Collective Bargaining

Majority in poll back employees in public sector unions
As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent. While a slim majority of Republicans favored taking away some bargaining rights, they were outnumbered by large majorities of Democrats and independents who said they opposed weakening them.
New York Times

Law Enforcement

Bernard Parks' poor record on public safety speaks for itself
Perhaps worried that a campaign mailer might strike a chord with voters, Councilmember Bernard C. Parks recently blustered and scrambled to distance himself from his poor record on public safety. The mailer called out Parks for consistently voting against funding for police hiring, blaming those votes on the City's financial constraints, and all the while collecting almost half a million dollars a year in combined retirement payments and city council compensation.
LAPPL Blog

Pensions

Pension rollbacks won't do much to balance budget
Talk of rolling back public employee pensions appears to be gaining momentum in Sacramento. Some lawmakers increasingly link budget negotiations to pension reform, and an independent state commission last week called for dramatic changes in the way California compensates its retired employees. But anyone who hopes that reducing pension benefits will help balance next year's budget, or any budget in the near future, might be disappointed. California is facing a $25.4 billion budget deficit right now, yet changes to the public employee pension system generally take years or even decades to produce significant savings.
California Budget Watch

Prisons

Jerry Brown eases plan to shift prisoner responsibility
Gov. Jerry Brown backed away Monday from a controversial plan to shift responsibility for managing certain prisoners and parolees to local governments. Administration officials, testifying before the Legislature's joint budget committee, said Brown scaled back his proposal after law enforcement groups and municipalities loudly condemned his initial plan. Local officials had said their jails are already overcrowded, and they had too few parole agents to monitor more ex-convicts. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley had said that the original proposal endangered public safety.
Los Angeles Times