California's budget is balanced ... or at least that is what Gov. Jerry Brown wants you to believe, now that he "temporarily" hiked taxes on all Californians by $6.8 billion last year. ... A recent California Common Sense study showed that, since the recession began, governors' budget projections have overestimated revenue by an average of 5.5 percent. Apply that average to Brown's 2013 projections, and California's budget would suddenly go from $1 billion in the black to $3.9 billion in the red.

Evidence abounds that California is less than half way through the process of grinding toward a budget fix. Legislative analysts warned on Feb. 19 that a bounce in revenue amounting to some $5 billion in December is likely to be full erased by the time the final income tax numbers roll in after April. A day later, on Feb. 20, California Common Sense released an in-depth analysis of spending patterns that shows a steep decline in spending on education during the current crisis versus gains for health care, state salaries and retirement perks.

On January 4, the Tamms Correctional Center, a supermax prison in southern Illinois, officially closed its doors. Tamms, where some men had been kept in solitary confinement for more than a decade, was notorious for its brutal treatment of prisoners with mental illness—and for driving sane prisoners to madness and suicide. ... All of this fueled the CCPOA's rapid expansion: Membership more than sextupled between 1982 and 2011 (from roughly 5,000 to 31,000 members) and its annual budget ballooned from roughly $500,000 in the early '80s to more than $23 million today. The earlier number was provided by Joshua Page, a University of Minnesota professor and author of The Toughest Beat. Page, who has written extensively about the state prison guards' union, says the CCPOA seems to be softening some of its positions of late, but it remains a potent political force in California, which has America's largest prison population. (The $23 million figure is a conservative calculation from the policy group California Common Sense; the CCPOA would not provide a current budget figure.)

As the State Legislature wrangles to come up with a new spending plan by June, a new report might open some eyes. California Common Sense analyzed state budgets from 2007 to the proposed budget for 2013/2014. It found transportation spending for roads and transit went down by nearly one-third. Social services and public universities took a hit of 14 percent. But healthcare costs skyrocketed 62 percent. Retirement benefits jumped 25 percent, and employee compensation went up 16 percent.

California Governor Jerry Brown has received praise for proposing a balanced state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The last time California proposed a balanced budget was in 2007, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor. A recent report by California Common Sense, a nonprofit research group, describes how state finances changed over that period.

Gov. Jerry Brown's demands that a federal court relax the judicially mandated prison-population cap not only highlight California's outlier status in prison policy, but also underscore the need for President Barack Obama's initiative to increase mental-health services. ... Inmates have not found much recourse recently, even though their numbers had been climbing for decades. In just the past few years, most states have realized that their rates of imprisonment have become unaffordable. According to a report by the non-partisan think tank California Common Sense, California effectively spends today more on its correctional system than on higher education.

Health care and public employees' salaries and retirement benefits are taking up a larger proportion of the state budget, according to a report released Tuesday by California Common Sense, a nonpartisan research group at Stanford University. The report found that that state health care programs saw the biggest increase in spending, growing from 13% to 20% of the state budget in the past six years.

When Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his latest budget proposal, he emphasized his push to send more money to universities and local schools. But a new report says those two areas have lost ground to the growing costs of salaries and retirement benefits for public employees. The report was released Tuesday by California Common Sense, a nonpartisan research group at Stanford University.

Second, Brown has significantly over estimated tax revenues every year he has been in office. A recent California Common Sense study showed that, since the recession began, the governor’s projections have overestimated revenues by an average of 5.5 percent. Apply that average to Brown’s 2013 projections and California’s budget would suddenly go from $1 billion in the black to $3.9 billion in the red.