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...

Before 2,000 onlookers, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined economic growth measures, pension reform, mandate relief, and public education reform this afternoon, in his second State of the State Address.

He also announced plans to lay out a blueprint for economic development. Cuomo’s job creation measures were described as “$25 billion in state, federal and private economic activity,” through private-public partnerships. He described plans to rebuild the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side, and proposed an energy superhighway, among other proposals.

Meanwhile, Cuomo proposed amending the state’s constitution to further regulate and allow casino gaming...

Two ballot proposals aimed at cutting government pension costs could wind up increasing them, are fraught with legal and fiscal uncertainty and would put pressure on governments to increase public employee pay, according to new analyses of the measures.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office on Tuesday released its takes on two public pension reform plans filed by Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform. The group hopes to put one of the proposals to a statewide vote next November...

State Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) announced today he has introduced legislation that would reform the way pensions are calculated for new state employees. The plan would be offered for new state employees but not for local government employees or for education workers. Kelsey said the proposal would establish a privately managed cash-balance plan to eventually replace the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System defined benefits plan, participation in which would continue to remain available for current employees.

The legislation is the tenth in a series of announcements by Kelsey in his “12 for ’12” initiative for the next legislative session, which is set to reconvene January 10, 2012...

Here's one more thing to blame on Congress.

Although the battle over extending a Social Security payroll tax reduction continues in Washington, D.C., the matter has already been settled for California state workers: They'll have more money withheld from their checks next month, no matter what.

It's a matter of timing...

California has paid Lina Manglicmot $1.5 million since 2005, an average of $253,530 a year, to work as a prison nurse in the agricultural town of Soledad.

Manglicmot is one of 42 state nurses who each made more than $1 million in those six years, mostly by tapping overtime, according to payroll data compiled by Bloomberg News. Together, those nurses collected $47.5 million. In 2008, Manglicmot was paid $331,346, including $211,257 in overtime...

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors today will consider cutting salary and benefits for a group of probation correction officers, a move officials say will result in $3.6million savings annually.

County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux is recommending that supervisors impose a "last, best and final offer" on the Specialized Peace Officer Unit and reject an arbitrator's recommendation that the county and the unit adopt a tentative agreement from June 30.

That agreement was rejected by members of the peace officer unit, and a later attempt to bargain failed...

In a strongly-worded letter dated June 21, 2011 to Mayor Reed and the City Council, local retired San Jose city attorney Joan Gallo expressed bewilderment at why the City of San Jose would undertake an action which clearly violates the contract clause of the California and United States Constitutions.

Citing key California Supreme Court cases, Gallo writes the court has held that pension rights are an integral portion of compensation which cannot be changed once they have vested and with respect to active employees, some limited modification of vested pension rights has been allowed by the resulting disadvantage to employees must be accompanied by comparable new advantages...

As expected, conservative Californians have qualified a measure for the November 2012 ballot that would prohibit unions from deducting dues from paychecks.

Known as  “paycheck protection” by supporters, the initiative has long been expected. It’s not the first time union critics have tried: two efforts, in 1998 and 2005, failed at the ballot box.

Here’s how the Attorney General’s office is describing the measure...

A majority of California voters support Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to dial back public employee pensions and a plurality think that state and local government retirements are "too generous," according to a new Field Poll.

A little more than half – 51 percent – said that Brown's pension proposal "strikes about the right balance."

Poll director Mark DiCamillo said that finding shows that Brown, a union-backed Democrat who introduced a 12-point pension reform plan last month, has credibility with voters...

Over the loud objections of city workers and retirees, the San Jose City Council voted 6-5 Tuesday to approve language for a pension reform measure that could go before voters in June.

The vote was a key political victory for Mayor Chuck Reed, who since last May has been trying to sell the council on a measure that overhauls pensions to prevent the layoffs of more cops and a severe reduction in city services.

"We need to move ahead," Reed said during a spirited three-hour debate that drew an overflow crowd of mostly city workers and retirees...

With government pension costs going up and revenues still down, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed a law on Nov. 18 that alters the public pension system and reduces the state’s liability.

“I take no joy in the pain this will cause for thousands of Rhode Islanders,” Chafee said in a statement. “But the most important objective was ensuring retirement security for those in the state system.”

The state has an unfunded liability of $7 billion, and pension costs are making it difficult for the state to invest in other public services, according to a state report. The Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011 is expected to reduce that liability by more than $3 billion with an 80 percent funding level for all pension systems...

The fight over unions using members' dues to fund political spending is headed back to the ballot next year.

A proposed initiative to block unions and corporations from using automatic payroll deductions for political purposes has made the cut to go in front of voters next November, the secretary of state announced today.. The measure, backed by GOP groups, also bans labor unions, corporations and, in some cases, contractors doing business with state government, from making contributions to candidate-controlled committees...

In the annals of both labor and neighbor relations, a low point registered recently in Stockton, where the police union, feuding with the city manager, purchased the house next door to his.

While the union publicly contemplated whom to rent the house to – a police officer or a family in need of subsidized housing, perhaps – the city accused police of intimidating and harassing City Manager Bob Deis, and complained in court when a police officer on a backhoe clipped Deis' maple tree.

"Him and his wife yelled at me all day long," said Jose Ulloa, the officer who was using the backhoe. He said it was an accident...

A state board’s interpretation of a new law could profoundly change future labor negotiations in the city of San Diego and other public agencies in California if it requires additional action before a city can impose contract terms on union workers.

The legislation, authored by state Assemblywoman Toni Atkins and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October, would require public agencies to create an advisory fact-finding panel if mediation over labor contracts fail. The goal is to provide better transparency and recommend a reasonable settlement for both sides...

With life hanging in the balance, San Jose police and firefighters will take minutes longer to respond to emergencies. City libraries and community centers, some newly built, will sit locked and empty. There will be no more city recreation programs, and roads will continue to deteriorate.

That was the ugly picture of San Jose's future that city leaders laid out Tuesday as they unveiled their case for declaring a "fiscal and service-level emergency" to justify rolling back the soaring costs for city workers' pensions...

Riverside County on Tuesday imposed pay and benefit changes on 5,800 employees, after months of negotiations between county officials and the union representing the workers failed to produce an agreement.

County officials announced the decision Tuesday, one day after members of the Service Employees International Union Local 721 overwhelmingly rejected the county’s latest contract offer and authorized union leaders to order a strike...