Vice President Arlene Espinoza, right, was elected ACSS' first woman president at Delegate Assembly Sunday, July 12. She succeeds Olin King. Elnora Fretwell is the new vice president. The team of Arlene and Elnora is the first time two women have held the organization's highest offices. Both women are in Chapter 503. Terry Sutherland was reappointed secretary/treasurer, which is not a voting position. Frank Ruffino was reelected director-at-large and Carlos Chavez is alternate director-at-large, replacing Jerry Fountain. Full election results here.

As a special fund agency, the California Public Employees' Retirement System is not affected by the plan to pay some vendors and contractors with IOUs. CalPERS will issue cashable checks for all of its payments, including retiree pensions. To read the CalPERS press release, click on the headline above.

CalPERS has published the health care premium rates it has negotiated for state workers for 2010. The overall increase is 2.9 percent, the lowest in 14 years, the press release says.

This may be no surprise to state workers, but the California Budget Project has published a report, based on Franchise Tax Board data from 2007, that shows the income gap between the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians and the middle-income taxpayers has widened. The adjusted gross income of the wealthy has nearly doubled since the early 1990s, more than eight times the increase of the middle income earners. No surprise again: Average corporate profits more than doubled during the same period and almost none of it trickled down.

One state worker, in the face of pay cuts and insults, wryly defends the general public's misimpression of state service in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece.

In an opinion piece published Monday in The Sacramento Bee, the California Budget Project's Jean Ross urges legislators to start closing the budget gap by repealing recent tax cuts quietly given to some of the big and powerful corporations. Giving corporate tax breaks while closing parks and severely cutting education represents "misguided priorities," Ross writes. The CBC posted a short response on its Web site.

The California Budget Project has published a side-by-side comparison of the governor's and Legislature's budget conference committee's budget proposals. A Sacramento Bee story discusses the two proposals and and a budget Q&A explains, as much as possible, how we got into this fix.

A Sacramento Bee editorial is calling for a freeze not only on pay raises for state workers but also on the step increases.

Members of ACSS Chapter 512 joined other constituents of Sen. Abel Maldonado (at left in photo, with ACSS labor rep Tom Considine) for a June 12 luncheon that began at Hearst Castle and included seal watching in Cambria and a tour of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse. Maldonado, a Republican, broke with his party to cast the deciding vote for the 2009-2011 budget. “It was the hardest vote in my life,” he said. “At the last minute, I said to myself, ‘California first, Abel Maldonado second,’ and I think other people should have done the same.”  There will be cuts to come, he said, but he also predicts tax increases on such items as cigarettes and alcohol. He has a 17-inch stack of mail decrying the closing of parks -- which hold a "special place" for him -- and has met with disabled people who will suffer from the proposed cuts. “The state needs to move forward in a way that makes us solvent,” Maldonado said. “We can get some good reforms in the next couple of weeks and get this state on our way.”

Two of California's top pollsters say the May 19 special election was not a referendum against more taxes, as has been interpreted, but an order to fix the budget mess, according to a Sacramento Bee article. California voters strongly favor raising taxes on pornography, cigarettes, alcohol and people who make more than $1 million a year, the pollsters say. The real message: The governor and the Legislature need to avoid delays and pass the budget.

The CalPERS Health Benefits Committee has recommended an overall 2.9 percent increase in health care premiums for 2010 -- the lowest increase in 14 years. The full board will vote on the increase today. A CalPERS release says the lower rates are partly the result of reduced use of health care services and greater use of generic drugs as well as tough negotiations by CalPERS staff.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's office has set up a Web site asking for your suggestions to save the state money: www.wastewatchers.ca.gov. You can sign your name or submit your ideas anonymously. The Sacramento Bee published a few suggestions it has received on Sunday.

CalPERS will hold a public meeting May 13 to look at how its investments are allocated in view of the current market conditions. CalPERS' assets have shrunk from $239 billionto $175.1 billion, according to a Sacramento Bee report.

Many CalPERS retirees and beneficiaries saw slightly bigger benefits payments beginning with their April 1 payment. This is the result of new income tax withholding rates issued by the Internal Revenue Service, which may have ramifications when filing next year's income tax returns. For information, click on the headline above.

State Worker columnist Jon Ortiz reports in his Sacramento Bee blog today that Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette has affirmed his tentative ruling that Gov. Schwarzenegger's furlough order applies to employees of constitutional offices. The blog contains links to the order and a listing of how many employees are not SEIU members and, therefore, not subject to the reduced furlough when the SEIU contract is final.

More members than ever attended our "March on the Capitol" on St. Patrick's Day, March 17. We visited more than 80 legislators, who demonstrated a strong understanding of and concern for our issues. Now that Lobby Day was so successful, members need to continue their outreach by visiting their representatives in their district offices. Nearly all legislators work in their home offices on Friday. By scheduling an appointment at your legislator's local office, you can make sure you will speak face to face with him or her.

CalPERS, the nations' largest public pension fund, will begin a yearlong pilot project to electronically order prescriptions. The agency says e-prescribing "improves patient safety by ensuring that patients receive the right prescriptions and reduces cost." The physician would order the prescription on an automated data entry system that would transmit it to the pharmacy. For a Sacramento Bee story, click here.

ACSS is the sponsor of two bills being considered in the Legislature this year. AB 1161, State Employee Adverse Actions: Change Statute of Limitations From Three Years to One Year for Excluded Employees, was authored by Joan Buchanan of Contra Costa and Alameda. The bill would change the notice requirement for adverse actions against managerial, supervisory and confidential state employees from three years to one year from the date of the misconduct. AB843, State Employee Adverse Actions: Change the "Burden of Proof" in Adverse Actions for Managerial Employees, would place the burden of proof in an adverse action on the employer, not the managerial employee. The author is Marty Block of San Diego. 

Note: The Jan. 13 State Worker column in The Sacramento Bee has noted our call to impeachment.

At its quarterly meeting Jan. 11, the ACSS board of directors voted unanimously to call for the impeachment of Gov. Schwarzenegger. “His inability to pass a budget is placing California in financial jeopardy, and his order to cut state workers’ pay by 10 percent, to place the burden of balancing the budget on our backs, is an act of malfeasance,” said President Olin King. Read the press release ACSS sent here.

Only the Legislature can impeach the governor. ACSS urges you to contact your legislators, by mail, email or telephone, to demand they begin impeachment proceedings. You can use our Legislative Action Center to write an email that will automatically be sent to your representatives. You’ll find a letter already written (which you can edit or overwrite).

You do not have to be a member or even a state worker to use this action center, nor do you have to sign in. Invite your coworkers and friends to contact their legislators as well.

There is one downside to the falling gas prices: The mileage reimbursement rate will fall, too.

The IRS has issued its new rates for 2009: 55 cents for each mile driven for business. The rate had been raised at mid-year to 58.5 cents to account for the higher gas prices. ACSS will reimburse approved mileage at the IRS rate.