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4,842 Publications Found
February 21, 2007 - In response to a recent settlement, the state agreed to pay an additional $2.5 billion over a seven-year period for a new K-12 education reform program. We have concerns with the structure of the new program and recommend small changes that could yield big payoffs. Specifically, we recommend (1) converting the program to a pilot project in which schools could self-select one of three teacher-oriented reform options and (2) funding an independent evaluator to assess the performance of the groups over the seven-year life of the program.
February 21, 2007 - We have serious legal and policy concerns with the Governor’s transportation and Proposition 98 rebenching proposals. Specifically, we are concerned the proposal is unconstitutional and sets bad policy precedent. We also are concerned that the Public Transportation Account might not have sufficient funds to support the program in the future. For these reasons, we recommend rejecting the proposals. Instead, we recommend a series of other actions that would generate about the same level of savings but without the risk and with minimal programmatic impact.
February 21, 2007 - Current law requires our office to evaluate Soledad’s educational program and make a recommendation to the Legislature about whether to extend the statutory authorization that permits the school to operate as a community day school. We recommend extending the school’s statutory authorization by two years. This extension is designed to give Soledad time to transition to a new funding system that we propose in our recent report, Improving Alternative Education in California.
February 21, 2007 - We review recent actions taken to increase transparency of the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), which serves the higher education segments as well as K-12 education, and the High Speed Network (HSN), which serves K-12 education. Most importantly, Chapter 552, Statutes of 2006 (AB 1228, Daucher), increased transparency and strengthened accountability of HSN. We recommend the Legislature further protect the state’s interests by enacting legislation that extends these transparency and accountability measures to CalREN and the higher education segments.
February 21, 2007 - Our review raises significant questions about the state’s approach to implementing the program and the proposed $52 million budget-year expenditure plan. We think the Legislature could strengthen local implementation of the program by using these funds to establish a seven-year grant program to improve CTE at the county or regional level.
February 21, 2007 - Our five-year forecast shows Proposition 98 funding is to increase much more than needed to cover baseline costs. Thus, we think this is an opportune time to develop a long-term roadmap for K-14 education. Such a roadmap could help the Legislature establish long-term funding priorities, coordinate investments, and maximize potential benefits by linking new monies with policy improvements.
February 21, 2007 - Although K-14 obligations have increased in 2007-08, they have dropped by slightly more than $600 million in 2006-07. We recommend the Legislature reduce current-year spending by a like amount. This would generate major one-time and ongoing savings while still providing enough funding to support a K-14 baseline budget in 2007-08.
February 21, 2007 - Compared to the Governor’s budget, we estimate less General fund revenue in both the current and budget years. Given the particular formulas that drive Proposition 98, our revenue estimates result in a higher minimum guarantee in 2007-08. This counterintuitive result means the Legislature is likely to face more challenging trade-offs in its budget deliberations. In this section, we also (1) provide an update on outstanding Proposition 98 “settle-up” obligations, (2) describe the effect of a declining K-12 student population on the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee, and (3) discuss factors that might lead to the Proposition 98 Test 1 factor becoming operative in the near future.
February 21, 2007 - The budget contains two tax-change proposals. The first is to permanently repeal the existing teacher retention tax credit, which was adopted in 2000 but was temporarily suspended in four of the past six years. The second is to make permanent a temporary change made in 2004 to extend, from 90 days to one year, the time that vessels, vehicles, and aircraft recently purchased out of state must be kept outside of California in order to avoid the state’s use tax. We provide background on these two proposals, discuss their economic and fiscal impacts, and identify issues associated with them. Based on our review, we recommend that the Legislature adopt both proposals.
February 21, 2007 - The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local governments for certain state mandates. The process for determining the existence of state mandates and providing local government reimbursements, however, has significant shortcomings. The administration’s proposal to reform this mandate process provides a good starting point for discussion. In this analysis, we review the administration’s proposal and offer the Legislature a similar, but more extensive, proposal that includes (1) simplifying the process for local governments to file reimbursement claims by placing greater emphasis on unit cost methodologies, (2) allowing mandate payment methodologies to be developed through negotiations between local government and the Department of Finance, and (3) establishing an alternate process to provide early settlement of mandate disputes and bypass the commission entirely.
February 21, 2007 - We focus on the process for setting compensation and recommend the Legislature improve the state’s employee compensation policies. Our recommendations are geared toward the Legislature focusing state employee compensation expenditures within the context of a balanced budget. Among our recommendations are for the Legislature to (1) limit the authority of arbitrators to order large payments under their interpretation of future labor agreements and (2) end the use of automatic pay raise formulas tied to actions by other governmental employers.
February 21, 2007 - The Governor proposes to extend health care coverage to California’s uninsured population and to implement specific reforms. The Governor’s proposal would impose an individual mandate requiring all Californians to maintain a minimum level of health insurance, attempt to contain health care costs so that individuals could afford to purchase coverage, and promote various measures meant to improve the overall health of Californians. We conclude that the Governor has presented a comprehensive framework to expand coverage for the uninsured. In addition, the administration has made a serious effort to estimate the programmatic and fiscal impacts of its proposal. We identify a number of legal obstacles and policy issues and conclude that the plan creates fiscal risks to the state potentially reaching several billions of dollars annually.
February 21, 2007 - The budget plan implements Chapter 241, Statutes of 2006 (SB 162, Ortiz) that creates a new Department of Public Health (DPH) and Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) from the existing Department of Health Services. We recommend the Legislature require the administration provide additional information to ensure cost neutrality as required under Chapter 241.
February 21, 2007 - We estimate a shift of veterans from Medi-Cal to the federal Veterans Administration (V.A.) health system could save the state up to $250 million annually, while providing those veterans with quality health care services. We recommend that California join 42 other states participating in a federal data matching process that would facilitate achieving these goals.
February 21, 2007 - We review the proposal for a net reduction of $25 million for Proposition 36 programs, discuss why this reduction might eventually result in increased prison costs, and recommend redirecting funds in order to support Proposition 36 programs at their current level.