Posts tagged budget crisis
Crisis team: Los Angeles schools face risk of insolvency
October 22, 2026 // Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, characterized the board’s decision on the raise as "governance malpractice." "This fiscal train wreck - you could see it coming from a mile off," Izumi told The Center Square. "One of the big reasons why L.A. is in such bad shape right now is because they agreed to a massive union contract with the teachers that they simply couldn't afford. The board did not look at its funding sources and its potential spending cuts that it would have to do in order to afford the teacher union contract that it was about to sign." Prior to those collective bargaining agreements, the Los Angeles County Office of Education had warned district leaders of escalating county supervision actions if deficit spending continued unchecked.
Commentary: Idaho teachers union budget mess is its own fault – will members demand accountability?
October 16, 2026 // During the debate, lawmakers and the public were told taxpayers weren’t subsidizing the union. Now the IEA is cutting staff and closing offices — and it says HB 516 is one of the reasons its operating environment has become more difficult. Six months ago, I wrote in these pages that Idaho hadn't banned unions. It had simply stopped doing their paperwork. Teachers remained free to join a union. Unions remained free to advocate for their members. Collective bargaining remained legal.
San Francisco Opera Cancels Opening Night After Musicians Strike
September 15, 2026 // The labor action forced the opera to cancel as patrons were finding their seats, and threw the season of one of the nation’s premier companies into limbo.
As Jersey City cuts workers amid budget crisis, unions make their voices heard
July 23, 2026 // Hundreds of union workers — from police officers and firefighters to crossing guards and public works laborers — filled City Hall during last week’s City Council meeting. Over hours of public comment, they urged city leaders tasked with fixing the financial mess to value and protect the workers that make Jersey City run.
LAUSD deadline looms to make painful cuts after county says board actions ‘erode confidence’
July 20, 2026 // The county rejected the plan, saying it lacked specificity and necessitates “an elevated level of fiscal oversight.” Among a list of eight acute budget issues, the July 2 letter faulted the L.A. Unified Board of Education for: Approving costly labor contracts exemplifying “mismanagement of the collective bargaining process.” A failure to carry out earlier approved budget cuts that “erodes confidence.” Raiding funds from a health benefits trust against “its own staff’s fiscal advice.” As a result of these and other district actions, Duardo said, L.A. Unified faces a cash shortfall of $231 million by November 2027, increasing to a $3.5-billion deficit by June 30, 2029.
Gov. Gavin Newsom to California agencies: Get ready for a four-day return to office
May 15, 2026 // SEIU Local 1000 President Anica Walls said that union members recently began receiving notices from their departments that they will be expected to report to work in person four days a week. “This was not a surprise at all,” Walls said of Newsom’s communication to departments. “We knew that this was going to be a fight from the beginning.” The return-to-office deadline was originally set to go into effect July 2025, but that timeline was pushed back last year after the Newsom administration and unions struck a deal in the face of larger-than-expected budget problems last summer.
Hochul proposes $500M pension sweetener as she battles unions in budget stand-off
May 11, 2026 // Still, whatever deal is struck is likely to put a major strain on local governments, schools, public hospitals and law enforcement — which risk a mass exodus that could lead to service cuts. The cost of Albany’s public pension giveaway will also translate into higher property taxes and school taxes for New Yorkers.
Faculty at University of Illinois Springfield reach tentative agreement to end strike
April 22, 2026 // UIS said in an email to students last month that it was running a $19 million deficit in the current fiscal year. UIS accounts for 2% of all of the university system’s spending in the current fiscal year, according to the system’s budget documents. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign receives 44% and the University of Illinois Chicago 31% while the rest goes to the system’s administration and university’s hospital. UIS also receives only 3% of state funds allocated to the system. State lawmakers have been debating a new higher education funding formula that would allocate a greater share of annual funding to lesser-funded schools like UIS.
Editorial: Striking PCC faculty should drop push for back pay and let classes begin
March 31, 2026 // Cushing’s insistence that the college make faculty “whole” seems to be a misunderstanding of what it means to go on strike and to accept the risk that comes with it. Demanding that the college provide back pay — which PCC estimates would cost roughly $5 million so far for the union’s 1,600 members — would be fiscally irresponsible as the college already struggles to cover escalating expenses. It would also signal to other unions that there are no risks to walking out. But Cushing’s statement is notable for another reason. It’s a reminder that there’s one key constituency who will not be made whole from this strike: PCC students. Classes have been canceled, grades have been delayed and PCC is pushing back the start of spring classes by one week, without any extension on the back end. International students also face the potential of having to leave the country, if this strike continues much longer,
Op-ed: Local control in jeopardy if Virginia mandates collective bargaining
March 29, 2026 // Virginia used to prohibit collective bargaining for state and local employees. In 2021, Democrats changed the law to allow local governments to engage in collective bargaining. Fewer than 20 jurisdictions have chosen to do so, and it hasn’t gone well where it’s been tried. That’s why unions made this bill their top priority during the legislative session. It requires collective bargaining for wages, benefits and working conditions for state and local government employees.