The CalPERS board at its December meeting tightened rules regulating board interaction with CalPERS staff concerning investment proposals. The board also gave its president the authority to discipline board members whose actions violate policy and is requiring members to attend anual training to detail their responsibilities.

Darrell Steinberg, Senate President Pro Tem, told The Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert last week that the first place he'll look for cost savings next year is the state prisons. He supports reserving state prisons for those who committed violent and serious crimes and letting those convicted of less serious crimes do their time in other jail systems. He also said he hopes to eliminate ineffectual tax credits and close tax loopholes. The state is facing a $21 billion deficit over the next 18 months.

The State Worker column this morning speculates on ways the governor could retract his plan to extend furloughs for state workers. Some are less fanciful than others.

In breaking news, The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the governor's 2010 budget plan will keep furloughs for state workers and include layoff options and perhaps shifting some general fund workers into positions financed with other revenues. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said he hopes to "curtain the number of furlough days and shift the burden of cost savings away from state employees." Gov. Schwarzenegger will present his budget plan the first week of January. (This link was updated to an expanded story Dec. 24.)

Members of same-sex couples who married in states where same-sex marriage is legal and who are dependents of a CalPERS member will be eligible for state health, vision and dental coverage beginning Jan. 1. Read full story here. Read the text of SB54, authorizing the coverage, here.

Updated story from The Sacramento Bee: An Alameda Superior Court judge has ruled the furloughs are illegal for state correctional officers whose pay is reduced but who have to wait to take their time off. The CCPOA had argued that the furloughs violated a labor law that stipulates compensation at 24/7 facilities be paid within a given pay cycle. The decision doesn't invalidate the furloughs but requires the officers be paid back wages. Three other furlough cases are awaiting decision.

With many families hurting financially this year, the state controller's office has launched a new Web site, "Your Finances, Your Future," to help Californians make better decisions about managing their money. The site promises to help you improve your personal financial skills, save more, plan better for big purchases and avoid too much credit card debt, among other topics. State Controller John Chiang notes that his own immigrant family endured financial challenges during his childhood.

The CalPERS board Wednesday approved an increase in the state's contribution to the pension fund that is far lower than the governor wants, forcing the governor now to plead his case to the Legislature.

It hasn't been a good year for SEIU Local 1000. Now the union's hand-picked candidate, Cathy Hackett, has lost the CalPERS board runoff to J.J. Jelincic, a former California State Employees Association president (today's State Worker column).

The CalPERS Health Benefits Committee today approved a recommendation to raise premiums between 15 and 22 percent in 2010 for its long-term care program. The program now has a deficit of nearly 33 percent. The long-term care program is voluntary and funded entirely through enrollee premium payments.

Three years into an expensive overhaul of state prison health care, the state in 2008 spent $60 million on health care overtime. Many medical staffers are working 16- and 18-hour shifts; the average is 12 hours. Spending on medical temps is another issue: Doctors who are not state employees have made as much as $527 an hour. Read The Sacramento Bee's two-part series on prison medical staffing: Part 1 and Part 2.

J.J. Jelincic has defeated Cathy Hackett in the runoff election for a CalPERS board seat, according to several sources. The count: 109,088 votes to 104,656. Jelincic has worked for CalPERS for 23 years and is a past president of CSEA.

The Department of Personnel Administration (PML 2009-045) announced a new state personal vehicle mileage reimbursement rate of 50 cents a mile for all state employees except those in bargaining unit 6, effective Jan. 1.

The State Worker column today does the math. Meg Whitman's assertion that public employees can retire at 50 or 55 with virtually full salaries means they'd have to start working in kindergarten.

Because of the furloughs, aspiring drivers in Sacramento are finding it nearly impossible to make an appointment for their driving tests. Some end up waiting so long they have to take – and pay for – their written tests again.

On some Furlough Fridays, Squaw Valley is giving state workers "the lowest price in town": $49 to ski all day. The valid dates are Dec. 11, Jan. 8 and 22, Feb. 5 and 19, March 5, 12 and 19, April 2, 9 and 16 (or, the site notes, until "the current budget issues are resolved"). You must present an ID or current pay stub.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's aides have told CalPERS the governor will raise the state's annual CalPERS contribution in the next fiscal year to $4.8 billion, an increase of about $1.5 billion. CalPERS had suggested a much smaller rate hike. Unions and employee groups are charging that Schwarzenegger is trying to create momentum for a two-tier pension system, which he supports.

From The Sacramento Bee: The Franchise Tax Board has asked for a furlough exemption for its employees for the year after furloughs are supposed to end. Is that a signal the furloughs will continue or, as, an FTB spokesman says, "just planning."

The State Worker blog reports on a Meg Whitman speech Tuesday to the Sacramento County Republican Party. Hint: She wants changes similar to those called for in the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility initiative now in the signature-gathering stage: A two-tier pension system, higher retirement ages and lower payouts. The blog includes a clip of Whitman's speech.

You have just a short timeto get your ballot postmarked in the CalPERS board of administration runoff election between J.J. Jelincic and Cathy Hackett. The deadline is today. The vote count will begin Dec. 11 and results should be posted online in mid-December.

You can now stay informed about CalPERS on your social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, CalPERS News Feeds and CalPERS eSubscriptions. In other CalPERS news, in the wake of recent allegations about CalPERS placement agents, CalPERS board president Rob Feckner wants to pursue legislation that would require placement agents to register as lobbyists.

CalPERS is one of six health care purchasers in California asking their members to participate in a survey to help employers educate their employees on ways to make better health care decisions. The press release is on the CalPERS home page, www.calpers.ca.gov. To take the survey, click here.

The Department of General Services has received bids from real estate brokers interesting in selling $2 billion worth of state office buildings, the Sacramento Bee Home Front column reports. Sales will begin after the first of next year. The plan is for the state agencies to rent back their current office space as tenants. For the DGS report, click here.

The State Worker blog reports that the Department of Personnel Administration is trying to keep SEIU Local 1000 from seeking contract arbitration over holiday and overtime changes voted into law early this year. The blog item includes a link to the DPA document.

The deadline to return your ballots for the CalPERS board runoff election between J.J. Jelincic and Cathy Hackett is Dec. 4. If you are having problems with your ballots, or didn't get one, call one of these hotline numbers: 916-795-3952 or 800-794-2297.

The State Worker column reports on three employees at the Victim Compensation & Government Claims Board who started an "Employees Helping Employees" program to accept donated gift cards to give to other staff members in need. The State Worker blog reports on the results of a swap meet for state workers held Nov. 14.

The State Worker columnist, Jon Ortiz, has posted videotapes of interviews he conducted with CalPERS board of administration candidates J.J. Jelincic and Kathy Hackett. Watch them here.

During this holiday season, ACSS offices will be closed on the following days: Nov. 26 and 27; Dec. 24, 25 and 31; and Jan. 1.

The human resources director for the State Compensation Insurance Fund issued a memo yesterday calculating that most SCIF employees who were furloughed will receive interest of between $50 and $100 each on their reimbursement pay. A judge ruled the SCIF furloughs violated insurance code. ACSS played the key role in making sure excluded employees were covered under the ruling.

A Sacramento Bee editorial calls for the Legislature to subject its own internal spending to the same sacrifices it has imposed on state workers and the state budget. Last year, the Legislature's budget rose by $9 million while the state's overall general fund spending declined by 7 percent.

Gov. Schwarzenegger said today on The Jay Leno show that he would appooint Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado to fill the vacant lieutenant governor position. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi resigned after winning a seat in Congress earlier this month. Maldonado, 42, of Santa Maria, provided key votes this year to get the budget passed, often over the objections of his party members. He has been lauded as being supportive of state workers. Read the article here with bio information on Maldonado. A transcript of the announcement is here.

Without many places left to cut, California will be scrambling to find another $20.7 billion to balance its budget over the next 19 months. A follow-up story to the Legislative Analyst's Office prediction of a continued huge deficit yesterday.

Attorney General Jerry Brown issued anopinion today supporting the salary-setting commission's move to cut legislators' salaries in mid-term. The opinion affects 20 senators. The commission voted in May to cut the salaries of legislators and statewide elected officials by 18 percent, but 20 senators claimed they would be be affected because they were in the middle of their terms.

The State Worker this morning runs down some of the consequences state workers could face as the state copes with a predicted $21 billion deficit. A sampling of possibilities: Real layoffs, no raises, a furlough extension.

State Worker columnist Jon Ortiz links to a new Bee interactive Web site that shows with charts and data the effects, or non-effects, of the state furlough. For example, wages have declined 5 percent and the state is still hiring. You're encouraged to have your say.

A Legislative Analyst's Office report issued this morning predicts the state will have a general fund budget shortfall of $20.7 billion by the time the Legislature enacts its 2010-11 budget. Part of the problem is a projected $6.3 billion deficit this year, the rest is a $14.4 billion gap between projected revenues and spending. State workers can expect no COLA or salary increases until at least 2015 (the report acknowledged the long wage freeze could have negative effects on departmental operations). The report also acknowledges, though isn't recommending, that "hundreds of millions of dollars" could be saved by extending the furloughs, increasing layoffs or cutting state workers' salaries. Read the LAO report here. Read Sacramento Bee coverage here.

SEIU reports that the judge presiding over the Alameda Superior Court furlough hearing "sharply questioned" the legal basis for furloughing more than 50,000 state workers and asked Gov. Schwarzenegger's legal team: "How can you have an emergency that's 17 months long?"

Lawyers for unions and some government agencies argued in Alameda Superior Court yesterday that the furlough policy is illegally harming the government and violating minimum wage laws and is irrational because it is applied even to state workers whose pay does not affect California's general fund. The arguments will continue.

While stopping short of endorsing the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsbility pension reform proposals, a Sacramento Bee editorial today takes a point of view that some reform is needed in the way CalPERS pensions are calculated. "We are facing decades … of unsustainable pensions costs," it says.

Capitol Weekly newspaper discusses the proposed public pension issue reform initiative and the background and some consequences. One report says teachers retiring at 62 could have their pensions cut in half under the proposed plan.

Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters offers his frame for the public pension issue in this morning's piece. CalPERS, he says, "Is in deep financial doo-doo." Payments for CalPERS placement agents are being investigated, and an intiative has been filed to reduce PERS benefits for future public employees. "It's high time for the Legislature to conduct … a review," Walters says.

With a new investment in up-to-the-minute equipment, the CSEA Print Shop has expanded its services to the public and changed its name to Alliance Print & Design. The new name should help the print shop market its commercial printing services to more outside customers. The shop recently acquired a five-color offset press and high-speed digital copier. Alliance's phone number is 916-326-4396.

The Sacramento Bee sets out the primary changes contained in the new measure to reduce public employees' pensions. The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility says it will cost $2 million to gather enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2010 ballot. The changes would affect only new hires. Dave Lowe, chairman of Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security, says the issue isn't a high priority with voters and predicts such a measure would fail.

The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility has refiled proposed ballot measures to create a second-tier pension system for California public employees. Relentless pension fighter Paul McCauley has vowed to refile his measure to tax public pensions after it failed to qualify for the ballot this week. Today's Sacramento Bee State Worker blog contains full information on the initiatives.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has been asked to decide whether pending 18 percent pay cuts for lawmakers were legally approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. The Legislature's top administrators suggest the reductions were beyond the jurisdiction of the commission.

State Worker blogger Jon Ortiz posed an interesting question among yesterday's items: If you're a state worker and you're killing yourself to get your work done, are you enabling bad government? Or are you exercising a laudable work ethic? Any thoughts?

Now that the furloughs have been in place for a few months, The State Worker column ponders whether the public really notices the state's reduced work schedule. The public may not be convinced the furlough is hurting anyone but state workers.

At the urging of former ACSS member Jim McRitchie, Sacramento public radio's talk show host Jeffrey Callison will interview CalPERS candidates J.J. Jelincic and Cathy Hackett Nov. 16. Callison's show, "Insight," airs from 10 to 11 a.m. and can be heard on public radio stations in Sacramento, Stockton/Modesto, Tahoe and Quincy. Listeners elsewhere can get the live stream at wwwcapradio.org/insight. Jelincic and Hackett face a runoff election. Ballots will be mailed Nov. 9 and are due back Dec. 4.

California has the most polarized state Legislature in the country. According to a Sacramento Bee analysis, Democrats in the California Legislature voted with their party or abstained 99 percent of the time; Republicans voted with their party or abstained 96 percent of the time. Sen Abel Maldonado, a Republican from Santa Maria, has one of the best bipartisan records: He voted against his party 237 times, about 40 percent.

Today's the day your state tax withholding amounts increase. Beginning today, your employer is required to withhold 10 percent more state tax from your pay checks. This increase comes on top of a 0.25 percent state income tax increase and a decrease in the dependent credit. All three were enacted in this year's budget. The withholding move doesn't mean you owe more state taxes. It's a way of bringing revenue into the state more quickly. You'll get what you overpay in your refund (or owe less) when you file your returns each year.