Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Juneteenth off and will return to your inboxes Monday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate for state workers to return to the office four days a week is back on, and many public employees are fighting to stop it with little time to spare.
Dozens of them showed up at a Senate hearing Wednesday to support a bill that would strengthen telework standards for state agencies and — they hope — result in more flexibility than Newsom would allow.
The Senate’s committee on labor, public employment and retirement advanced the proposal in a 4-1 vote. The measure itself would not stop the governor’s July 1 mandate, which Newsom argues would increase accountability, revitalize downtown Sacramento and improve government services.
Instead, the bill would enable agencies to shape their own policies. Citing a 2024 state audit, Assemblymember Alex Lee, the bill’s author, said that allowing state workers to work remotely would save the state money, reduce pollution and boost productivity and employee morale.
- Lee, a Milpitas Democrat: “As we grapple with the affordability crisis, we want to make sure that our downtowns and urban cores are not places where workers have to be, but where workers want to be. … It’s not fair to shackle our office workers to be the entire bedrock for downtowns.”
Lee’s proposal would also require agencies to provide written justification if employees must work in-office, and the state’s Department of General Services would have to create a dashboard to display the cost-effectiveness and other benefits of state telework programs.
Like many employers, California’s state government embraced remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2024 Newsom has been calling for state employees to return to the office, initially requiring two days out of the workweek and then bumping that up to four. Though a four-day mandate was supposed to kick in last year, Newsom postponed the policy for some state worker unions during labor negotiations as a way to cut payroll expenses.
State worker unions — except the ones representing public safety employees — are supporting Lee’s measure. They include the state’s largest, SEIU Local 1000, which is in contract negotiations with Newsom. It has given at least $2 million to current California lawmakers, according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database.
Said one state worker with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation at the hearing: “We spent seven years and millions of dollars to go paperless … I can do my work evaluating pesticides from the space station if necessary.”
More state worker news: Health insurance plans for California public employees won’t be required to expand coverage for GLP-1 weight loss drugs. We told you last week about legislation that would have required CalPERS to provide that benefit to its 1.3 million members. But that part of the bill was removed at an Assembly hearing this week after the pension fund and health insurer said it would drive up premiums and cost taxpayers about $187 million a year.
My Legislator: CalMatters has a free and personalized weekly newsletter called My Legislator to help hold your Sacramento lawmakers accountable in a powerful new way. Sign up here and for more details, read our FAQ.
Other Stories You Should Know
Little new funding for career training
Under the governor and the Legislature’s budget proposals, several job-training programs would receive little or no new funding — despite Newsom in 2023 promising and then enacting changes to boost these programs.
As CalMatters’ Adam Echelman explains, the lack of new state funding could lead to several programs shutting down, including the governor’s “high road training partnerships.”
- Julia Hatton, president of the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, which received nearly $4 million in state workforce grants: “At a time when affordability is such a massive concern, it feels like we’re focusing on what things cost and not enough on what people can earn.”
But the Newsom administration is insisting it’s still committed to workforce development. Marissa Saldivar, a Newsom spokesperson, said the governor’s workforce plan focuses on “structural changes … which does not always require funding.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance said that the current budget proposes over $250 million in new workforce funds.
For comparison, the state dedicated $2.2 billion in new workforce grants in the 2022-23 budget year.
The CA schools that lose out on state funding
California directs a lot of money to both wealthy school districts and districts with high-needs students. But for districts that are somewhere in the middle, they can receive a lot less, reports CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones.
At Pinedale Elementary in Fresno, for example, the state spends $16,700 per pupil, per year, or nearly $5,000 below the state average. But at Kratt Elementary, less than two miles away in another district, California spends $25,000 per student.
School funding is based on the Local Control Funding Formula, which California adopted more than a decade ago. But rising costs and declining enrollment have led to gaping funding disparities, the consequences of which are reflected in student test scores: A lower percentage of Pinedale students met the state’s English language arts and math standards last year than Kratt students.
The Legislature is considering a fix through a bill that would create a reserve account to give extra funding to schools that aren’t in basic aid districts, which are typically located in wealthy regions.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: A recent UCLA report contends that a single-payer healthcare system would be efficient from a cost/benefit basis, but it would be difficult to create from a political standpoint.
As federal immigration enforcement agents conduct roving patrols across the U.S., my father’s unjust racial profiling incident over 30 years ago still echoes today, writes Priscilla Preciado, a Cal State Fullerton student.
Other things worth your time:
Newsom’s data center gamble // Politico
Gas hit $7 in SF. For one Lyft driver, it meant eating only one meal a day // The San Francisco Standard
Trump’s Department of Labor claims without data that states, including CA, defrauded government // The Guardian
Why billionaires are finally waking up to CA politics // San Francisco Chronicle
Wahab advances in special election to fill Swalwell’s House seat // San Francisco Chronicle
Shasta supervisors won’t defend against state suit over new voter ID law // Shasta Scout
The ‘super El Niño’ is here. What happens next could upend food systems worldwide // Grist
Why CA is likely to have its fifth straight Catholic governor // Zócalo
Assembly Democrats unite to tax software, health plans in revenue-raising package // The Sacramento Bee
via CalMatters https://ift.tt/WYqAOtI
No comments:
Post a Comment