jerry brown

Government unions rule California

By: K. Lloyd Billingsley 12/30/10 11:00 PM

On Monday, Jerry Brown starts his second run at governing the Golden State. He inherits a host of problems, some that date back to his first run as governor. Collective bargaining for government employees in California started during Brown’s first administration in the 1970s. It has since grown into de facto rule by government employee unions. But the governor has no regrets. Read More

Brown might do well to take cue from predecessor

By: Bill Whalen 12/28/10 11:00 PM

Located just a short stroll from California’s Capitol, Memorial Auditorium has long been a venue for political celebrations. More recently, it has been a graveyard for governors of the Golden State. Read More

Harris petitioned on Secure Communities

By: Brent Begin 12/22/10 3:16 PM

Civil rights groups will be knocking on Attorney General-elect Kamala Harris’ office door come January in an effort to opt out of a controversial federal program that collects the fingerprint data of anyone arrested to see if they are illegal immigrants. Read More

Jerry Brown playing game of chicken

By: Steven Greenhut 12/19/10 1:43 AM

We’re about to witness a new twist on Sacramento’s annual high-stakes budget game. Many Capitol observers believe that incoming Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats, who no longer need GOP budget support thanks to the Nov. 2 passage of an initiative (Proposition 25) that allows a budget to pass with a simple majority rather than a supermajority, are looking to pass a balanced budget that includes deep cuts to public services. Read More

Jerry Brown takes big risk with budget strategy

By: SF Examiner Editorial 12/17/10 1:20 AM

In Washington, D.C., they call it the “Washington Monument strategy,” on the belief that every time the National Park Service faces a budget cut, it reacts by threatening to close the revered obelisk.California’s version usually involves popular police and fire services, but sometimes schools.No politician ever threatens to cut welfare grants, health services for the poor or other programs that do not affect Read More

Brown keeps tax hikes on the table

By: Steven Greenhut 12/15/10 2:26 AM

At Gov.-elect Jerry Brown’s briefing to discuss the dismal condition of the state’s budget, now plagued by a $25 billion deficit, the incoming governor explained that “everything should be on the table and everyone should be at the table to talk about it.” Whenever a California Democrat tells you that everything is on the table when it comes to budget matters, you know the goal is to raise taxes. Read More

Brown meditates on inherited tax-break crisis

By: Ken Garcia 12/12/10 7:18 AM

Give Gov.-elect Jerry Brown credit — he means what he says, even if we need some help trying to decipher it. Brown not only invited the 800-pound gorilla into his first, meditative town hall-style reflections on California’s deepening economic crisis this past week, he offered to take it around the state and show it off to the voters, who may be asked to tax themselves to reduce our weighty problem. Read More

With Jerry Brown coming in, Governor’s Office loses its flash

By: Dan Morain 12/09/10 11:53 PM

What a difference seven years make in California. Unprecedented, you might say.Gone are the days of reporters from faraway places following the governor’s every move in perfectly staged settings.Back in November 2003, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commandeered the Memorial Auditorium for the first news conference of his tenure. He needed the hall to accommodate the unprecedented 150 media types who showed up, including a television crew from Austria. Read More

Brown likely to try again with water plan, but prospects dim

By: Dan Walters 11/29/10 11:31 PM

During the campaign, Jerry Brown was fairly vague on what he would do as governor, especially on how he would resolve the state’s chronic budget problems. “It will evolve,” one of Brown’s pet phrases from his first governorship, was the unspoken credo of the campaign for his second. Read More

Several arrested as group protests ICE fingerprinting program

By: Staff report 10/05/10 12:00 AM

Several immigration rights activists were arrested this morning outside the San Francisco office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown while protesting a program that links federal immigration authorities with local law enforcement. Dozens of people gathered outside the State Building at 11 a.m. to rally against Secure Communities, a nationwide program begun in San Francisco this year that shares the fingerprints of arrestees with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Read More