PROFILE
FROM John Chiang
John Chiang: education is top priority in gubernatorial campaign Democrat John Chiang has been California State Treasurer since 2015. Before that, he was the state controller for two terms. He talks to us about reducing the cost of college, tackling homelessness, and why he’s confident he’ll be among the top two candidates with the most votes. Gubernatorial candidate John Chiang at KCRW. Photo by Amy Ta.
CA's Troubling Budget, LACCD's 'Shoddy Fiscal Mismanagement' Governor Brown and the legislature balanced next year's budget based on projections of how much revenue will be coming in. If those projections are off by a billion dollars, massive cuts will be automatically triggered in higher education, healthcare and other services. State Controller John Chiang says revenues for July were off by $539 million , more than half way to trigger point. Chiang has also issued a blistering critique of the Los Angeles Community College District, which he points out is the biggest thing of its kind in the nation with 250,000 students on campuses in 36 cities. He accuses the district of "shoddy fiscal management" of such magnitude it "will undermine the public's trust and threaten billions of public dollars." What's the worst of it?
State Legislators Won't Get Paid After All Last Wednesday, faced with losing their pay by failing to meet the June 15 deadline, the Assembly and Senate passed a budget . On Thursday, Governor Brown stunned Sacramento by casting a veto . Today, Controller John Chiang said the legislators won't get paid after all , because the budget was never balanced.
Governor Brown Says, 'Thanks, but No Thanks' Governor Brown today vetoed the budget passed yesterday by the Democratic majority in Sacramento, issuing an explanation on YouTube. Last year, voters passed Proposition 25 , providing that legislators would not get paid if they failed to meet the constitutional budget deadline of midnight last night. For the first time in 25 years, they made it. But what happens now that Brown has cast his veto? State Controller John Chiang, a Democrat, signs the checks.
Governor Tries to Impose Minimum Wage on State Workers For the past 20 years, the state legislature has met the June 15 constitutional deadline for passing a budget just once. But this time, Governor Schwarzenegger says 200,000 state workers will have to pay a high price. He insists that, starting on August 1, they'll all be paid the federal minimum wage, $7.25. We hear from a reporter following the budget, the Governor's Deputy Finance Director and the State Controller.
Will Sacramento Resort to Paying Its Bills with IOU's If California runs out of money at midnight tonight, State Controller John Chiang says he’ll have to pay the state’s bills with IOU’s starting on Thursday. As we record this program, it appears that Republicans and Democrats may come up with a stop-gap measure. In the meantime, we get an update and speak with Chiang.
Schwarzenegger Threatens Minimum Wage for State Workers It's more than three weeks into the new fiscal year, but the state legislature with Democrats in the majority has not passed a budget . Failure to meet the constitutional deadline is nothing new, but this year there's a revenue shortfall of $15 billion. Governor Schwarzenegger says it's too expensive to borrow the money to keep going, so he has a proposal to defer a billion dollars in spending a month: cut the pay of some 200,000 state workers down to the federal minimum wage. They'd have to get by on $6.55 an hour until the budget was passed.
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