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In recent weeks, CTA and coalition representatives have been dogging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thousands of parents, teachers, nurses, firefighters and others have picketed his fundraising appearances and reminded the public about his broken promises to students, parents, educators, and public workers. On March 15, Coalition representatives brought to the Capitol the names of teachers who have received layoff notices as a result of the governor's public education cuts.
The Coalition delivered the "pink slips" to the governor's office to the rapt attention of print and electronic media reporters. Coalition forces also picketed the governor's appearances at fundraisers in Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, and Burbank.
The governor's forces, doing business as the Citizens to Save California, appear to be struggling to get organized behind initiatives. The governor has been pressing them to circulate still another initiative, one pushing merit pay.
The governor and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, Assembly Rep. Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, and Senate Rep. Leader Dick Ackerman met on reform issues as the Big 5 for the first time on March 14. The governor called the meeting "productive," but two other Republican Assembly Members accused Democratic lawmakers of stalling. The Democrats pointed out that the two Republican accusers were AWOL during reform discussions in legislative hearings.
Meanwhile, the four CTA-opposed bills that comprise the governor's "reform" package are still pending in their Special Session Committees.
ACAx1 4, by Assembly Member Rick Keene (R-Chico), has been the subject of three weeks' worth of testimony-only hearings in the Assembly Special Session Budget Process Committee. The bill would gut Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantee and let the administration cut public education and state programs twice in a given year.
ACAx1 1 by Assembly Member Keith Richman (R-Northridge) is in the Assembly Public Sector Committee. The bill would decimate public employee pensions by converting both CalSTRS and CalPERS from stable defined benefit plans into 401K style programs with no guaranteed payments.
Related Retirement Issues: CTA has secured approval for its sponsored measure to restore $500 million in funds to CalSTRS's Supplemental Benefits Maintenance Account (SBMA). The state payment to STRS – which underwrites a purchasing power guarantee for long-retired employees – was withheld in 2003. The CTA-sponsored measure, AB 55 (Mullin), cleared the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee on a bipartisan vote on March 16 and is heading to Assembly Appropriations.
At the urging of CTA, the Senate Rules Committee held up action on the governor's nominee for the board of the State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) said the committee would not take a vote on the confirmation of Kathleen Smalley until the governor explains why he fired the other CalSTRS nominees who had voted against his plan to convert the public employees' pension systems from defined benefit to defined contribution systems.
CTA –R Secretary Treasurer Beverly Carlson and CTA Advocate Bill Collins criticized Ms. Smalley for abandoning her fiduciary duty to CalSTRS members by not opposing the governor's proposal.
The "merit pay/ due process attack" bill, CTA-opposed SCA1x 1 by Sen. George Runner (R-Antelope Valley), would impose merit pay and gut teachers' due-process protections. It is in the Senate Education Committee.
The "legislative redistricting bill," ACAx1 3 by Assembly Member Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), still hasn't been heard yet in the Assembly District Representation Committee. |