Finance's Nick Schweitzer said, "We went back and gave this some more thought."

Brown has tried to widen support for his education proposals, which include sweeping changes to how the state dishes out money to school districts, by softening the blow from some possible cuts. The governor's spending plan will be the subject of intense negotiations in the Legislature and among special interest groups for months.

But Sen. Joseph Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who wrote the bill creating transitional kindergarten, said Brown's plan is still shortsighted and unlikely to save money. He also said the program can make sure children enter elementary school at the right age and reduce the need for remedial classes down the line.

Sacramento's school superintendent, Jonathan Raymond, also spoke out against eliminating transitional kindergarten during Thursday's hearing.

"I don't understand for the life of me why we would think of taking that program away," he said. "We have to do what we can for our earliest learners."

-- Chris Megerian in Sacramento
twitter.com/@chrismegerian

RELATED:

Schwarzenegger signs bill raising kindergarten age

In bid for support, Gov. Jerry Brown modifies school proposals

Parents, teachers protest plan to scrap transitional kindergarten

Photo: Students at a transitional kindergarten class at Carver Elementary in Long Beach. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

CalPERS report undermines Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension overhaul plan

CalPERS has a new report that says California Gov. Jerry Brown's idea to alter pensions with 401(k)-style plans won't help new workers and won't save California money, either.

The California Public Employees Retirement System is the nation's largest public pension fund, and its new report undermines Brown’s efforts to change California’s pension system -- which the governor insists is unaffordable and unsustainable.

CalPERS found that while some schools and local government agencies will probably save money, the expected savings to the state are “generally not significant.”

Central to the debate is the fact that current workers’ contributions help pay retirees’ benefits. If new hires begin paying into 401(k)-style plans, that reduces the overall contribution pool and taxpayers will be on the hook for the difference.

The CalPERS report was requested by the Legislature, which is considering Brown’s proposal. Legislative leaders have said they are committed to changing the system, but that commitment will be tested in the coming weeks and months as their political allies in organized labor ratchet up opposition to the governor’s plan.

Notably, the report only evaluated one element of Brown's 12-point pension proposal. The governor also would require that all public workers have at least half the cost of their pensions deducted from their paychecks. (Most state employees already make that contribution, but many in cities, counties and school districts across the state pitch in far less.) And he has urged that the retirement age for most new public workers be raised from 55 to 67.

Until last week, a Republican-led group was pushing to go to the ballot for changes that would have gone beyond what Brown has proposed to reduce pension costs. The group dropped its initiative campaign though, saying the attorney general's title and summary of its ballot measure made it nearly impossible to pass.

RELATED:

GOP-led drive for California pension initiative dead for this year

Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

Gov. Jerry Brown risks backlash on pension plan

-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown outlines proposals to roll back public employee pension benefits during a news conference at the Capitol in October. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

Lt. Gov. Newsom opens fire on Cal Grant cuts

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking aim at the governor’s proposed cuts to higher education, calling on lawmakers to reject them as unfair and shortsighted.

Newsom, who has consistently staked out political territory to the left of Gov. Jerry Brown, said in a letter Wednesday that reducing financial aid by $308.4 million would place the “burden of our fiscal problems on the very students who will help lead California out of this morass.”

In particular, Newsom criticized the proposal to raise the minimum grade-point average needed to receive a Cal Grant. Brown’s administration says an estimated 26,600 students wouldn’t make the cut, saving $131 million and focusing “limited financial aid resources on those students who are most likely to complete their degrees.”

Newsom said that will only further handicap disadvantaged students.

“If we keep cutting higher education funding and increasing the cost of getting a degree, that student is guaranteed not to complete a degree because we have priced them out of public education and told them they are not worth our support,” he wrote.

The Legislative Analyst's Office, in a report released Wednesday, also said Brown's proposal is too drastic.

The lieutenant governor has praised Brown’s efforts to tackle the state’s financial problems but has criticized his decisions on a few occasions, most recently in a radio interview with KQED last week.

Newsom said he discussed proposed cuts in Cal Grants with Brown’s administration. Asked what he would cut from the budget instead, Newsom said he replied, “You give me your finance team, give me the controller, give me your department heads, and give me 48 hours, I’ll come up with them.”

Earlier in the interview, Newsom said he was opposed to cuts to childcare programs, which would lose $446.9 million under Brown’s proposal.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said. “What’s equally disappointing, perhaps more so, is that we have a Democratic governor proposing to cut welfare support."

In a television interview the next day on KGO-TV, Newsom pointed out how former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez pumped more money into higher education despite the deficit in 2007.

"They added $750 million to the budget deficit," he said, adding: "If you value something, invest in it."

Gil Duran, a spokesman for Brown, said Newsom was advocating the wrong approach.

"Bigger deficits are not the answer,” Duran said. “That kind of thinking is what got us into this mess.”

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Brown's Department of Finance, pointed out the governor wants to increase overall high education spending by 4% a year for three years.

Photo: Gavin Newsom campaigning for lieutenant governor in 2010 in East Los Angeles. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

RELATED:

Assembly speaker wants to trade tax breaks for scholarships

Budget plan would raise the bar for Cal Grant financial aid

Second round of tuition hikes likely at UC and Cal State systems

-- Chris Megerian in Sacramento

Twitter: @chrismegerian

 

Obama administration reaffirms support for California high-speed rail

Despite a series of a cautionary reports by outside agencies and groups, the Obama administration is reaffirming its commitment to California's $98.5-billion bullet train project.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood traveled the state this week and met privately with Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday to discuss the embattled project, issuing a statement of support through the governor's office.

“Over the past week, I have traveled all over the Golden State and have found a strong base of support for the California High-Speed Rail project, from workers who will build it, manufacturers that will supply the trains to run on it and businesses that will benefit from using it,” LaHood said. “The Obama Administration is committed to High-Speed Rail because it is good for the economy and the nation. I look forward to working with Governor Brown to make this project as successful as possible.”

For the White House, California appears to be the lone subscriber to the president's vision for high-speed rail. Facing budget deficits and sluggish growth, Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin have all scrapped their proposals.

Brown has vowed to push forward despite mounting criticism and a growing crisis of confidence and credibility in the project.

The bullet train's initial $33-billion price tag has tripled since 2008, when voters approved bonds for what is planned to be an 800-mile network. While the California High-Speed Rail Authority has secured $12.5 billion for the first Los Angeles to San Francisco leg, the state auditor last month warned that the project has become "increasingly risky."

"The success or failure of the program" depends on obtaining up to $105 billion in additional funding, which has not been identified, the auditor said.

Nevertheless, Brown, organized labor, many members of the Legislature and business groups are pushing to start construction in the Central Valley later this year. They argue that the bullet train represents a bold vision of progress for the state and will create jobs, accommodate future growth and help the environment.

RELATED:

Republicans propose halting sale of high-speed rail bonds

State auditor issues financial warning on California bullet train

Gov. Jerry Brown's State of State speech puts focus on big projects

-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in March 2010. LaHood issued a statement supporting California's bullet train project. Credit: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg

Animal advocates blast Gov. Brown for ‘putting pets on death row’

Sure, Gov. Jerry Brown has slashed funding for social welfare programs and public universities by billions, but now, some say he’s gone too far -- he's targeting pets.

Brown has proposed repealing the Hayden Law, named after former Democratic state Sen. Tom Hayden, which gives animals more time in shelters before they are euthanized.

Brown said shortening the time that sherlters must hold strays from six days to three would save the state about $46 million per year.

Hayden criticized Brown -- who with his wife, Anne, owns a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Sutter -- for suggesting the repeal. In an online video, he urged Brown to to "look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animals to die."

GOP-led drive for California pension initiative dead for this year

  The Republican-led group California Pension Reform said Wednesday it is ending its campaign to put an overhaul of public retirement systems on the 2012 ballot.

The decision was made "after determining that the Attorney General's false and misleading title and summary makes it nearly impossible to pass," Dan Pellissier, the group's president, said in a statement.

The group, which includes former state GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim, proposed an initiative that would have gone beyond what Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed to reduce pension costs, affecting pension benefits for current workers as well as future hires and placing caps on how much an employer can pay toward a worker’s retirement.

Pellissier said his group would lobby elected officials to adopt pension changes this year and, if that fails, would focus on putting an initiative on the 2014 ballot.