Posts tagged budget deficit
Novato city workers plan to strike for 2nd day Wednesday over sales tax funds
August 7, 2025 // According to the city's website, the measure's rise in sales tax from 8.5% to 9.25% should generate $10 million annually and help the city mend its $4 million budget deficit through the 2025/2026 fiscal year. Novato has cut city staffing by over 30 positions to manage a growing budget deficit, the city's site said, and one-time COVID-19 federal recovery funding that helped protect essential services has been depleted.
Editorial: Pampered state workers threaten to strike (California)
June 4, 2025 // On May 17, AFSCME Local 2620’s Executive Board unanimously voted to set up a strike fund. Their website promised: “This action sends a clear message: We are serious. We are organized. And we are ready.” But the unions should listen to another clear message: Californians are tired of being taxed to the max to support a bloated, inefficient state government that only delivers low-performing schools, potholed roads and massive budget deficits. If these state government workers don’t like their working conditions, they should quit and get real jobs in the private sector with the rest of us.
Some Penn State faculty want to unionize as the university considers campus closures
March 11, 2025 // Unrest has been growing among some faculty as the university makes cuts to close a deficit by this summer. An attempt to hold a vote of no confidence in Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi was tabled at a faculty senate meeting last week. Also at that meeting. Bendapudi laid out plans to close some of the Commonwealth campuses. Just how many campuses is uncertain, but none will close before the end of the 2026-27 year. Twelve of the 20 campuses ― Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and York ― are under consideration for closure. They will be evaluated by a team led by several top administrators appointed by Bendapudi; she expects to make a decision before commencement in May.
Opinion: California’s minimum wage woes are a cautionary tale for the nation
January 10, 2024 // California politicians seem to have a penchant for doing whatever they can to reduce housing affordability and otherwise increase the cost of living in the state — high taxes, burdensome labor and environmental mandates, waste for boondoggles like the high-speed rail project and countless other laws and regulations. Then they attempt to be saviors by passing still more laws to benefit one group or another and alleviate the situation they have largely created.