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Union Political News Report - Monday, July 6 2009
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Sacramento -
Just days after missing a critical deadline, budget talks inched closer towards a comprehensive deal as Democrats announced late last week they had agreed to exclude tax increases going forward. The scuttling of all tax hike proposals in the new framework is a major win for the GOP.
With tax increases off the table, lawmakers will begin work on reconfiguring spending cuts levels and increasing the amalgam of budget gimmickry - once they return from the 4th of July holiday weekend, that is. And with the GOP still demanding major concessions on public employee pensions and other work-related reforms, what will the Democrats do ?
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It's one thing to take tax hikes off the table, it's another to toy with education spending - when Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed suspending Proposition 98 to achieve $3 billion in savings last Wednesday, a raucous ensued. By Friday, the governor had backtracked and said he would reconsider the idea. Proposals to suspend Proposition 98 would meet with fierce opposition from the California Teachers Association - a powerful state public employee union. The CTA is not an organization to trifle with.
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At a campaign rally in Fresno last week, Governor Schwarzenegger bashed public employee unions and accused legislative Democrats of pandering to them, saying in effect that protecting unions is more important to Democrats than resolving the budget imbalance. On the stump the Republican governor has repeatedly targeted public pensions and the Union-backed In-Home Support Services program for major reform and overhaul. The IHSS program, signed into law by former Governor Gray Davis, employs 300,000 SEIU members.
Republicans blame state Democrats and their union benefactors for the structural budget imbalance and will use the budget rules to extort further concessions. The two-thirds rule provides the only opportunity for the minority to leverage policy. Many would like to change that.
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A November 3 special election date has been set for filling California's 10th Congressional District seat. Former representative, Democrat Ellen Tauscher, was appointed Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security earlier this year by President Obama. Democratic Lt. Governor John Garamendi, leads the pack in a crowded field and has the support of the 700,000 member SEIU State Council.
The District leans Democratic.
- Race for California congressional seat gets national attention
- Race for open congressional seat has a crowded and diversified field
For previous articles in this series :
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