REDDING - Member Orientation for those who have joined UPEC in the past twelve months is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31st at 5:30 pm at the UPEC Office 1800 Park Marina Drive. All members and non-members in UPEC represented bargaining units are encouraged to attend. The Orientation is approximately one hour. For more Information contact UPEC at 530-245-1890.
On January 18, 2012 members of the Shasta County Professional Unit met at the Union office. Christine Perry, Public Relations Representative, for the Union met with the members. Christine spoke about the “Employee Spotlight” program that will highlight the special achievement’s of our Union members throughout the north state. Christine also discussed our UPEC Scholarship program for the sons and daughters of our members who are graduating high school this year. The money for the scholarship program is raised through an annual golf tournament sponsored by UPEC. No Union dues are used for the scholarships. This years golf tournament is set for June 10, 2012 at Gold Hills Golf Club starting at 1:00 PM. Come out and help support our scholarship program.
We had discussion on the negotiation surveys that were sent out. If you are interested in being on the negotiation team and have not received negotiation training please plan on attending the next negotiation training session (TBA). It is required that you attend training prior to being placed on the negotiation team.
There will be an orientation meeting set for January 31, 2012 at 5:30 PM at the Union office to learn what the Union does for the employees that we represent. This meeting is open to any employee of any organization that is represented by UPEC. Please RSVP at 245 1890 if you plan on attending.
Our next member meeting for the Professional Unit is set for Thursday February 16, 2012 starting at 5:30 PM so that Business Manager Chris Darker and Senior Labor Representative Steve Allen can attend.
A little over thirty members of the Shasta County General Unit met on January 17, 2012. Christine Perry discussed the Union sponsored “Employee Spotlight” program that recognizes members from all of our bargaining unit’s in the north state. Any member can be spotlighted for there services in the community or other talents that they may have. Christine also discussed our UPEC Scholarship program for the sons and daughters of our members who are graduating high school this year. The scholarship money is raised through an annual golf tournament sponsored by UPEC. None of the Union dues are used for this program. This years tournament is set for June 10, 2012 at Gold Hills Golf Club starting at 1:00 PM. Come out and help support our scholarship program.
We had discussion on the negotiation surveys that were returned and some members expressed an interest in attending the next negotiation training session. It is required that you attend a training prior to being placed on the negotiation team.
There will be an orientation meeting set for January 31, 2012 at 5:30 PM at the Union office to learn what the Union does for the employees that we represent. This meeting is open to any employee, of any organization, that is represented by UPEC. Please RSVP at 245 1890 if you plan on attending.
Our next General Unit member meeting is set for Wednesday February 15, 2012 starting at 5:30 PM so that Business Manager Chris Darker and Senior Labor Representative Steve Allen can attend.
SACRAMENTO - A federal judge has blocked a California state budget cut that would have affected rural patients, the latest indication that courts will have the last word on Medi-Cal reductions.
Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers cut reimbursement rates to a variety of Medi-Cal providers by 10 percent to save $623 million in their June budget. Physicians, pharmacists and hospitals, among others, have argued that the cut to California’s already low payment rates would discourage providers from accepting Medi-Cal patients and reduce access.
U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking the specific rate cut to nursing units within hospitals, many of which are located in rural California. Snyder determined that the California Hospital Association and other plaintiffs had a reasonable argument that the state had failed to appropriately review whether Medi-Cal patients would lose sufficient access to care.
The state Department of Health Care Services will ask the court to reverse the injunction and file an appeal with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a spokeswoman said Friday in an e-mail.
Physicians and pharmacists have filed a separate suit asking the court to block the rate cut to their services. The court filings come after the Obama administration approved most of California’s Medi-Cal cuts in October.
In a separate case before the U.S. Supreme Court this fall, White House and California officials argued that groups such as the California Hospital Association should not be able to challenge cuts to Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program serving low-income children and people with disabilities. If the high court rules in favor of California, the state will have more leverage to cut Medi-Cal in the future, while health care advocates will have fewer ways to challenge budget reductions.
Capitol Alert Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO - In a significant budget win for Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday the state can eliminate the local agencies that subsidize construction in blighted areas.
The decision strengthens the state’s ability to take funds from redevelopment agencies for the current budget. It also provides leverage for state leaders to use more than $1 billion annually in redevelopment property tax dollars to balance future budgets.
The court called the elimination of redevelopment “a proper exercise of the legislative power vested in the Legislature by the state Constitution.”
But justices ruled invalid a second bill that would have reconstituted redevelopment agencies in a different form. That decision spells the agencies’ demise unless lawmakers pass a new redevelopment plan when they return next month.
Lawmakers counted on raising $1.7 billion from the two-bill package. The court’s ruling on the second measure may result in less money this year but more in future years from property taxes that would have otherwise gone to redevelopment.
“Today’s ruling by the California Supreme Court validates a key component of the state budget and guarantees more than a billion dollars of ongoing funding for schools and public safety,” Brown said in a statement this morning.
Chris McKenzie, executive director for the League of California Cities, said he was still reviewing the decision and would respond later today.
State leaders axed redevelopment agencies in June as they closed a deficit once projected at $26 billion. As part of the plan, cities could reorganize the agencies only if they agreed to use their money to pay for state obligations this fiscal year and make smaller contributions in future years.
Cities and redevelopment agencies sued the state in August to block the plan, saying it was akin to the state demanding a “ransom payment.” Critics in the Legislature said the state could ill afford to subsidize private developers, pointing to venues such as “Dive Bar,” a watering hole steps from the Capitol that features a mermaid tank.
The state’s high court agreed to fast-track the case. By issuing a decision today, the court gave state leaders guidance before Brown proposes his 2012-13 budget in less than two weeks.
Capitol News Alert/Sacramento Bee
WASHINGTON D.C. - Congress is expected to pass the omnibus appropriations act funding the remaining spending bills today in time to avoid a government shutdown at midnight. Some highlights: DOD and IHS is looking at a funding increase along with the Army Corps of Engineers and VA. National Park Service may get cut.
There are no bad federal employee provisions in the bill (i.e. no extended pay freeze, no increase in pension contributions, cuts to federal workforce etc.