Brown administration officials met with the state employee union leaders last week, according to sources familiar with the meetings, to warn them that the next version of the governor's budget will include an unspecified cut in employee costs up to 10 percent.

The administration in January estimated that California is confronting a $9.2 billion deficit through 2012-13, but a recent state analysis concluded the actual gap is considerably more.

The sources, who declined to talk on the record because the administration asked all involved to keep the discussions secret, said Brown told the unions he was seeking $750 million in state employee cost savings for fiscal 2012-13..

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) – An emergency appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court to delay Thursday’s coroner’s inquest process has been granted.

A three-judge panel ruled that the inquest involving Eduardo Lopez-Hernandez is stayed until at least May 11.

The police union said it believes new inquest guidelines and parameters are unconstitutional because an ombudsman is provided to the deceased's family. The union says this makes the process adversarial...

Ron Westmoreland is a firefighter for the City of Bay Village, Ohio. The Fire Department has roughly 24 firefighters. Budget concerns in the spring of 2008 led to the adoption of changes that substantially reduced overtime for firefighters.

In addition, the Fire Chief recommended that the dive team be eliminated, a recommendation approved by the City Council. The Chief stated that the dive team had been used an average of less than once per year, had never actually rescued anyone, and had cost between $10,000 and $12,000 in overtime annually. Also, he determined that between 1999 and 2007, the City had purchased a total of more than $26,000 in diving gear and equipment from Westmoreland’s for-profit dive business...

HARTFORD, Conn. - The president of the Connecticut State Police Union is speaking out against legislation that would allow cities and towns to place traffic cameras at busy intersections and record drivers who run red lights.

Sgt. Andrew Matthews told The Hartford Courant on Wednesday that the bill's goal appears to be increasing revenue for cities and towns through traffic fines. He said troopers believe that police officers using discretion is a key element in public safety, and that replacing law enforcement with cameras is troublesome...

A campaign to let Camden residents decide the fate of a controversial takeover of the city’s police department by Camden County hit a roadblock Wednesday when the city filed an injunction seeking to block the referendum.

In a complaint filed in Superior Court, Camden attorneys argued that the decision whether to implement the plan is not up to voters and is within the sole authority of city and state officials.

The action comes three weeks after police-union officials and community activists submitted a petition with 2,800 signatures calling for an ordinance to block the police takeover, arguing it was a union-busting maneuver that would make the city unsafe by replacing veteran police with younger, inexperienced officers. Under state law, City Council — which was scheduled to meet on the matter next week — has to vote down the ordinance or put the matter to voters...

Police in Newark and Camden made nearly 7,700 fewer arrests last year than in 2010 as violent crime rose during the same period in the wake of some of the largest police layoffs in New Jersey history.

But while many had suggested the layoffs would result in surges in violent crime, the trend actually began at least a year before the first officers were handed pink slips.

After looming budget deficits forced the two cities to lay off more than 160 cops each, the combined number of arrests fell to 25,012 last year from 32,703 in 2010, records show. Camden’s arrest rate dropped 43 percent last year from 2010, while Newark’s dropped by 16 percent...

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn pledged Tuesday to reform the public employee pension system "once and for all" this spring.

The Democratic governor said he's willing to take on the ailing program in a year when every seat in the Legislature is up for election because the state's contribution to five retirement plans is eating up more and more of the state budget.

The system is short about $85 billion what it will eventually need to cover all its liabilities. But repair could mean reducing benefits for state employees, something that's highly unpopular with powerful unions who contribute money to political campaigns...

The union representing state prison guards and parole officers says it's very concerned about the Governor's proposed budget.

Governor Brown's proposed budget unveiled Thursday would cut about 3,000 state jobs while avoiding any furloughs.

Brown's plan to reduce the state workforce would come mostly from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the prison system...

Gov. Jerry Brown's 2012-13 budget proposal would cut state government by a few thousand jobs and consolidate nearly 50 state organizations, while avoiding furloughs.

Brown's plan would reduce the state's workforce by some 3,000 positions, mostly from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The savings would fill just a tiny fraction of the $9.2 billion budget hole projected through June 2013....

Public employees can no longer rely on some loopholes to inflate their state benefits, including one that allowed two union officials to qualify for teachers’ retirement perks after a single day in the classroom, under a law signed Thursday. 

The law, which takes effect immediately, also aims to end the practice of double dipping. In some cases —notably in the Chicago area — employees took leaves of absence from city jobs, took full-time union jobs, then collected pensions from both. 

The legislation also says current union leaders can’t base public pensions on union pay checks; now their pay will be based on their salaries when they leave their government jobs...