CSUEU E-News: December 2, 2010
Biweekly news digest from the California State University Employees Union
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JERRY BROWN SKIPS WHITE HOUSE VISIT TODAY
KAMALA HARRIS DECLARES VICTORY
STEINBERG DENOUNCES CSU FEE HIKES
LONGTIME ACTIVIST KRIS THOMAS RETIRES
VOLUNTEERING: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
FOLLOW CSUEU ON TWITTER
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Jerry Brown Busy with Budget, Skips White House Visit Today
Gov.-elect Jerry Brown isn’t among the nation’s governors-elect traveling to the White House for a meeting today with President Barack Obama. Obama campaigned for Brown in California in October and has invited incoming governors nationwide to the bipartisan meeting.
Brown, who faces a $25.4 billion state budget deficit, including approximately $6 billion this fiscal year, will instead stay in state to work on budget-related matters.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office has reported that the state will face continuing deficits of roughly $20 billion a year at least through 2016, unless drastic steps are taken.
The solution will ultimately involve a combination of cuts, revenue increases and a realignment of state services in which counties and cities get greater authority. Brown’s promise that he would not raise taxes without voter approval means that Californians will need to decide which programs to do without.
Brown is not alone, as many governors face similar problems. The nation’s battered state governments face a collective $41 billion budget gap next fiscal year, a survey released Wednesday found.
State officials around the country will have to contend with slow revenue growth, increased spending demands and the end of federal stimulus assistance next year, according to the semi-annual Fiscal Survey of States, released by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Meanwhile, Governor Schwarzenegger is on schedule to convene a special session of the legislature starting Monday, devoted to the budget shortfall. He hasn’t yet detailed what steps he will propose, but his press secretary, Aaron McLear, gave a hint on Tuesday: “You can expect ugly cuts.”
He added that the governor would not be proposing to extend any of the tax hikes that are set to expire in the coming year and that Schwarzenegger’s special-session agenda will be “more along the line of cuts than large state government reform.”
Although the governor will offer a last-ditch budget proposal to close this year's deficit, don't expect his ideas to go very far. Democrats are likely to ignore his special-session budget, instead waiting until Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown issues his own plan one month later. They also think the deficit problem should be viewed in its $25.4 billion entirety, not just as a short-term $6 billion gap with an end date defined by a governor who will soon be leaving office.
Read a CNNMoney.com article about budget shortfalls in states across the country.
Kamala Harris Declares Victory in Attorney General's Race
Last Tuesday morning, four weeks after election day, Democrat Kamala Harris declared victory in the race for attorney general, a narrow but historic win that makes her the first woman and first minority to be elected the state’s top law-enforcement official.
“I stand before you today humbled to be chosen to be the next attorney general of this state,” Harris said, her voice breaking with emotion as she spoke before scores of supporters in the Emerald Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles. “I pledge to work hard every day to make sure the law is on the side of the people of this state.”
Harris’ win over Republican Steve Cooley, Los Angeles county's district attorney, cemented a Democratic sweep of the every statewide post in California, a remarkable feat in a year where Democrats saw deep losses in the rest of the nation.
Harris, San Francisco’s district attorney, continued her victory swing Tuesday with a news conference and celebration in San Francisco. She said that she chose to start the day in Los Angeles to emphasize that she would represent all Californians.
Los Angeles was key to Harris’ statewide victory; her 14-point win in Cooley’s backyard helped lift her toward her 75,000-vote margin out of nearly 8.8 million votes cast.
On Tuesday, she announced a laundry list of priorities: reducing the state’s recidivism rate, which is the nation’s highest; helping homeowners facing foreclosure and being targeted by predatory lenders; protecting the state’s environment; ensuring the civil rights of Californians regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation; and using innovation and technology to attack problems such as identity theft.
She also named a transition team that includes former LAPD Chief William Bratton, former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and George Shultz, and civil-rights attorney Constance Rice.
Steinberg Denounces CSU Fee Hikes
In a strongly worded letter to the heads of the CSU and UC systems late last week, President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg questioned their recent decisions to raise student fees yet again, given that legislators just gave both systems more funds than expected.
“We provided more than $600 million in additional funding to backfill for cuts made in recent years while also funding for increased enrollment, class sections and vital student services,” he stated. “Consequently, I am deeply concerned about the recently adopted fee increases by CSU and UC and the impact they will have on our students, their families and our economy. Passing more costs on to students and families threatens to price more Californians out of a quality higher education.”
The letter is addressed to Herbert Carter, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees; Charles Reed, CSU chancellor. Russell Gould, chair of the UC Regents; and Mark Yudof, president of the University of California.
Nathan Barankin, Steinberg’s communications director, points out that, during a forum at CSU Sacramento earlier this year, the senator was asked about the possibility of cutting back on staff as a way of solving the CSU’s financial problems. In his response, Steinberg emphasized that the quality of the university experience isn’t limited to professors but rather depends on the contributions of everyone who works on campus. As he put it, “You can’t cut employee costs without impacting the overall educational experience.”
Barankin’s take on the fee hikes? “Although increasing fees at our CSU and UC systems is bad for Californians and for our economy, there’s a recognition that our financial dilemma is historic. In light of that, before any further consideration is given to fee hikes, it’s incumbent for all state agencies to demonstrate that there are absolutely no other alternatives.”
Read the letter here (PDF).
Longtime Activist Kris Thomas Retires
By Ray Finnell, President, CSU Bakersfield Chapter 310
One of CSUEU’s icons has retired, taking with her decades of organizational knowledge and service to her fellow employees. Christine “Kris” Thomas, who held many different positions in the organization during her tenure, hung up her hat recently to relax among family, friends, and home projects.
Does she miss being on the firing line? “I miss the great union people, but not the stress,” she commented.
Through the years, Thomas held numerous offices at the campus and statewide levels; her highest level of service was as statewide Organizing Chair, now known as VP for Organizing.
Her keen insight and calm demeanor served her well as a hearing officer, her most recent position. Sifting through internal allegations against union officers, stewards, and members requires common sense, a heightened sense of fairness, and the ability to sense motives and to separate fact from embellishment.
“Dealing with competitive personalities was tricky at times,” Thomas observed. “I had to be even-handed, investigate complaints thoroughly, and ferret out the facts before reaching conclusions. The evidence presented is what I considered, regardless of any other knowledge I may have had of various situations and personalities.”
Her peers respected “Mama Kat,” as they affectionately called her, for her ability to separate emotion and individual motives in pressure situations.
“You knew that a case that came under Kris’ scrutiny was rarely misjudged,” said CSUEU President Pat Gantt. “She was a pro who didn’t miss much, and her findings were fair, irrespective of who was involved.”
Read the full article.
Volunteering: A Personal Perspective
by Darrell Bartlett, Steward, CSU Chico
In March, I will begin my 30th and final year as an employee at CSU, Chico. For those of you with higher math skills, you would deduce that I began working here in March of 1982. In 1978, the California legislature enacted the Higher Education Employer Employee Relations Act (HEERA). But it took until 1983 for the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) to determine the “communities of interest” and for the representative elections to take place. We voted, first if we wanted representation or no representation, and then, after choosing representation, which union we wanted to represent us. This was all pretty exciting for me. We were courted by different unions who wanted us to pick them as our exclusive bargaining representative. My past experience with unions had occurred in the Silicon Valley, where “no representation” always prevailed.
CSEA won the election in four of the nine bargaining units. The California State Employee Association (CSEA) existed prior to HEERA and these elections. Of course, at that time, we did not have collective bargaining, so CSEA was an employee association. At the time, I remember being impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of the CSEA “Old Guard.” These were men and women, mostly a lot older than I was, who had come of age in the California boom times of the 1950s.
We had far fewer staff then, but most were members of the association. These were people who took for granted that employees supported one another. Frankly, it was a very different group than the folks I had worked with in Silicon Valley, very connected and very warm. After the election, these same employees established the first CSU Chico chapter of the new CSEA union. They ran for state offices and negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement.
Read the full article.
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